Chang-Rae Lee's Coming Home Again

Throughout “Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan, the author employs the rhetoric devices direct quotations and contrast to convey the relationship between the ability to use language effectively and power. In the essay, the writer discusses the different types of English she and her mother, a Chinese immigrant, use and the results caused by each type. The relationship demonstrates that the more efficiently someone utilizes language, the greater control they have over a situation. Tan’s application of direct quotation helps to support this relationship.

Walter Lee Younger is the son of Lena Younger. Walter Lee desires the better things in life and wishes to provide a better life for his son. Because Walter Lee is the leading character, he is the protagonist. Throughout the play, Walter Lee struggles with the urges of trying to feel complete and successful as a man. He begs his mother to trust him and his investment ideas. When she disagreed, Walter became very obnoxious towards the family. He was often rude to his wife Ruth, and any of his sister Beneatha’s guests. When his mother gave him the money for his investment, his attitude changed. He gained a sense of pride and manliness. When his friend ran off with the money, it seemed that Walter had lost his newfound pride. When Walter declined

Lee's chinese immigration and background greatly affected the upbringing of the twins. Lee was a mother like figure to the boys after Cathy left. He took this role by feeding, bathing, and clothing them. When Samuel

Mother has a hard time leaving her home because it was a symbol of her family and better times that she didn’t want to let go of. In the poem “Missing in Action,” Ha explains how her family has ceremony to pray and wish for his return and Ha says, “...Mother locks it [a portrait of her father] away as soon as her chant ends. // She cannot bear to look into Father’s forever-young eyes (Lai 13).” No one misses Father and mourns the loss of him more than Mother and therefore Father’s portrait reminds Mother of better times before the war corrupted their lives. The poem “Birthday” says “Mother and Father came south, convinced it would be easier to breathe away from the Communism (Lai 28).” Mother thought leaving North Vietnam and coming to South

* As the boat moves along the river Leah reminisces about when Dad was dying. We find out all the details and that Leah was mad with her mum after her dad dies. As the boat trip becomes “over” there is a connection with her father’s passing. Leah says, “We’ve been through a lot eh?” They are starting to heal and become closer to one another.

Walter begins to drink, stay away from home, and to constantly argue with his wife, Ruth. Walter's life is contrasted by the role of his recently widowed mother, who holds to more traditional values of acceptance of life's lot and of making the best of any situation. Walter Lee's "Mama" holds Walter's father up as an example of a man with pride and a man that, despite racial injustice in a dualistic society, worked hard to provide for his family. This adds to Walter's frustration. Walter now feels incapable and small in his mama's eyes.

“Alright, Mother,” James said as he turned to his beloved sister. James tried to teach Ann what he had learned that day when Father entered the house. He addressed the family and sat down at the table as Mother brought a bowl of terrapin stew for supper. The family began eating the wonderful stew, when Ann interrupted the silence.

The Japanese and their rabid ethnocentrism have their effect on the narrator’s family. The family is generally happy and well structured. The narrator lives with his mother, father, little sister and grandfather. As mentioned before, the narrator’s family pressures him to be better than the Japanese students. Upon returning home after being beaten, the men of the house invite him to eat with them and drink wine. This is a strong scene that is filled with the proudness of a parent for their son. Simply standing up to a

How does one remember a loved one? Memories of food, family roles, and nature are used by Li Young Lee to describe the memory of his father after his death as a child in Eating Together, and as an adult in Eating Alone. Lee’s cultural customs explicitly remained unchanged as he matured, but diverged in the ways they were carried out.

As the expected reunion with her oldest daughter, Dee, took place, but yet surprising event; mama proceeds to kindly welcome her daughter and her new partner for a classic southern meal of collards and pork complimented by corn bread. During dinner, Dee or Wangero as she is referred to in this point of the story, excitedly erupts and starts to describe some of the wood crafting items in the kitchen; to include the dining bench they are sitting on. Detailing how the rump prints felt, and as if it really mattered to her, she mentioned how her “daddy made [benches] for the table when we couldn’t afford chairs.” (Walker 74) As she gazed through the kitchen, she turned to the wooden churn in the

Andrea offers him a job, be a delivery boy for her pharmacy. This is proven when she first speaks to Lee, “…Would you be interested in making the odd delivery for us?” (38). Lee needs to learn responsibility if he wants to go somewhere with his life, this job gives him the sense of responsibility he needs. Next, it is obvious Lee is changing, when he is in Andrea’s store he finds a book he is interested in, a vocabulary book.

At the opening of the play, the audience empathizes with the emotions associated with those of Walter Lee’s. As the audience can see, Walter Lee feels trapped. He’s trapped from being able to accomplish his life goal of providing for his family, and he feels trapped by his family because he claims that, in a way, they’re holding him back. Walter Lee feels as if he cannot provide, and he is growing tired of it; “Me, the boy, the way we live in this beat-up hole. Everything.” (32) In addition to being sick of the living conditions that he is responsible for, Walter Lee is frustrated that his own wife doesn’t support his dreams for the future. “Man say to his woman, ‘I got a dream.’ She says, ‘Eat your eggs…’” (33) This shows that Walter Lee has no support, and when he tries to gain the support of his wife again, the same thing happens, “Man say, ‘Help me to take a

Lee cannot remember his Chinese language which further solidifies the death of his original culture, Not only was the theme of death revealed through culture but physically when Lee’s mother died. However, death led to the strong family connection between Lee and his father.

Lee’s writing is littered with descriptive and flowery visuals that truly capture both the environment and his emotions. In one such case, he recalls an evening where he “[stared] at the brightest star, viewing it not so much on this night as a beacon, something [he] wanted to believe would lead [he] out of this dark tunnel, but instead as a place [he’d] rather be” (155). His juvenile wistfulness is tangible in the words and the reader can almost feel the chill of the night air. He continues, wishing to be “anywhere but here…[wishing to have] been born anywhere but here.” (155). His yearning twists the heart with sympathy for his lonesome and pitiable plight. This moment is but a minute fraction of the incredibly intimate tale that Lee

In contrast to my earlier bemoaning, it was a welcome relief to reach home. I took a quick refreshing shower before going to the kitchen to prepare the zongzi. By then, Grandmother and mother were already hard at work in the kitchen. Grandmother told me to soak the glutinous rice, bamboo leaves, Chinese mushrooms and chestnuts separately in water. Concurrently, Mother taught me how to chop the garlic and onion into fine pieces. Grandmother separated the salted duck egg yolk from egg white. After an hour, she took the glutinous rice to cook with garlic and onion. While Grandmother stir-fried the contents in a wok, I added five-spice powder, salt and pepper to bring out the flavour. Grandmother continuously stirred the food, attentively making sure none of the glutinous rice stuck to the wok. In the meantime, Mother stewed pork and the Chinese mushroom in oyster sauce.