Quickwrite #2

 "Family and honor should take priority over the rights of the individual family member."

In the chapter of the book titled Scar, I feel that the way An-mei's mother would respond to this is she would be on both sides of this argument. I say she would be on both sides of the argument because she did run away from her family to be with a man while she was a widow, which was against all tradition in her family. but on the contrary she  did cut a piece of her skin to put in the soup when her mother was on her death bed. So her mother would say that family honor should take priority over the rights of the individual because when it all comes down to it they are the leaders and they are the ones who you will eventually have to go back to when you are in need. Just like she did, she wanted to see her kids because she hadn't seen them since she left and she was a disgrace to her family so that did not help her situation at all. But she would be on the opposing side of this because she knows that at some point in their lives they have to be on their own and do what they have to do in order to live their lives. Just like she did, she made her own decision to run away and marry a man who already had two wives of his own. All of this happened while she was supposed to be a sad widow.

I feel that An-Mei would be on the pro side of this because she grew up with her grandmother who we all know is all for this because she is a traditional person. And like we discussed if you are taught something at a young age and you are exposed to other people's opinions, you start to believe that it is your own opinion even when we all know that it isn't.

Response To Chinese Mothers

From the article that I read in class, I found this little excerpt interesting:

In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job." Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams.

In this paragraph from the article it is a study and it is kind of funny because this is what people call a Chinese family. When we go to school with Asians we expect them to be really smart, and to get all As and to not have a life of free time to do what they want to do. This study in her book proves the stereotypes that are created for the Asian Americans are true. i find that this study is really crazy and if I was her kid I would run away or demand my freedom. I could  not stay in the house for hours and do nothing with my life other than homework, violin practice, and no sleepovers.

I understand how people say that they were raised like that, and because they are like that the will not rebel. With this way of raising their kids their kids will grow up to be boring, and people who don't know what to do. When they are not able to do what they want to do and when they do not have their own voice and their own opinions. They have the opinions of their parents instilled in them because that is how they were raised. i do not agree with this way of raising my kid, but I do know that this is how some people raise their kids.

Animal Farm and Egypt Connections

The connection that I see between the revolution Orwell described in his book, Animal farm and the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Honduras etc. are that when the animals in Animal Farm protested, many of the protests if not all of them resulted in deaths of the animals, like the animals that confessed to Napoleon that they were talking to snowball on the down low. Now in Egypt and other places the protests also result in people dieing. An example of deaths was when the man burned himself alive or the hundred or so people who dies as a result of the government fighting back. In Egypt I found that people are risking their lives by laying on tires of the tanks posted on the streets.

Another connection between Animal Farm and the uprisings in Egypt etc. is that the protests start in one place and they spread to another place. Like the protest started in Egypt and within days it spread to Lydia, then Tunisia, then Honduras and they say it is going to Yemen. In the book Animal farm they started their revolution on their farm, then the word spread to other farms by word of mouth, or in their case the bird Moses spread it to the other farms, and from there it kept going around.

In the book the Animals were hungry for food and freedom, in Egypt the Egyptians are hungry for money and freedom. They both want something and because they can't get ti their way by being civilized animals and people, the only thing left for them to do is to protest until they get what they want and start a revolution so they won't have to follow orders from a person they don't respect or believe is a good leader for them.

This part is kind of true for Egypt but it is definitely true for Animal farm. IN Animal Farm the animals got what they wanted in a way. They wanted freedom and food, so they got their food and freedom. But they did not plan on having the pigs being accustomed to the human ways, walking on two legs, talking and playing poker and living in the house. In Egypt they are fighting for their freedom,and from what I hear about the president stepping down, they are only getting closer to what they want.

In both the book and Egypt they revolt for similar things, they use similar ways to come up with their plans to revolt. the only difference is that one is a book and the other one is real life.

Chapert 11

Gina posted our chapter 11 on her blog.