Literature Analysis #3: The Joy Luck Club

            A Chinese child’s goal in life is to make their mother and father proud and to bring honor to their family. For Jing-Mei Woo, this meant fulfilling her mother Suyuan Woo’s legacy which was to find her long lost twin daughters that she was forced to abandon in China years ago. She died before she could accomplish her goal, leaving Jing-Mei to finish where she left off. Although the journey was emotionally difficult, the legacy was eventually fulfilled; it began with Suyuan and ended with Jing-Mei.

            Suyuan lived happily with her family in China but all that happiness was shattered when the Japanese began bombing the town. Because she had a forewarning, Suyuan managed to escape carrying a few possessions: two trunks, a few bags of food, and her twin daughters. She dropped the trunks after a while. Next, she left the bags. She was sick and dying but she couldn’t bring it upon herself to see her daughters die with her so she left them on the side of the road in hopes that someone kind-hearted would find them. She left a note and walked further down the road until she fainted. When she awoke she was in a new place and her daughters were not there. A few years after going to America, she returned to China to search for her daughters and wrote letters to old friends inquiring about the twins and if they have seen them. But the twins had just disappeared.

            Three months after Suyuan’s death, the Joy Luck Club came in contact with the twins. The twins had written a letter explaining they wanted their mother to come visit them and told her of their lives. They had be

en cared for by a religious couple and were recognized by Suyuan’s old friend. The Joy Luck Club decided to write a letter back and signed it with Suyuan’s name. It wasn’t until both letters had been received and sent, that Jing-Mei was made aware about her sisters communication. The women in the Joy Luck Club told Jing-Mei she must deliver the news of their mother’s death in person but after many nights of contemplating, she had Lindo write a letter informing them of Suyuan’s death.

            Prior to her arrival in Shanghai, China, Jing-Mei was anxious about meeting her sisters. She was going to see her sisters for the first time ever. As soon as she stepped off the plane, Jing-Mei spots them. The three of them run towards each other and embrace in a hug as Jing-Mei’s fathers captures the moment in a picture.

            Suyuan translates to “long cherished wish”. Jing translates to “pure essence”; mei translates to “younger sister”. Before meeting her sisters, Jing-Mei believed she was supposed to be the essence of the twins and that was her mother’s wish. However seeing the twins for the first time she knew they were family and that the past could be forgiven. Jing-Mei realized that this was truly her mother’s long cherished wish and now Suyuan’s legacy had been fulfilled.

Latin Roots #7

Roots and Derivatives

1.     duc(t), duce (to lead)

2.     fed(er), fid(e) (faith, trust)

3.     fin(e) (end, limit)

4.     flect, flex (to bend)

Word List

1.     Aqueduct- a large pipe or other conduit made to bring water from a great distance;

The Romans were the first to create aqueducts, allowing freshwater to be available to the entire society.

2.     Conducive- tending to lead, help, assist, or result in;

A quiet work space is conducive to getting your homework done.

3.     Definitive- completely accurate, reliable, and authoritative; decisive or conclusive;

My mom made a final and definitive answer: we were moving.

4.     Fidelity- faithfulness to one’s promises or obligations, steadfast faithfulness; technological faithfulness;

His fidelity is questionable as he continually lies and breaks his promises.

5.     Fiduciary- an individual who holds something in trust for another; a trustee;

The bank is the fiduciary of one’s life savings.

6.     Finale- a “grand” conclusion, as of a performance; the last scene of a play;

The finale of the play included a dance number with the entire cast.

7.     Finite- limited or bordered time or by any measurement; measurable;

We had a finite amount of time to complete our assignments.

8.     Flexuous- winding in and out; bending or wavering;

The flimsy branches on the tree were flexuous in the wind.

9.     Inducement- anything used or given to persuade or motivate; an incentive;

They used a giant trophy as an inducement to win the tournament.

10.  Inflection- a slight change in tone or modulation of the voice, as in a point of emphasis;

By the inflection in her voice, we could tell she was nervous and upset.

11.  Perfidious- characteristic of one who would intentionally betray a faith or trust; treacherous;

The company my cousin works for in known for being perfidious and rips off all their customers.

12.  Traduce- to speak falsely of; slender or defame; to disgrace another’s good name; to vilify;

Teenage girls tend to traduce others by spreading false rumors about them around school.

Leopard Man

9. Tom Leppard is called “Leopard Man” because he has leopard print tattooed on his entire body and lives in the wild as a leopard would.

10. The author thinks that people with tattoos and piercings are just seeking for attention. He has these opinions because he believes they failed to attract attention in a positive way so instead so for shock value.

11. Leopard Man is different from other tattooed and pierced people in that he doesn’t live for other people’s reactions.

12. Leopard Man lives in a small cabin in the Scottish wilderness.

13. According to Feys, society fears loners because they pursue their own values without seeking others’ permission or permitting others to hamper them.

14. The “world’s most common but dangerous psychological disorder” is conformity. Feys argues that people try so hard to fit in, they suppress and destroy themselves.

15. Leopard Man is so happy because he is free from social pressures.

Diction Worksheet

1.     “I climbed over the spare spar and leaned over the rail as far as I could, to bring my eyes nearer to that mystery floating alongside.”

2.     Cadaverous- resembling a corpse in being very pale, thin, or bony;

… a wide back submerged right up to the neck in a greenish pale glow.

Elongated- unusually long in relation to its width;

But I saw at once something long and pale floating near the ladder.

Elusive- difficult to find, catch, or achieve;

…flickered in the sleeping water with the obscure, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky.

Opaque- not able to be seen through; not transparent;

The side of the ship made a cloudy belt of shadow on the shimmer of the sea.

Phosphorescent- light emitted by a substance without combustion or perceptible heat;

Before I could form a guess a faint flash of light…flickered in the sleeping water.

3.     The use of elevated language contributes to the tone by creating a more detailed image of what’s happening. Paraphrasing the passage affects the tone by taking away that imagery and creating a less suspenseful tone.

4.     Four Examples of Concrete Diction: “something elongated and pale”; “a pair of feet”; “a headless corpse”; “my gaping mouth”

5.     The author would choose do leave the characters nameless to create a mysterious mood.

6.     The denotative meaning of The Secret Sharer is someone who secretly shares something.

Word	Denotation	Connotation
Cadaverous	resembling a corpse in being very pale, thin, or bony	intimidating figure that’s skeleton like
Darkling	of or relating to growing darkness	somber
Pale	light in color or having little color	unnaturally light
Phosphorescence	light emitted by a substance without combustion or perceptible heat	a mysterious glow
Ghastly	extremely unwell	horrific
Headless	without a head	decapitated
Fishlike	quality of a fish	resembling a fish