Indledning
In the 1950’s immigration was a big issue in many countries especially America. Many people were looking for a place they could start a new and a better life.
There was a civil war in China, which lead to a big loss and poverty for many people. It ended in 1949, so a lot of Chinese people headed to America to seek the American dream.
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Uddrag
The short story takes place in the late 1950’s, and describes the real world of immigration in America. The mother to the daughter was one of the immigrants that fled from China, because she wanted to find hope in America after the loss of her parents, husband, and twin babies.
The mother really believes in the American dream, and thinks that everything is possible in America.
It seems like the mother doesn’t have a high income, because she has to do extra hours of house cleaning at Mr. Chong’s, to be able to pay for her daughter’s piano classes and buy her a piano to practice on every day.
Furthermore, she doesn’t buy the magazines she reads, but gets them from rich people, who’s houses she cleans.
The mother kind of lives in a dream world, with television, and magazines. She wants her daughter to be as talented as for example the little Chinese girl she saw on TV: “Ni kan, my mother said, calling me over with hand gestures.
Look here. The music was being played by a little Chinese girl with a Peter Pan haircut.” (P. 3 L. 53-55). The mother is comparing the daughter to the little girl, because she has the same ethnic origin and haircut.
Because of the mother’s expectations for her daughter to be talented, the daughter feels a pressure on her shoulders, because she doesn’t think she can be what her mother wants her to be.
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