Joy Luck Club Essay: Prompt 3

            When Suyuan died, Jing-mei has to all of a sudden fill her mother’s shoes by replacing her at the Joy Luck Club and fulfilling her mother’s greatest wish for Jing-mei to meet her daughters and tell them about their mother’s life. Jing-mei fulfilled her mom’s legacy and honored her.

             She honored her mother when she became the fourth corner at the Joy Luck Club mah jong table and kept the tradition going. The Joy Luck Club was started by her mother in Kweilin, China to cope with horrors of the war; it was a time for her and her friends to be happy, eat lots of food, tell stories, and bet over mah jong. Suyuan continued the tradition in America.

            Jing-mei always felt like she couldn’t live up to her mother’s expectations, until one night Suyuan gave her the jade pendant at a point where Jing-mei was filling terrible about herself, and assured her she had the best quality heart. Suyuan called this pendant Jing-mei’s life importance,

and as Jing-mei grew older it represented her development and understanding of her mother’s gestures. Also as she gets older, Jing-mei learns more about herself and her mother and the meaning of the pendent deepens, just as the color of the jade. This shows that her mother is proud of her and sees her for who she is.

            At the Joy Luck Club table Jing-mei got the opportunity to fulfil her mother’s long-cherished wish to go to China to see her sisters. Jing-mei reunites with her sisters and fulfils her mother’s legacy.

            Jing-mei’s mother’s wish has been fulfilled, and through the process, Jing-mei feels that she has come closer to her mother and now her sisters can learn about their mother through her.

Leopard Man Response Questions

9) Tom Leppard is called Leopard Man because his skin is tattooed to look like the skin of a leopard.

10) The author finds people who have piercing and tattoos unimpressive as he sees them as desperate for attention in society.

11) Leopard man is different from other non-conformists with tattoos and piercing because e doesn't act the way he does for attention, but genuinely enjoys living a secluded lifestyle.

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

13)According to Feyes, society fears what they don't understand, especially loners. He states they pursue their own values without seeking others' permission or permitting others to hamper them.

14) The " world's most prevalent and most pernicious psychological disorder" is conformity. Feyes states living in society we are pressured to conform opposed to being an individual, which can lead to the destruction of one's self.

15) Leopard Man is happy because he lives the way he wants to without societal pressures and people to ridicule him.

Diction Handout

1."...I only climbed on the spare spar and leaned over the rail as far as i could..."

2. Opaque: Not able to be seen through; not transparent
    Elongated: Make longer; extended
    Phosphorescent: Exhibiting an luminous appearance
    Elusive: Difficult to find or catch
    Cadaverous: resembling a corpse; corpselike

     Paraphrase: The water on the side of the ship was unable to be seen but I spotted something long and pale floating close to the ladder. A light flashed and I was unable to identify what it was but then I saw it, a headless corpse exhibiting a greenish glow. My cigar dropped from my mouth and I hung over the rail staring at the mystery stirring from the sea at the bottom of the ladder.

 3.The use of elevated language is definitely more descriptive and gives the readers the feeling of isolation and eeriness, while the paraphrased version is more for comprehension as it doesn't catch the tone or mood very well.

4. - "But i saw at once something elongated and paled floating very close to the ladder."
    - "With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs, abroad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous glow.
    - " One hand, awash, clutched the bottom rung of a ladder."
    - "The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stilness of all things under heaven."

5. I think the Conrad left the captain, crew, and ship nameless for the sense of immersion.
6. The denotative meaning of  The Secret Sharer is a person who shares without others knowing.
Word                   Denotation                                  Connotation
Cadaverous          resembling a corpse                     emotionless
Darkling               growing darkness                        (ideas)fading away
Pale                      light complexion                          corpselike
Phosphorescence emission of light w/o heat            outgoing
Ghastly                shockingly frightful                      frightening creature
Headless              without a head                               idiotic
Fishlike                resembling the qualities of a fish  skiddish