...Like Adeline Yen Mah once said, “ Transcend your abuse and transform it into a source of courage, creativity, and compassion.” This quote is powerful in many ways and levels, and has helped many people overcome various forms abuse. Adeline Yen Mah was abused, and this quote sums up how she overcame the physical pain, and mental depression that her family caused. The story Chinese Cinderella is depressing in many ways but the first factor of depression is that she is verbally and physically abused. Adelaine describes this by saying “I realized that Niangs blows must have caused a nosebleed and that my face was probably smeared with a mixture of blood, mucus, and tears” (Yen Mah pg.115). Throughout the course of the story Niang and Father physically punish Adelaine. They hit, punch, slap, push, beat, lash, kick, and starve her, as well as other harming behaviors. Not only did her parents abuse her but so did her siblings. Another quote from the book is “Then I heard her words, loaded with malice, which made my heart jump and the hair stand up on the back of my neck. “Get out!” she snarled in a cold, distinctive voice. “ I shall never forgive you! Never! Never! Never! You’d better watch out from now on! You will pay for your arrogance!”’ (Yen Mah 35) . The story documents 10 years of her life and...
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..."Believe you can and you will." This quote applies to both Adeline Yen Mah and the fictional warrior Mulan. While Mulan is a fierce, headstrong warrior, Adeline is a gentle and patient schoolgirl, they both had to overcome adversaries to follow their dreams. They also both had the same persistent determination which helped them both in their lives. Finally, Adeline, the author of Chinese Cinderella was like Mulan because they both fought wars, metaphorical and literal, and we're very courageous. One of Adeline's internal wars is that she has to deal with her lowering confidence and depression. "Everyone bare and sorrowful, just like me," (128). Adeline gets very depressed when she gets taken is away from her friends and loved ones to go to boarding schools. If Adeline was happy throughout the story, it would affect the book greatly. When she and her friends were playing a game where they put their best attribute on a piece of paper, Adeline put “nothing.” Then, she proceeded to tell her friends “Everything [about me] is ugly. I loathe myself!” (188). This part in the story shows just how low Adeline’s confidence is....
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...“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the greatest poverty.”- Mother Teresa. In Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, Mother Teresa’s words of wisdom apply to Adeline's life because throughout the book, Adeline feels isolated and unwanted, and Adeline always says how much she wishes to feel wanted. She feels lonely, undesired, but more lonely at home than at school. Mother Teresa’s words of wisdom about being lonely apply to Adeline’s life because feeling lonesome is something that Adeline is very familiar with. She is lonely when the girls at school leave, when Niang treats her like an outcast, when her siblings gang up on her, and countless other times. For example, in the book, Adeline knows she must not tell anyone how Father...
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...The book “Chinese Cinderella” by Adeline Yen Mah is a heart touching true story about an unwanted girl named Adeline, who longed for the compassion and love of her parent’s. While giving birth to Adeline, her mother passed away from child birth complications, leaving her father with five children to care for, including a new born. Four years later, her grandmother Nai Nai also passed away leaving her father no choice but to remarry. Soon after, her father met and fell deeply in love with a woman named Niang, who becomes Adeline’s new stepmother. Adeline’s father and Niang had two children of their own, a boy and a girl, as well as Adeline and her three older brothers and older sister. A year later, Adeline’s family moved to Shanghai along with her Grandfather YeYe and her Aunt Baba. As Adeline grew older, she began to notice that her stepmother treated her and her full brothers and sisters differently than her stepmother treated her own kids, leaving Adeline to feel unwanted and unloved. A few examples of this favoritism include their living arrangements, the food they ate, and fashion trends. In Shainghai, the family lived in a three level apartment, Niang, her husband, their son and daughter lived on the first floor, while Adeline, YeYe, and Baba, and the other children lived on a separate floor. During this time Adeline and her full siblings were only allowed to eat three tasteless meals a day with congee and preserved vegetables every morning. Whereas her half siblings...
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...The fantasy literature of Cinderella was introduced by many cultures and every culture seems to have its own version. Cinderella stories date back as early as 850 A. D. with the first written version of Chinese tale yeh-shen (Cinderella: A cross-cultural story by Patricia w. Kite) Even though Cinderella is a fantasy story it shows many meaning to the character that portrays Cinderella. In many cultures there are stories of Cinderella where every girl dreams of having a Prince charming. The story of Cinderella is a fairy tale that is told and read to children of very young ages (ALA American Library Association) Research shows that many versions have been found first in Europe and the story tale origins appear to date back to a Chinese story from the ninth century. (ALA American Library Association) The book Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is a story portrayed by a very young girl who mother died giving birth to her. Cinderella lived with her family who thought she was bad luck to them, therefore she was discriminated against and treated very bad. In the Chinese culture many Chinese people prefer sons then daughters. In many cultures children look for the love of their parents. The book emphasizes that quote “how you should do your best in the face of hopelessness; to have faith in the end your spirit will prevail; to transcend your abuse and transform it into a source of courage, creativity and compassion.” (by Adeline Yeh Man) ...
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...Introduction The book Chinese Cinderella is the tragic, moving autobiography of a young Chinese girl, Adeline Yen Mah. The book details her struggle for acceptance among her family, after they blamed her for the death of her mother during childbirth, as per Chinese culture. It follows Adeline through from the age of 4 in the French concession territory in the Tianjin province to her departure to England at the age of 13, starting in the year 1938 amidst the second Sino-Japanese War. It details her conflicts with the main antagonist of her life, her half Chinese, half French stepmother, Niang, as well as celebrates her success in her academics, which Adeline discovers will please her father. Throughout her many challenges, we see that Adeline’s...
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...Ever After – Still the Same Old Cinderella Story In the movie, Ever After (1998), director and co-screenwriter Andy Tennant attempts to put a spin on the fairy tale we all knew growing up, Cinderella, by trying to empower the heroine and updating the film to appeal to a modern audience. Tennant explains, "I wanted to tell a very different version of Cinderella because I have two daughters, I did not want them growing up believing you have to marry a rich guy with a big house in order to live happily ever after" (Friedmeyer, p. 4). Did he accomplish? On the surface it would seem that Ever After is a modern feminist film, empowering women, but under the disguise, it still has the underlying traditional gender roles and stereotypes that Tennant tries to discourage and remove. In both Disney’s Cinderella and in Tennant’s Ever After, the male sex is ranked higher than females and has real power and social status. Kelley (2003) explains, “Males are seen as rescuers; females are more passive" (p. 651). The King and his son Prince Henry are the two highest ranking males in the film and they are shown to have ultimate power; the power over life and death. After Danielle hits Henry with apples, making him fall off the horse she thought he was stealing, she feared for her life because she assaulted royalty and the heir to the kingdom. In the same scene, in an attempt to quiet Danielle as to not cause a ruckus which may alert the royal guards, Prince Henry drops coins to the...
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...Engineer Patricia Galloway believes that serving as the first woman president of the 151-year-old American Society of Civil Engineers — a historically male bastion if there ever was one — makes her a role model to women in the industry. It's high times for women leading construction-related engineering groups, with three others currently in high office. The same goes for construction organizations. Nova Group's Carole L Bionda is chairelect of Associated Builders and Contractors. Meanwhile, the US House Education and Workforce Committee last month passed the Family Time Flexibility Act (H.R. 1119) which could undermine workers' most basic rights by altering the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which currently requires employers to pay overtime to certain employees when they are required to work beyond the normal 40 hour work week.( Peterson 98) At home, we're aware (perhaps painfully so) that men and women often have different communication styles. But it's easy to forget that such differences can show up at work, too. To do an effective job of communicating, keep in mind gender-related communication styles. Young boys are socialized to give an immediate answer or solution to a problem. Young girls want answers, too, but tend to talk things over to solve problems. So while a man might prefer to work things out for himself, a woman is more likely to want to discuss them. According to researcher Deborah Tanhen, author of Talking from 9 to 5, when a woman starts to discuss an...
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...Cinderella Stories Lesson Plan Sherryl Green Grand Canyon University: RDG:585 October 8, 2012 Lesson Plan Cinderella Stories ABSTRACT In this study of Cinderella Stories, second grade students will use charts and diagrams to discover the similarities and differences among stories. Students will develop writing skills using descriptive language and details. They will strengthen their comprehension skills through the use of magical Cinderella tales from different lands and apply map skills in learning which country each story comes from. These magical tales will help students to develop awareness that different Cinderella tales have much in common. Materials Class comparison Chart Graphic Organizers: Venn Diagram Sequencing Chart Compare and Contrast T-Chart My Favorite Part Handout Book Mark Template World Map Map pins Book collection The Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin A Golden Slipper” A Vietnamese Legend by Darrell H.Y. Yum Chinye: A West African Folk Tale by Obi Onyefulu Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo The Irish Cinderella by Shirley Climo The Way Meat Loves Salt:A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition adapted by Jewell Reinhart Coburn The Golden Saddle: A Middle Eastern Cinderella by Rebecca Hickox Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe The Irish Cinderlad by Shirley Climo Lesson 1 Key Vocabulary Country — a small part of a continent...
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...Encouraging children to believe in a fantasy that is unobtainable is what Disney has successfully done with the help of their fairytale movies. Altering the gruesomeness of blood soaked feet and empty eye sockets of Grimm, into a lighter hearted humorous version of Cinderella has changed the moral and what we are trying to teach our children. If Disney’s movies were made identical to Grimm’s versions would they still be as magical, would the movies still be geared for a younger audience? Has Disney taken away the true hardships and meaning of the classic fairytale by censoring the stories to fit their ideal mold? Children who have grown up with Disney have been given entertainment first and to believe in a fantasy world and where morals are no longer the focus. Children want to believe in characters and certain setting and events that occur and Tolkien makes a good claim at that by saying, “children are capable, of course, of literary belief, when the story-maker's art is good enough to produce it.” The story of Cinderella is a tale of a girl that goes through abuse and is made to be a servant in her own home and given a new name in mockery of her suffering. Grimm made Cinderella’s mother present and an important factor in her personality by saying "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee." That line in itself shows the way society thought at that time and the type of message...
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...shows, and books are always coming up with new strategies to help parents cope with children’s expectations for life and other material goods. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton both show how kids grow up expecting perfect situations in life like fairytales; the main difference is that Cisneros’ story shows a young person waiting for the parents to provide her with happiness whereas in Sexton’s piece the young girl shows initiative to make her dreams a reality. In “The House on Mango Street,” by Sandra Cisneros, a child details her living situation with her parents. She talks about how they lived in apartments and moved around before finally moving to a house. The house the family finally moves to does not meet her expectations that were created by her parents. Although the house is “a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year” (Cisneros 392) it has lots of problems and things seem to break a lot. At one point her teacher passes by the house where she sees the girl playing and reacts in a way that makes her embarrassed of her home. The story ends with her expressing a desire to move to “A real house. One I could point to.” (Cisneros 392) but her parents just say this is how it is for now. “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton starts by giving examples of...
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...English 101 Mrs.Sonnier October 30, 2015 Happily Never After When most people hear about the story of Cinderella, the first thing that pops into their head is the animated movie Disney had created. They think about the poor servant girl who was dressed in nothing but rags who cleaned the entire house and was mocked by her cruel step sisters and step mother. As the story continues, Cinderella then receives help from her fairy god mother and ends up at the ball where she meets her prince. The animated Disney version had become a big hit towards younger children because of the moral lessons they receive at the end of the movie. When kids think about Cinderella all they believe and see are the good things that can happen to them. They see the little mice and the happy ending where Cinderella marries the prince and they live happily ever after. This story was originally created by a man called Charles Perrault. Little do they know that there are multiple stories about Cinderella, some even containing violent and aggressive behaviors unsuitable for a child to hear. For example another version of Cinderella was made by Jacob and Wilhelm Grim which told the tale the same exact way as Charles Perrault, the only difference was that the step sister’s eyes were plucked out by birds at the end of the story for treating Cinderella badly in the beginning. Also, before Cinderella was revealed the step sisters were so desperate to be with the prince that they ended up chopping their own...
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...An Analysis of Gender Roles in Disney Princess Films Jasmit Singh 213749361 Traditional and Popular Culture – 1900 9.0 Susan Niazi – Tutorial 6 Whether it’s the colours they wear, the activities they engage in or how they behave, men and women are known to play different roles in society. These established gender roles “are not innate or natural but a product of society”. Children, adolescents and adults all learn gender roles through the environment they’re surrendered by. One of the many huge influencers that help shape gender roles is media. Although “there has been a lot of change over the years in terms of what is considered appropriate societal roles for men and women, this change is not reflected in contemporary film”. The ideology of mainstream media continues to focus on the males being the heads of society, which in result, shows an unequal representation of the females. From an early age, media puts an image into young minds, informing them how males and females should think, act, behave and appear. In many television shows and films, one can easily see the distinct difference between the role of a male and a female. Often films are enforcing stereotypical gender roles where the male is seen to holds more importance in society than the female. Amongst many film producing companies, Walt Disney Pictures for decades have been enforcing stereotypical gender roles in their princess films. Though it may not be outright obvious, Disney productions play a huge role...
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...Many people have heard the famous story of Pocahontas, but they still don’t know the true facts about her life. Pocahontas was estimated to be born around 1595 in the current state of Virginia as the Powhatan chief's daughter. It was early in her life that North American exploration began and settlers began to come to this ‘New World’ to settle colonies for their home countries. Instead of fighting the colonists, Pocahontas helped the Europeans settle and grow on the land and, thanks to her, they made a lot of profit. Many years later in 1995, Disney published the film Pocahontas; a exciting family movie about her life and her help to British colonists. The question of debate is: Did Disney accurately portray the story of Pocahontas? There is evidence saying that Disney did not tell the real story because they changed her name, made her several years older, and altered the relationship between her and John Smith. First of all, Pocahontas was not her real name, it was just a nickname. Disney thought that they should use this name since it was well known, however, “"Pocahontas" was a nickname, meaning "the naughty one" or "spoiled child". Her real name was Matoaka” (Doc B). Even though they could have used her name they chose Pocahontas instead. They most likely chose to do this because it was a name that she was well known by and was easier to say. Despite the reason, this is the first point that Disney did not accurately represent. By choosing this as her name, it is giving...
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...“The Princess Paradox” Summary In his article “The Princess Paradox,” James Poniewozik, a writer who focuses on feminine topics, discusses his information about Cinderella, which he expresses her as practical and dressy. (323). Generally, Poniewozik explains how Cinderella has influenced society through movies, young girls, and has created a desire for the fairy tale romance. Poniewozik begins explaining about parents and their daughter regarding Halloween (323). Even though a young girl without the traditional Barbie dolls, that is more “tomboy,” may even want to dress up as a princess to celebrate the fall holiday (323). Poniewozik claims young girls desire to be princesses due to the Cinderella themed movies today. Then later on in his...
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