Free Essay

Waiting Essay

In: Novels

Submitted By Agassi900
Words 2189
Pages 9
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, at the conclusion of the 1940s, Mao Zedong became the chairman of Communist China. Being that it was, and still is, the most inhabited country in the world, China becoming a communist country affected millions of people almost instantly. Many of the traditional traditions and practices of the Chinese people were left behind as Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” was instituted across the country in 1966. During the Cultural Revolution of China, the country and its citizens experienced strict authority control with the military and the state functioning together to govern the people. The switch from traditional China to this Cultural Revolution was swift and hasty, causing much death and trouble for the Chinese people. Because of these facts, there are many people who judged the New China governed under the socialist ideas of Mao. One of these critics is the Chinese-American novelist, Ha Jin, who denounces the Cultural Revolution of China in his novel entitled Waiting. In his novel, Ha Jin addresses and brings to light the affects of Mao’s rule on the Chinese people and the country as a whole. The novel starts in 1966 and takes place during the Cultural Revolution. “Cultural conflict is the center of this novel, where two worlds collide in the story of a man seeking a divorce from his wife by an arranged marriage: the ancient feudal culture of China and the world of the Cultural Revolution led by Chairman Mao” (Moore, 124). Through the locations, settings, and characters, Ha Jin illustrates the differences between the Old China and the New China for his American audience; there are many places and people in “Waiting” that represent these two divergent times in Chinese history. One way in which Ha Jin develops this idea is through the characters of Shuyu and Manna Wu, the two women Lin Kong must decide between throughout the novel. Shuyu, who lives in the countryside, is Lin Kong’s wife through a prearranged marriage and represents the conformist China of earlier years. Differing, Manna Wu is the nurse Lin meets in the city in the hospital where they both work; she represents the educated, modern woman influenced by the Cultural Revolution. Being that Shuyu dwells in the countryside and Manna in the city, these locations also become symbols used by Ha Jin to express his views of the times changing. “The novel reveals how the collision between the old world of rural China, where divorce is rare, and the new world of the Cultural Revolution thwarts Lin Kong's best efforts and creates the life we experience…”(Moore, 124). In using the countryside town of Goose Village, Ha Jin is able to show his inexperienced American readers how different life was before Mao. “Throughout the novel Ha Jin gives readers many opportunities to see the rural world and its cultural value systems untouched as yet by the Cultural Revolution” (Moore, 125). He shows how distinct different life was in Old China when Lin Kong is visiting his wife and daughter, Hua, in Goose Village; life in this village is always depicted as being calm and simple. In one scene, Shuyu prepares Lin’s parents’ favorite meals for him to deliver to their grave sights (Jin, 92-93). Such customs were long forgotten and never again practiced once Mao took control of the country. Also, in various parts of the book it is mentioned how divorces were hard to come across in the country. Ha Jin writes, “Divorces were rare in the country. The court could handle about a dozen cases a year, and only two or three would end in a divorce” (Jin, 10). Later on, the character Geng Yang is quoted as saying, “Divorces are rare in the countryside. I heard of only one divorce in my hometown…”(Jin, 166). These passages from the novel deliver how the mindsets and lives of the people in rustic China differed from those of the people in the city. Unlike Goose Village, life in the Muji city was changed drastically for women and men living under the watchful eyes of the Chinese military and government. “That change is set in the context of the Cultural Revolution, where the relationship between married military men and unmarried women is strictly controlled” (Moore, 124). Because superiors and those who worked for Chairman Mao, were extremely afraid to break the rules set in place, even if those rules upset their happiness. At the beginning of the novel, Jin explains the circumstances under which Lin and Manna were allowed to meet: “…they couldn’t live together and could only eat at the same table in the mess hall and take walks on the hospital grounds. The hospital’s regulations prohibited a man and a woman on the staff from walking together outside the compound, unless they were married or engaged” (Jin, 16). Even though Lin and Manna had projection to be married one day, they were not allowed to meet outside the hospital because Lin was a married guy. The heads of the hospital synchronized everything their employees did, making it unattainable for Lin and Manna to have a real relationship because they were “fearful of being punished”. The whole idea of the arranged marriage between Lin and Shuyu exemplifies this traditional role of women. “His father wanted Lin to get married soon so that his bride could look after his mother” (Jin, 8). This shows that Shuyu was simply needed by Lin’s father to take care of his ill wife while he worked in the fields; the entire marriage was instituted so the Kong’s could utilize Shuyu for their own benefit. Probably the most shocking aspect of this situation is Shuyu’s enthusiasm and eagerness to be married. She was never loved and never cared about by her husband, and yet never complained. It is deduced that these arranged marriages were typical occurrences in Old China. However, situations and arranged marriages like this never took place after the Cultural Revolution, when marriages were no longer arranged. Also, from the start of the novel, the readers are told that Shuyu’s feet are bound, even though the practice of binding a woman’s feet had ended a generation earlier: “This was the New China; who would look up to a woman with bound feet?”(Jin, 8). Despite this fact, Shuyu took great pride in her bound feet and would not take off her small shoes when visiting the hospital later on in the novel to show the young nurses her feet because “only her man’s allowed to see them” (Jin, 205). “The nurses at the hospital are amazed at her deep loyalty to her husband” (Moore, 126), which exemplifies other characteristics of traditional women: devotion and dedication. Shuyu’s entire life spins around her husband and the family they have. She saves some of the small amount of money Lin sends to her each month in order to give it back to him for his own personal use, even if it means living with less herself. She goes to him one night and offers to have a son for him, so that there is someone to take care of him in his old age. These actions of Shuyu show how committed she was to Lin and how everything she did was to help him and their family. Such reliability and affection was lost as the Cultural Revolution took effect. Ha Jin also points out another different attribute of women of Old China: their dependences and strong link to their husbands. He shows how dependent Shuyu is on her husband by elucidation that Shuyu doesn’t work and only lives off the money Lin sends her once a month. It is also said that Lin’s mother’s stone “carried only ‘Kong’s Wife.’ His mother had never had her own name” (Jin, 93). Both of these instances prove how much women used to depend on their husbands and how emotionally involved they really were to them. This is a huge contrast to the newfound independence of the women of the Cultural Revolution. Women of the New China, as it was under the Cultural Revolution, became products of the state; this is exemplified in the character of Manna Wu. Through the fictional city of Muji, where Lin and Manna live and work, “Ha Jin gives us in- sight into the mechanistic and dehumanizing world of the military that governs the lives of Lin and Manna Wu” (Moore, 125). Around this time, all women in China were “supposed to marry, even the retarded and the paralyzed were not exempted” (Jin, 99). Manna Wu was the exception, however; she was one of the oldest women working in the hospital, and who had yet to be married- behind her back people called her ‘a typical old maid. She was too old to marry any of the young, single men working in the hospital and found her last chance at marriage in Lin Kong, but because he was already married they were still talked about and scrutinized for their relationship. In the city, in such close immediacy to the government officials, Manna was trapped and stuck living under these rules and criticisms, which were set in place by the Cultural Revolution. The effects the Cultural Revolution had on the women of China are especially depicted in the section of the novel where Geng Yang rapes Manna Wu. The reader finds out that the only reason he does this despicable deed is because he knew Manna was a virgin. He took advantage of her knowing that he would never be punished for it because she Manna would never tell anyone of what happened to her out of fear. Geng Yang tells her that no one will ever believe her and she agrees with him saying, “I went to his room on my own accord. Wouldn’t they say I offered myself to him?” (Jin, 183). Manna was clearly afraid of revealing what happened to her to any sort of authority, knowing completely well that no one would take what she said seriously. When she eventually decided to confide in her friend, Haiyan, she is told, “It will be very hard to prove that you didn’t have a date with him unless Geng Yang admits the crime himself. You know a date rape is rarely treated as a rape” (Jin, 187). The women who lived under the rule of Mao and his Cultural Revolution grew to fear those around them to the point where they would not stand up for themselves because of fear of being judged and condemned. Being that Manna was already looked down upon by her superiors and peers because of her relationship with Lin, she refuses to allow him to inform anyone of the rape saying, “if people know of the rape, I’ll become cheaper in everyone’s eyes, and I’ll belong to a different category, lower than a widow” (Jin. 194). The Cultural Revelation obviously rattled the women who lived so close to those who governed their country, making them fearing their power and influence of those people above them; they worried more of what those around them those around them thought, than their own personal and individual wants and needs. In conclusion, Ha Jin’s Waiting explores the changes that took place as a result of the Cultural Revolution in China by comparing characters and settings throughout the novel. “In Waiting, Ha Jin continues his mission of dissecting society in "the Old Country"- that is, China as he left it, fifteen years ago. Waiting begins with an absurd impasse of the sort the author excels at creating, quintessentially Maoist but also universally human” (Kinkley. 579). The author develops this idea by presenting the two different locations of Goose Village, representing Old China, and Muji City, representing the New China. He illustrates life in Goose Village as serene and effortless, being unscathed by the influenced of the Cultural Revolution instituted by Mao. However, in contrast, life in Muji city is completely regulated, making causing all those who live there to be fearful of the power of those above them. Ha Jin also addresses the change from the Old China to the New China, caused by the Cultural Revolution, through the characters of Shuyu and Manna Wu. Mao depicts Shuyu as the traditional Chinese woman almost completely oblivious to the changing times around her, while the Cultural Revolution would forever influence Manna’s life put in place. Ha Jin, being a critic of many aspects of the New China, wrote about his views in this novel, showing his audience how much the Old China differed from the New China he was brought up in. In the end, “this Waiting “is a saga on how the country and city, … can conspire to perpetuate dull misery” (Kinkley, 579).

Works Cited

Jin, Ha. Waiting. New York, NY: Vintage, 2000.

Print.Kinkley, Jeffrey C. "World Literature in Review: Asia and the Pacific." World Literature Today 3rd ser. 74 (2000): 579-80. JSTOR. Web. 7 Feb. 2011

Moore, John N. "The Landscape of Divorce: When Two Worlds Collide." The English Journal 92.2 (2002): 124-27. JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Waiting For Superman Essay

...After watching Waiting for Superman and reading What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point, both stances seemed to place themselves at the far ends of a spectrum that I found myself somewhere in the middle on for most of the issues brought up. Waiting for Superman is clearly the work of a non-teacher, as the reforms showcased in the film highlight radical change to teaching staff, the dissolving of teachers unions, and the placement of the child’s needs above the adults. What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point is (as stated) the rebuttal to the movie from the view of a teacher. The educator who wrote this essay, Rick Ayers, shows his support for teachers unions, the addressing of the curriculum and method that we teach kids and not the people...

Words: 963 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Pamela Hendrix: A Hard-Working Mother

...Pamela Hendrix is a hard-working mother of six.  While pregnant, Pamela was working at Frito Lay.  Pam was a stocker for the company.  The job of os stocker is to go to the assigned stores, bring in the products from Frito Lay from the back, and add more to the selves. Simple enough but something was different this time.  Last year around end January, early February Pam was doing the normal thing she did.  Moving products from the back to their correct shelving units, adding more to the empty spots along the shelves, packing up, then heading off to do more on her 18 hours days. Only, Pam was not only struggling with these tasks but she was seven months pregnant with her newest addition, Letty Elizabeth.  The hours at each store were torture...

Words: 366 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Waiting Lines

...P-3 Waiting Lines Waiting lines and delays occur when there is either not enough capacity in general for demand, or when short-term rises in demand occur1. These incidents are so common as to be daily occurrences. Every day we wait at traffic lights or if we are less fortunate we get stuck in traffic jams. Still we wait in lines at banks, restaurants, and theaters ….. The study of waiting lines is an exploration of the probabilistic phenomena of frequent disparate outcomes. That is to say, sometimes having to wait for long periods of times, while at other times being so fortunate as to have no wait at all. Operations management places a great deal of consideration into the anticipated performance of waiting line systems. These systems are of vital importance in many contexts, but particularly important in the realm of service operations management. Certainly, in our everyday lives we dislike waiting. Truthfully, for the consumer such a delay is little more than a nuisance; however, from an operational standpoint the same delay has far greater consequences for a business. When you consider, for instance, the machinery and various equipment that may be lying idle, there are great costs at stake. In the case of our HVAC scenario, customers would be quite content if there was a technician available at a moment’s notice to service their particular heating and air-conditioning needs. Unfortunately, the costs associated with maintaining the necessary infrastructure would be...

Words: 950 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Essay On Waiting Time

...Waiting time for elective care is defined as the time that elapses between firstly the physician’s decision to admit a patient for elective surgery following clinical assessment and secondly the date of hospital admission1The 2005 edition of the Fraser Institute Report on Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada indicates that wait times for plastic surgery are the second lengthiest of all specialties2The objective of our study was to study the relation between various types of patients admitted in the department of plastic and re-constructive surgery at Sher-i- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences,J&K and their respective waiting times.The study was conducted for a period of one year from 1st October 2013 to 30th September 2014.It was a prospective observational study carried out on the patients admitted in the ward of plastic and re-constructive surgery. The study was done based on the interviews from relevant informants, study of records .Out of the total of 2238 patients admitted 495 cases were that of RTA(road traffic accidents), 162 bear mauls, 135cleft palate, 117 cleft lip,99 tin cut injuries,90 PBC(Post burn contracture) hand,72 cases of...

Words: 2303 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Bored Pile

...CLERK OF WORKS REPORT Site: Yuen Long CDA Area 15 – Retail Bridge Site Activities / Programme of Construction (up to 10 May 2013) Contract Period: 195 days (CDA 15) Piling Contractor: Simon & Son Engineering Limited Hand-over Date: 04 January 2012 Commencement Date: 12 January 2012 |Progress of Socketted Steel H-Piles Works |Remarks | |Region |Total No(s) of |Nos. of Socketted Steel |Nos. of Socketted Steel H-Pile(s) |Completion Date |Completed % | | | |Socketted Steel H-Pile |H-Pile (s) in Progress |Completed | | |Sanfield handed over CDA12 side to S&S on 26 | | | | | | | |Sep 12 | | | | | | | |S&S handed over CDA15 side to Sanfield for | | | ...

Words: 3703 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Netflix Case

...Assignment 1 – Netflix Personalizes the Customer’s Experience 1) I believe that these types of deals can be beneficial to Netflix because it gives their customers more streaming content, which is ultimately what they want. Netflix saw an opportunity in the customer dissatisfaction from Blockbuster. So I believe more streaming content equals happy customers. The 28 day delay shouldn’t be a threat to Netflix because the gain is higher. As a customer myself, 28 days isn’t a long time. People are used to waiting months before a movie goes from theatres to DVD. More options can also lead to more subscriptions from different types of people. Although these types of deals appear to be risky, the reward is much greater. Companies should take risks to figure out what works best for them. 2) Netflix should charge for streaming content because of the convenience they offer. No late fees, no commercials, no commitment and a large variety. Netflix currently charges $7.99 a month and gives you the option of a one month free trial before creating an account. The price alone attracts people because at Blockbuster you have to worry about late fees. Not to mention, renting three movies there can equal a one month fee with Netflix. 3) Some potential problems Netflix could face in the future are that Blockbuster is trying to imitate how they operate. Not only that but they can easily come up with something new and better. Netflix can also face competition with cable and satellite companies...

Words: 308 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Tag This Tag That

...Tony Harris October 14, 2014 Literary Device/Element|Line and Page Number|How does this device/elementenhance the writing/memoir?| SIMLIE|p. 13 ".that memory blinked like a distant fog light in a story sea and it drowned in my panic."|It shows the panicked feeling he had when his mother wasn't there to pick him up at the bus stop. | SIMILE|p. 262 "Being mixed is like that tingling you have in your nose just before you sneeze: you're waiting for it to happen but it never does.|He is describing how James feels which is how he doesn't really know he is comparing his race, being half african, half white to waiting for sneeze. He is saying how he doesn't know what/where he is yet.| SIMILE|p. 178 "It was as if she pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin, dropped it on the floor, and exited. My brothers and i looked at one another in shock.|James expresses the astonishment that his family when they realize that his mother will not move the family from New York. The family carries a lot of weight living in New York, so when they heard the news it was like they were going to experience an explosion. But, James did not agree with his mother's choice of staying and wants to move.| SIMILE|29 , "Mommy's contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars at Coney Island." |James says this because everything that Ruth was for, she contradicted. She hated the way blacks were treated by whites, yet she sent her own children to an all white school so they could get the...

Words: 829 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Movie Se7En

...I was not fortunate enough to see Se7en in the movie theaters but I have seen the movie more than once since its original release. I think this time was the first time I watched it differently though, I usually watch movies in anticipation of what is coming next, what will happen to the characters next. I have found over the past 15 weeks in this class, that by always watching movies like that, I’m missing out on some of the enjoyment of the movies themselves. Since I already knew what was going to happen in the movie, I watched it for moment it was in, not what was going to be. It was the first time I watched a movie for what is going on now as opposed to waiting for what is to come. This was also the first time that the movie had a very different feel to me, it was as if I knew what was going on. Therefore, I did not have to pay as much attention to the plot and could focus more on some of things that we have talked about in class, like the signs and moods set by the director. The movie had a different feel to it regarding the location and place in time that it occurred. It could have been anywhere, any major city or even a just a major concentration of people without being defined as a city. The character, plot, and events did not seem dated, the only thing that had a dated feel to it was the technology, even that can be viewed a couple different ways. It could be the past where beepers, fax machines, and limited internet access are the cutting edge of technology, or it could...

Words: 760 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Deconstruction of Waiting for Go Dot

...Deconstructive literary criticism uses binary oppositions. Binary oppositions can be defined as “ a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.” “Waiting for Godot”, a classic of modern theatre, is a tragicomedy in two acts which tells the story of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who are waiting to meet a man named Godot. By using deconstructive literary criticism, the play can be analyzed threw the following binary oppositions: passive/active hopelessness/hope, forgetfulness/remembrance and staying/going. Vladimir and Estragon are in a constant state of waiting for Godot: “Nothing to be done. / I'm beginning to come round to that opinion."(Waiting for Godot). Although they are being passive they try to occupy themselves while waiting for Godot. Derrida states that in binary oppositions there is a unspoken hierarchy in which the first term functions as superior to the second term which is considered inferior: “ Derrida’s procedure is to invert the hierarchy in which the first term functions as privileged and superior and the second term as derivative and inferior. By showing that the primary term can be made out to be derivative from or a special case of the secondary term” By reversing the first term with the second a greater meaning can obtained. Although Vladimir and Estragon as in a passive state of waiting they attempt to keep active in order to pass the time. This shows that being active is valued over being passive: “ What about trying them. / I’ve tried everything/...

Words: 1146 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Literature

...Waiting Many critics consider Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, rst performed in Paris in 1953, the most important twentieth-century play in the Western canon. Despite the undeniable historical and aesthetic signi cance of Waiting for Godot, however, the question poses itself: to what extent may an absurdist play—about two bums waiting on the side of a country road for a person who never arrives— still strike us as relevant today? is question cannot be answered univocally, but depends on the interpretive choices made in the actual process of producing Beckett’s play on stage. My goal as the director of this Kennedy eatre production is to create a thoroughly contemporary experience that evades the usual clichés many have come to associate with Beckett’s style, such as monotony and leadenness. From this vantage point, I will now identify two major challenges to any stage production of Waiting for Godot in 2010—challenges relating to the historical and metaphysical background of the play. e setting (country road, tree), costume items (bowler hats, halfhunter watch), and habits of the characters (the pipe-smoking Pozzo), as well as the poverty and frugality of the two protagonists (a diet of turnips, radishes and carrots for Vladimir and Estragon), clearly suggest earlier historical periods such as the Irish Potato Famine from around 1850, the wasteland of northern France in the wake of the trench warfare of WWI, or America’s Great Depression in the 1930s. e names of the characters...

Words: 3965 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Waiting for Godot

...ANALYZING THE CONCEPT OF DERRIDA’S DECONSTRUCTION IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT ANALYZING THE CONCEPT OF DERRIDA’S DECONSTRUCTION IN SAMUEL BECKETT’S WAITING FOR GODOT Deconstruction is a literary theory and philosophy of language derived principally from Jacques Derrida's 1967 work Of Grammatology. The premise of deconstruction is that all of Western literature and philosophy implicitly relies on a metaphysics of presence, where intrinsic meaning is accessible by virtue of pure presence. Deconstruction rejects the possibility of a pure presence and thus of essential or intrinsic meaning. Due to the impossibility of pure presence and consequently of intrinsic meaning, any given concept is constituted and comprehended from the linguistic point of view and in terms of its oppositions, e.g. perception/reason, speech/writing, mind/body, interior/exterior, marginal/central, sensible/intelligible, intuition/signification, nature/culture. Derrida says that one member is associated with presence (more highly emphasized) while the other is associated with absence. He proposes “difference” - a perpetual series of interactions between presence and absence - where a concept is constituted, comprehended and identified in terms of what it is not and self-sufficient meaning is never arrived at. Derrida's theories on deconstruction were influenced by the work of linguists such as Ferdinand de Saussure and literary theorists such as Roland Barthes (whose works were an investigation...

Words: 2164 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Waiting for Godot

...Logan McGeady 14 October 2014 ENG 121-020 Essay #2 Nothing To Be Done The play Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett engages the idea of what it means to be human and how meaningless life can really be. Beckett uses literary techniques to show that human life is based on chance, time is meaningless, and that people will impose meaning on life to distract themselves from the fact that their situation is unalterable. The realization of this drives the characters to rely on outside forces, which may or may not be real, for order and direction. The basic proposition Beckett imposes in the play is that chance is the main factor behind existence and human life. Therefore life is determined by chance and there Is nothing Vladimir or Estragon can do that can influence their life. This is established when Vladimir alludes to the story of the two thieves from the Bible. "One is supposed to have been saved… and the other…damned” (Beckett 4). The idea of percentage is important because this represents how the fate of humanity is determined randomly and without any reason. There is a percentage chance that a person will be saved and sent to heaven or damned and sent to hell, taking away meaning of human life and simply categorizing people into those who are saved, and those who are damned. Vladimir continues by citing the fault in the Gospels on the story of the two thieves. "And yet…[pause]…how is it that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved. The four of them...

Words: 954 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Xyzisighsdiah Bh

...Deconstruction essay The play Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, is about two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who endlessly wait for another man named Godot to appear. In this play, there are several binary oppositions that contribute to the overall meaning of the play. Through the use of three binaries: forgetfulness/memory, active /passive, and despair/hope, it appears the meaning of this play would be that by waiting or being inactive one will eventually gain success. However, by reversing the binaries, it becomes apparent that the true emphasis of this play is that people need to be active in order to accomplish something. Throughout the play, Vladimir and Estragon repeat the same activities over and over. They forget events that have happened in the past while waiting for Mr. Godot to arrive. "And Pozzo and Lucky? / Pozzo and Lucky? / He's forgotten everything!" (Beckett 67). Not only are Vladimir and Estragon affected by this "amnesia," but several of the other characters also do not remember having previously interacted with the two primary characters. "Do you not recognize me? / No sir. / It wasn't you came yesterday. / No Sir" (Beckett 105). Although the audience knows that the same boy came and delivered a message to Vladimir, the boy refuses to acknowledge that fact. By reversing the binary of forgetfulness/memory, these moments create meaning. When another character forgets something, the others become angry, so the idea that forgetfulness is more valued does not make...

Words: 816 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

A Waitress's Instructions on Tipping

...Maria Escobedo RHT 102 A Waitress's Instructions on Tipping The poem "A Waitress's Instructions on tipping or Get the Cash up and Don't Waste My Time" by Jan Beatty shows more depth and insight on the realities and in fractures of tipping. This poem is an example of a free verse. It has no rhyming or formal structure where it shows her experience as an irritated, mad and greedy waitress. She remarks on several points like the importance of the tipping, because it is the wage for waitresses. Moreover, any and every special request needs to be tipped extra. There is never an over tip for a waitress. Lastly, customers do not own the waitress. Beatty uses exaggerations in her poem to make sure we all perceive her message (Importance). In this poem, Beatty shows how some waitresses live from tips. On line eleven she says, "Remember, I am somebody's mother or daughter."(706) This is one of the strongest images in the poem. In some way she is calling out to her customers who probably have or are someone's mother or daughter. She is trying to make them see that she is a human and loved just like they are. The content of the poem help us understand of waitresses. "Throughout the poem, while we are being lectured on proper tipping, we come to understand that the waitress is in a position where she depends on our gratuities."(Importance). For a waitress, every special request is a waste of time if the customer does not appreciate the waitress's job and gives a good...

Words: 822 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

A Review Essay

...Megan Broussard: Dr. Fontenot English 1002, Section 07 2 April 2015 A Review of Fezzo’s Restaurant Fezzo’s restaurant is owned and operated by Mr. Pat Bordes in Crowley, Louisiana. The restaurant is open on Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m.- 9:00 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 11:00 a.m.- 10:00 p.m., and Sunday from 11:00 a.m.- 2:00p.m. Known for its wonderful oysters and steaks, Fezzo’s is always a favorite for many. The location attracts many tourists also. It is right by the I-10 West exit. Many people come from around the country to try Cajun cuisine, and Fezzo’s fixes that desire for many. Fezzo’s has wonderful food and service, but some of the prices are too expensive. One main reason people go is because of the wonderful food. Fezzo’s serves a variety of food. One of the things it is known for is of course their steaks. This steak is not like anyone one has have ever had before. It is very tender and juicy. The meat is so tender that one does not even need a knife to cut the steak. One could also order the wonderful crab cakes. These crab cakes are stuffed with real crab meat and sautéed onions and bell peppers. These delicious crab cakes will have your mouth melting for more. Fezzo’s also has a variety of salads such as, the chef salad, the grilled or fried shrimp salad, and the grilled or fried seafood salad which one can add the fresh crabmeat on top of the salad if you would like. One can also try their famous, homemade bread pudding. This mouth-drooling...

Words: 590 - Pages: 3