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This book was created and published on StoryJumper™
©2010 StoryJumper, Inc. All rights reserved.
Publish your own children's book:
www.storyjumper.com
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Chinese history has an impact on Rose’s life.
Having shou is a Chinese moral her family values.
Shou is, respect for your ancestors or family. In
Chinese history, families respect one another and
that is how Rose was raised. Their family came to
the United States in the mid 40s. During this time,
China was considered a failed state, their economy
was crashing, and people were homeless and
unemployed. This history effected Rose’s mother
when they came to the United States, which
affected Rose.
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The relationship between Rose and her mother,
An-Mei , is a difficult one because An-Mei is
very controlling over Rose’s life. She wants
what is best for her daughter but at the same
time she wants to control everything Rose
does. They are very close, and An-Mei tries to
put a lot of Chinese culture onto Rose. But
Rose has American traditions, unlike her
mother, who is all about Chinese traditions.
An-Mei helps Rose with her relationship with
Ted, by telling Rose that he is having an affair.
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Although Rose does not believe it, in the end An-
Mei is right and helped Rose with her
relationship. At the end of the story “Without
Wood”, Rose has a dream that her mother is in
the garden planting weeds. This represents
Rose’s problems and how her mother knew
everything about her. Her mother was always
there to help her. Their mother-daughter
relationship is like a roller coaster, with ups and
downs, but they love each other and will be
there for each other no matter what.
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Rose is Americanized by the way she dresses,
the way her hair is cut, and the way she acts.
She doesn’t act Chinese because she has been
an American her whole life. Another way she
has become Americanized is by being without
wood. She has become weak and bends too
easily. Real Chinese women are strong, but
since Rose has been Americanized, she bends
and is weak like most Americans.
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The theme Amy Tan has developed through
Rose is, without wood. When someone is
without wood they are weak and they listen to
everyone else and not to their own gut. They
are pushed around and can’t stand up for
themselves. Amy Tan does a very good job at
making Rose without wood. Two episodes from
the book that show Rose without wood are,
when Rose is asking everyone for advice on
her own marriage and when she needs a
psychiatrist to help her with her problems.
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Rose has to ask everyone for advice about her
marriage, which doesn’t make sense because its her
marriage, she knows it better than anyone else does.
But because she is so weak, she needs help from
other people. Just like how she needed help from the
psychiatrist, in the end the psychiatrist didn’t do
anything for her besides make her sleep for three
days. Rose needs to stand up for herself and not let
anyone push her around. Her marriage failed
because she couldn't make decisions and she would
bend at any situation. She became stronger when
she learned to get wood and stand up for herself.
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The first story is Scar. Rose’s mother An-mei,
is where we see the hardships An-mei had to
live through. There is a word in here that
sticks out as a reader, shou this means respect
for ancestors or family in Chinese. Shou
represents love in English. At the end of the
chapter Amy Tan writes; “It is shou so deep it
is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is
nothing. The pain you must forget. Because
sometimes that is the only way you remember
what is in your bones. You must peel off your
skin…Until there is nothing.
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No scar, no skin, no flesh.” (Tan 48). This
means that sometimes our pains get in the
way of realizing who we really are deep down.
This idea follows Rose throughout her life.
During Half and Half a horrible tragedy
happened to Rose. She was told to watch her
brothers. When she looked away for a moment
her youngest brother, Bing, drowned in the
ocean. In this section, Amy Tan uses motifs.
According to SparkNotes “Motifs are recurring
structures, contrasts, or literary devices that
can help to develop and inform the text’s
major themes” (SparkNotes 4).
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The following is an important lesson Rose
should have learned when she was young
“…foolish as to think she could use faith to
change fate. And it made me angry… that
everything had failed us.” (Tan 130). This motif
returns in the chapter Without Wood, while
working threw life issues with Ted. Rose has
lost all faith and decided she will just let fate
decide her life.
Amy Tan also uses symbols throughout her
book, with Rose’s most important symbols
were the Bible, placed under the wobbly table
growing up, and the garden Ted attended to.
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The Bible represents the faith Rose’s mom who
still believed that Bing would come back wrote
Bing’s name in the Bible in pencil under
“Deaths” which proves that she still had faith
but she was letting fate still take its course.A
lesson Rose had not yet learned. We also learn
why Rose’s mom was planting weeds within
the garden during Rose’s dream. The weeds
were a symbol representing Rose and her
needs as says to Ted, “You can’t just pull me
out of your life and throw me away,” (Tan 196)
.Tan is making a metaphor by referring to Rose
as a weed Ted has been pulling out and
throwing away. Amy has a talent of making
every small detail flow with themes and
symbols.
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Tan uses broken language throughout the book
to represent the Chinese heritage. “For
example, Rose Hsu Jordan explained she had
been "feeling hulihudu" and that her life was
"heimongmong," later translating these
phrases into "confused" and "dark fog." Her
speech is a reflection of her prevailing western
mentality and her Asian background. She
grasps at these two pieces as if they are
integral parts of an intricate puzzle defining
her identity” (Erwin 2). This helps us
differentiate from mother and daughter.
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s hard to keep up
with all of Amy’s characters.
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Divorce is when two people have concurred to
discontinue the partnership because affection no
longer exists (Wan 1). Way back when in the
1940's, China’s divorce rate was really low. As
years gone by in 1950 the Chinese government
ended the first marriage law. As a result it
allowed divorce but only if counseling did work.
It doesn’t allow though, arranged marriages,
concubinage, and china bethol. Women were
called disgraceful failures if they got divorced
during this culture. But for men, it was easy.
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In the 1950’s more and more Chinese
arranged marriages were driven out in
divorce. When the 1980’s came around a new
law was formed which granted divorce if one
person was found guilty of affairs, violence,
and have or had an addiction to drugs
(Florcruz). In 2003, Chinese couples were
known to have to write permission form
employers to be able to end marriages, but
the law dropped and aloud couples to get
divorce certificates easily (Florcruz).
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This book was created and published on StoryJumper™
©2010 StoryJumper, Inc. All rights reserved.
Publish your own children's book:
www.storyjumper.com


Chinese history has an impact on Rose’s life.
Having shou is a Chinese moral her family values.
Shou is, respect for your ancestors or family. In
Chinese history, families respect one another and
that is how Rose was raised. Their family came to
the United States in the mid 40s. During this time,
China was considered a failed state, their economy
was crashing, and people were homeless and
unemployed. This history effected Rose’s mother
when they came to the United States, which
affected Rose.


The relationship between Rose and her mother,
An-Mei , is a difficult one because An-Mei is
very controlling over Rose’s life. She wants
what is best for her daughter but at the same
time she wants to control everything Rose
does. They are very close, and An-Mei tries to
put a lot of Chinese culture onto Rose. But
Rose has American traditions, unlike her
mother, who is all about Chinese traditions.
An-Mei helps Rose with her relationship with
Ted, by telling Rose that he is having an affair.
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