英美文学论文-从喜福会透视中美文化冲突与融合

英美文学论文-从喜福会透视中美文化冲突与融合内容摘要：

aracters. She regrets having given Waverly the American context, at the same time, given her Chinese character, but the two can never be bined. In the story of “ Double Face” , Lindo says: “… I wanted my children to have the best bination: American circumstance and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught [my daughter] how American circumstance work: If you are born poor here, it’ s no lasting shame… In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. She learnt these things, but I couldn’ t teach her about Chinese character… How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities… Why Chinese thinking is best.” (Tan 227) She thinks since she gives her daughter the American name (the name of the road they live in), she lets her daughter be too American, and this bees the barrier between them. But at the same time, she realizes the American character in herself. She knows that she is no longer Chinese. When she travels to China, the Chinese treat her as an oversea traveler. She is very sad, and she wonders, in the process of changing herself, what she has lost. Her strategies of concealing inner powers is like what Waverly says that it is related with her ability to maintain two aspects of character— American and Chinese. Second, in the novel, the munication problems also arise because the mothers are from China, while daughters are born in the United States, their cultural backgrounds are different, and also because they speak different languages. For example, June says, “ My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other’ s meaning and I seemed to hear less than was said, while my mother heard more.” (Tan 27)June looks for meanings in what is stated and does not understand that her mother omits important information because she thinks that her daughter knows it。 Suyuan, on the other hand, looks for meanings in what has not been stated and adds many things to what has been stated and es up with meanings that surprise her daughter June. Another example is that Rose cannot find the right English terms to meet with “ Hulihudu” and “ Heimongmong” . “ A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said…“ A psycheatricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.” Back home, I thought about what she said… [These] were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning may be “ confused” and “ dark fog” . (Tan 172) Rose thinks “ hulihudu” and “ heimongmong” can’ t be translated to English because they refer to the sensation only Chinese can have. Third, the mothers and the daughters have totally different experiences. The mothers have been to America during the World War Ⅱ , when China was intruded by Japanese army. They e to America with their American dream. They have suffered a lot before arriving America, and they e to America to search a better life putting all their hope in America, but after living in America for many years, they feel that they lose some of their Chinese tradition and they try to hold fast of the Chinese tradition and pass it to their daughters. The daughters are born in America, they don’ t appreciate the Chinese tradition and view their Chinese history as a barrier to their dreams, they resent their mother pouring the Chinese tradition to them and their Chinese way of love, so they do things opposite to what their mother told them to do to disappoint their mothers. In the story “ Two Kinds” JingMei says, “ It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn’ t get straight As. I didn’t bee class president. I didn’ t get into Stanford. I droped out of college.” (Tan 124) Ⅲ . The Cultural Understanding and Blending Although Amy Tan mainly describes the cultural clashes in her novel, her real aim is to explore a balance of cultural conflicts. An important theme of the novel is the reconciliation of the multicultural clashes. From the beginning of the novel, JingMei views the gap between her and her mother from two aspects, and this double point of view doesn’ t emphasize the generation gap, but instead, it works as the bridge of the munication between the two generations. In the third part of the novel, the four daughters narrate their dilemmas after they grew up, problems in their marriage and in their careers. Although they think their mothers’ ideas are out of date, when they search for the solutions, they inevitably e back to the relationship with the older generation. At last, mothers offer solutions and support to their daughters, for example, Rose Hsu J。