The correct answers are “The daughter wants to be valued for what she is, while the mother believes that the girl should always strive to be more” and “The daughter believes that her mother should accept and love her, but the mother believes that she should help her daughter succeed”.
Indeed, the daughter is American and as such she only understands direct, explicit language and reasoning. This is called a low-context culture. What this means is that for the American daughter communication needs to be explicit and context has to be explained. However, the mother is Chinese, her life experiences and her cultural norms and context are very different. Hers is a very high-context culture, which means that her communication and her actions are extremely cryptic for her American daughter because it relies on a cultural and situational context that her daughter does not have due to her American upbringing.
In a nutshell, the mother does love her daughter but her vision of love is influenced by both her Chinese culture and above all her tragic and awful life experiences. She a was poor, ignorant Chinese woman who grew up in a very patriarchal Chinese culture which showed her that the best measure of love is <u>self-reliance</u> as a form of <u>protection </u>for the sake of <u>safety</u>. She wants her daughter to be safe and never suffer the horrible experiences that she went through. Her daughter can only be safe from all of that by extremely hard work which is the gateway to financial self-reliance and security.
The daughter on the other hand, grew up in a comfortable life in America. She understands the notion of hard work but considers that her mother carries it way too far. She thinks that he mother is so hard on her because she does not love her for who she is or how she is. She already feels safe and for her playing the piano is already enough. She does not need to be a master of piano playing and she considers that she can perfectly live a fulfilling life by finding her own way in accordance to normal American standards. The fact that her mother is not explicit in her utterances makes her suffer and she is unable to understand because she lacks her mother’s context which is at the core of the novel.
Edna Pontellier was a controversial character. She upset many nineteenth century expectations for women and their supposed roles. One of her most shocking actions was her denial of her role as a mother and wife. Kate Chopin displays this rejection gradually, but the concept of motherhood is major theme throughout the novel.
Edna is fighting against the societal and natural structures of motherhood that force her to be defined by her title as wife of Leonce Pontellier and mother of Raoul and Etienne Pontellier, instead of being her own, self-defined individual. Through Chopin’s focus on two other female characters, Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna’s options of life paths are exhibited.
These women are the examples that the men around Edna contrast her with and from whom they obtain their expectations for her. Edna, however, finds both role models lacking and begins to see that the life of freedom and individuality that she wants goes against both society and nature. The inevitability of her fate as a male-defined creature brings her to a state of despair, and she frees herself the only way she can, through suicide.
1) Although he and Alexander Hamilton worked together on the Federalists Papers is the dependent clause
Dr Faustus can be considered a tragic hero for various reasons. Firstly, we can conclude that he is not completely bad or evil, he just makes a critical error and decides to sell his soul to the devil due to his thirst for knowledge. This makes us relate to him due to his imperfect nature and hunger for knowledge and consequently we pity him more. Secondly, he is of high standing and is a great scholar, which makes us question how these things can happen to such people and this makes his tragic destiny seem even more gloomy to us. When we look at Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero where he defines him as someone not 100% good or bad who makes us feel sorry for their miserable fate, the character of Faustus fits this definition perfectly. All in all, his human vices paired with his inquisitive nature are the main reasons why we are obliged to consider Dr Faustus a tragic hero.
