NEA CHARACTER ANALYSIS Literature and Composition Turner Nea: Saving Sourdi Character Analysis “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai, discusses a classic plot of the metamorphosis from childhood to adulthood. In her story, the two main characters Sourdi and Nea develop in stark contrast to one another. Nea, the younger sister, has difficulty growing up and maturing as her own life, as well as her sister’s life, progresses. Her naivety, aggression, and anxiety influence her decisions throughout the story in a negative way. Chai’s character is easily believable and relatable, everyone has had a point in their lives where they didn’t want to grow up, handled a situation poorly, or realized that their relationship with someone has changed …show more content…
During the story, Chai paints a picture of two extremely close sisters who have been put to the test. The pair has been relocated, put to work, and expected to mature quickly in their harsh new world. Nea is the narrator of the story, and she shares: ”We used to say that we’d run away, Sourdi and me.” (72) The sisters would whisper their secrets back and forth at night, and lock themselves in the bathroom together and hide away together. As children the girls were inseparable but soon the age difference comes between them. Sourdi finds comforts in her first romance with a dishwasher, Duke, and slowly but surely Nea is left by the wayside. This distance is increased when Mr. Chhay is introduced and Nea quickly realizes that her sister is being severed from her life: “It was the beginning of the end. I should have fought harder then. I should have stabbed this man, too.” (75) In America, everyone is supposed to be equal. People are supposed to be able to have the “American Dream” and have a successful career as well as support a family without any trouble despite race, age, gender, or any other factors. In Ma and Sourdi’s eyes, however, they have seen their traditional culture and are still tied to those beliefs instead. Nea is much more Americanized than the other two women. Ma works very hard to support her children and in an effort to give Sourdi a better life, she makes
Jane Godwin's book, 'Falling from Grace', explores the extent that each of the main characters grow in maturity. Maturity is not determined by age, but by the experiences that a person has which effects how far someone grows. We observe the main characters; Annie, Kip, Grace and Ted in their growth in maturity and how people still stay the same even into adulthood. As the characters mature, they can also see others in the different way, thinking the other has changed, but in reality, the change is within themselves. These are fundamental aspects of 'Falling from Grace'.
Growing up is a journey, to be specific it 's a journey in a maze. We go around in different directions in hopes to find out who we indeed are. Left to right in every direction we run into things that change our mindset and by the end of the maze, we are entirely different people. Most mazes have doors; open one door new beginning, shut another end of that chapter. Specific events in life alter our young minds, and we tend to grow from these experiences. Personal and social encounters come our way and turn us into adults. Milkman in the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison goes through various incitements and awakenings that force him to change his ways and enhance his
People change and grow through their experiences and conflicts. For example, just 2 years ago I was a sixth grader. There was a lot more homework than I ever had in my non-accelerated / magnet elementary school. I had to work harder and for longer hours, but as a result, I was much more mature and knowledgeable. I improved my work habits and increased my concentration. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “First Love”, a 14 year old girl is in love with a high school senior. She does everything she can to try to see him more often. At the end, she thinks she learns the true meaning of love. In Richard Wright’s “The Street”, a boy has to go shopping for food, but he is constantly stopped by a gang who beats him up. At the end, he beats up the gang with a stick his mother gave him because he had to to return home. In both “The Street” by Richard Wright and “First Love” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the characters start out as shy and naive, but end up as aware and wiser as a result of their respective conflicts.
“Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai, discusses a classic plot of the metamorphosis from childhood to adulthood. In her story, the two main characters Sourdi and Nea develop in stark contrast to one another. Nea, the younger sister, has difficulty growing up and maturing as her own life, as well as her sister’s life, progresses. Her naivety, aggression, and anxiety influence her decisions throughout the story in a negative way. Chai’s character is easily believable and relatable, everyone has had a point in their lives where they didn’t want to grow up, handled a situation poorly, or realized that their relationship with someone has changed
The short story “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai is about two sisters who develop in very different ways. May-Lee’s story accurately shows the bond of sisterhood at a young age and how maturing and making grown-up decisions can drastically change a strong relationship. Nea and Sourdi are the two main characters. Nea, who is the narrator, is a young girl who struggles to mature and understand the decisions of her old sister Sourdi. Sourdi is mature but timid compared to Nea which causes certain characteristics to be brought out in Nea. The story is called “Saving Sourdi” because Nea is continuously trying to help her sister but does so in ways that aren't conventional. Even though Nea fails to grow-up like Sourdi at the beginning of the story, by the end her character has a moment of maturity. For these reasons, the sisters are foil to each other, Nea is the protagonist as well as the antihero, and both Nea and Sourdi can be considered dynamic characters.
Although immigrant women play a big role in America’s society and economy, they have been constantly mistreated and looked down upon throughout history. Not only do they face the burden of the stratifications that their gender entails but they also struggle to adopt the American culture and norms. America was viewed as the land of opportunities and economic prosperity, a perspective that draws in many immigrant women who were willing to leave their families and possessions to come to this foreign country in hopes of a better life. In America, they faced many challenges as they not only had to work long hours but also took care of their families and do housework as well. They struggled to make a standard living out of low wage jobs and assimilating into America’s society. Today, the treatment of immigrant women has improved greatly as they have stood together and fought for their rights. Immigrant women have built communities and held strikes for better pay and treatment. Although America has made great strides in improving treatment of immigrant women, there is still social injustice. Immigrant women have come a long way from the first time they entered America until now, but their stories are often left untold and omitted from American history.
In the short story “Saving Sourdi,” the characters make the story change from laid back to very intense. Throughout the story, one of the characters gets married off, after having a boyfriend. After she gets married off she seems as if she is sending a cry for help by showing signs of abuse. Her younger sister goes off to save her with her ex-boyfriend causing more havoc because she hadn’t been abused at all just very tired. As this story unravels the way Nae, Ma, Sourdi, Mr. Chhay, and Duke react make quite an interesting story.
In the short story “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai Mr. Chhay symbolizes the change into adulthood and coming of age. Throughout the story Nea is protective of her older sister Sourdi, even after she is married to Mr. Chhay. However, Nea realizes that Sourdi has grown up since she met Mr. Chhay and is no longer need her protection because she is an adult. This causes Nea to mature and finally snap back into reality. Also, Sourdi matures into an adult when she marries Mr. Chhay and has a kids.
They say your early years determine the fate of your future. Now, while this is true, people will always have room to change, so they will keep developing no matter their age. In Jean Auel’s book, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Ayla is trying to escape her dismal life by learning and understanding who she is dealing with. Through her experiences, Ayla, a Cro-Magnon girl, develops from a frightened girl in an unknown world, to a mature strong woman struggling to find her true identity. Ayla, a frightened girl, is in search of a new home, beginning the first chapter of her journey to adulthood.
Lisa Hill has confronted many different forms of inequality throughout the novel. Lisa was walking through a strip mall in a part of town called Terrace when she saw her friend Erica being chased by a car full of white men verbally harassing her. Lisa then stepped in to stand up to the men while Erica called her bigger brother. During that whole ordeal there were many bystanders who did not lend a hand. Later that day, Lisa went to go meet her aunt Trudy when she told her that “ If you were some little white girl, that would be true, but you’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and hot off scot-free” (Robinson, 255). Although Lisa was just trying to protect her friend, no one decided to stand up to the white men and help a teenage girl although there were many people watching. This displays the inequality that the regular man feels towards the Indians. Furthermore, when Lisa’s aunt Trudy was just a small teenager herself, Lisa’s grandmother was forced to send her away to a residential school because she was an Indian. Trudy did not realize this and put her blame and hate on her mother cause a rift between her and her mother. If Indian children were allowed to go to regular public schools and had equality between different ways of life, the fissure between a mother and a daughter would not have been created. Along with that Eden Robinson also fought for the equality for
Hillary Clinton claimed that “However different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future.” The claim would seem truthful from a white, upper-class female perspective, but Clinton fails to see the sheer power differences have for the courses of women’s lives. Womanhood is not the only identifying feature of women as our different socioeconomic environments affect our lives in usually greater ways. In their articles on intersectionality, Andrea Smith and Lynne Haney refute Clinton’s claim by their focus on the incredulity of a common womanhood overcoming the powerful socioeconomic differences between women, as well as the harmful effects of overlooking these variances within popular discourse.
The Color Purple In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Celie was very neglected and abused by many people. She was raped and got pregnant by her father. Celie's mom died and she had to face her father alone while trying to protect her sister Nettie from him.
She stood to walk, but found that she was strangely chained to the wall. Because of being in this particular circumstance, she looked around the nursery frantically, seeing if she could find a way to free herself. Only finding great failure, she was startled by the appearance of two children; one of which was a boy, and the other, a girl. The girl was the same one Naqi had seen before losing consciousness, but the boy had never been seen before. The girl stepped forward. “So, you are the one called Naqi. I see. I am called Wairtafaeat Wahida, and my elder brother is called Alshshaytan Yartafie.” Wairtafeat then took a silver necklace from her neck, the pendant in the shape of an alligator. She took the sharp point and proceeded to cut Naqi’s arm, collecting a bit of Naqi’s blood before putting the necklace back on. Wairtafeat giggled, then spoke, her voice almost sounding of one that would come from a snake. “YOU ARE NOW MINE!” Wairtafeat Wahida took Alshshaytan Yartafie’s hand, and they lunged towards Naqi Hlu with sharp, bared
In literature, the relationships between characters are crucial to fully understanding the tone and meaning as a whole. It is through the the contrast of healthy relationships and those which seem to be toxic that a story can explore characterization. In the short stories “Ballet” by Pete Fromm and “A Wanderer” by Josip Novakovich, the relationship between characters were on the brink of destruction, which adds immense amounts of conflict to the plot and leads to their characterization and development. For example, in “Ballet”, the young narrator attempts to mend his parents strained relationship, due to his father’s infidelity, causing their family dynamics to be originally deemed doomed. Likewise, in “A Wanderer”, fourteen-year-old Neda
One woman tells about how she was a doctor, one of the highest paying jobs in America, and she tells about how she changed jobs for less stress and more money. It gave her self confidence and now she is able to speak in front of a large group of people, whereas before she was not able to do. Women are now able to own and afford their own things and are becoming more independent. In the movie, one woman who works for Business Processing Outsourcing tells us about how her father before really didn’t respect her and was angry that he has a daughter. She tells about how she’s learning English so that she can move up in her job, and how she is able to help support her family. She is paying for many things for her family, and now her father loves her and wants her to stay home and help support the family. This is very much different from America because most families want their children to go out and have their own lives and be able to live on their own. The documentary also shows two woman who moved out of their parents houses and moved into an apartment together and how people think of them negatively because they’re working until late into the night and then come home and have boys over and party and dance and have fun and are assuming things about them. They speak about how they don’t like being judged just because they decided to live on their own and because they’re working until late at night doesn’t mean that they’re doing bad things, they’re just trying to make a