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English 301 Analysis of Literary Language., In Minor Feelings, Cathy Park…

- - - - In Poet X: Xiomara lives in a dysfunctional home where she is subjected to physical and verbal abuse from the hand of her Mami. Xiomara is specifically abused because her mother projects upon her and wants her to attain a level of piety she herself could not. When Xiomara's mother was a young woman she wanted to become a nun but her parents forbade her and forced her to marry Xiomara's father. Just like her own parents, Mami deprives Xiomara of choice. This exemplifies how the abuse and trauma transmits from generation to generation. "When I was little, Mami was my hero. But then I grew breasts and although she always extra hard on me, her attention became something else, like she wanted to turn me into the nun she could never be."
      - In Mnemonic, Li Young Lee details the contradictory aspects of his relationship with his father. On one hand, he has a loving father who physically abuses him. "My father loved me. So he spanked me.
        It hurt him to do so. He did it daily."
      - In La Prieta Gloria Anzaldua's mother shows favoritism to her sons and antagonizes her daughter, much like Mami from Poet X. Both mothers also antagonize their daughters for menstruating. Anzaldua writes: " Though she loved me, she would only show it covertly - in the tone of her voice, in a look. Not so with my brothers - there it was visible for all the world to see. They were male and surrogate husbands, legitimate receivers of her power. Her allegiance was and is to her male children, not to the female.
  - - - Richard Blanco details his earliest encounters of American culture in the poem América he writes about how his Cuban family acclimates to American culture living in Miami and their first attempt at celebrating Thanksgiving. He expresses his desire to assimilate to American culture through his comparison of American and Cuban cuisine. "Patty Duke's family wasn't like us either - They didn't have pork on Thanksgiving, they ate turkey with cranberry sauce; they didn't have yucca they had yams like the dittos of pilgrims I colored in class."
      - In Magical Dinners Chang-Rae Lee writes about a Thanksgiving meal from his childhood, one where his mother is burdened with anxiety over a turkey's preparation to please her children. She is often frustrated because she doesn't understand how to prepare the standard American faire that so enchants her children. "Periodically I'll catch her gripped in fury at herself for not quite comprehending, say, the instructions on a box of Rice-A-Roni or Hamburger Helper (seemingly magical dinners that my sister and I whine for despite not actually liking the stuff." Lee's family is Korean, but they find solace in trips to Chinatown because there are no Korean grocery stores or restaurants in their neighborhood. The supermarket doesn't supply the things that Lee's mother needs to make the food that the family is familiar with visits to Chinatown allows them a semblance of familiarity, albeit not quite what they've been missing.
      - Descriptions of food are prominent in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine. Despite differences in religion and nationality, the titular Mr. Pirzada bonds with Lillia's family through sharing food. Though they have different nationalities and religions, they share commonality through the foods they eat. They eat rice with their hands, share pickled mangoes and chew on cumin seeds after meals. The sharing of food demonstrates unity and connection between Pirzada and Lillia's family.