growing up in an asian household essay

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How Identity Shapes the Well-Being of Asian American Youth

Like many kids growing up in the United States, I came of age straddling two cultures: that of my family’s country of origin, and mainstream/majority American culture.

There was a significant Asian American community where I grew up, and among my friends I saw many ways in which families negotiated these two cultures. Some families spoke their first language at home, some didn’t. Some ate their heritage foods for all their meals, some only for special occasions. Some made annual trips to their country of origin, while others never or seldom visited. Mixed into these everyday practices, parents modeled attitudes about race, racism, and the majority culture, verbally and nonverbally.

All of these ingredients in an upbringing make up what social scientists call the ethnic-racial socialization of children—and as two new studies suggest, those choices have consequences for the health and well-being of young people.

“Asian American youth are quite different from each other,” says Tiffany Yip, a psychologist at Fordham University and coauthor of one of the studies. “There are very different ways in which Asian youth form a sense of who they are and how they make sense of the world.”

Can values foster well-being?

In a study published by the Journal of Counseling Psychology , Annabelle L. Atkin and Hyung Chol Yoo at Arizona State University surveyed 228 Asian American college students about the racial-ethnic socialization they received from their parents, their understanding of their own racial-ethnic identity, and their feelings of social connectedness.

Using latent profile analysis—a method of identifying subgroups based on certain variables—Atkin and Yoo identified three patterns of parental racial-ethnic socialization:

• Guarded separation. This group was by far the smallest, at a tenth of those surveyed. These students were encouraged to maintain ties to their heritage culture, and were also told to avoid people of other racial-ethnic groups. They also received few messages about adapting to mainstream American culture, respecting other cultures, and treating people equally.
• Passive integration. This group received frequent messages about staying connected to their heritage culture, but received few other socialization messages with regard to other racial ethnic groups or being American. They were 43% of those surveyed.
• Active integration. Almost half of the students also received frequent messaging about preserving their heritage culture, and received fewer messages about avoiding out-groups. However, this group was distinguished by the frequent messages students received about treating people equally and respecting diversity.

Findings in the study showed that the “active integration” group reported the highest scores of clarity and pride in their racial-ethnic identity, as well as the strongest feelings of social connectedness. This result suggests to the authors that therapists, social workers, teachers, and others who work with families might encourage bicultural socialization, low avoidance of out-groups, minimization of race, and promotion of equality and cultural pluralism as a way to support the resilience and mental health of Asian American youth.

The authors further note that the patterns of parental socialization identified in these profiles are in and of themselves significant, and emphasized the importance of looking at these multidimensional profiles holistically. Their findings indicate that “despite engaging in the same amount of socialization in several domains, if parents differ in how they engage in other socialization domains, their children may report different outcomes related to racial-ethnic identity and adjustment.”

For example, the “guarded separation” group had the lowest racial-ethnic identity scores (cognitive clarity, affective pride, behavioral engagement) even though it received the most frequent messages about maintaining ties to their heritage culture; this group also received the most frequent messages about avoiding out-groups and the least frequent messages about cultural pluralism and equality.

These findings suggest that Asian American children grow up hearing many kinds of messages about their heritage culture and becoming American, further complicated by the inclusion of messages about race and racism, and that all of these messages function synergistically in the formation of one’s racial-ethnic identity.

There’s no one path to wellness

In another study published last month in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence , researchers from Beijing Normal University and Fordham University surveyed 145 Asian American high school students about their “ethnic-racial knowledge.”

As in the previous study, the researchers asked the students about their parents’ socialization practices and their sense of their ethnic-racial identity—but this study also included questions that measured to what extent these students had internalized the “model-minority narrative,” the myth that Asian Americans are successful by virtue of their race/ethnicity. Their latent-profile analysis also identified three groups:

• Salient. This was the smallest group, at 13% of respondents. They reported high levels of ethnic-racial identity, greater cultural socialization, and relatively low levels of preparation for bias, and moderate internalization of achievement orientation.
• Moderate. At 72%, this was by far the largest group—and its members reported moderate levels of all indicators.
• Marginal. Fifteen percent reported relatively low levels of ethnic-racial identity, less cultural socialization, and comparatively high levels of preparation for bias and slightly less internalization of achievement orientation.

The researchers also collected data related to these students’ duration and quality of sleep, their psychological well-being (depressive symptoms and measures of self-esteem), their academic performance (grades and school engagement), and delinquency.

In this study, in contrast to the one by Atkin and Yoo, the researchers found no clear benefits to one group across any of these measures of health and well-being. For example, in the areas of self-esteem and school engagement, the salient group scored higher than both the moderate and marginal groups, but neither of the latter groups scored better than the other. The marginal group scored the highest in depressive symptoms, but neither the salient group nor the moderate group scored better than the other. Each group scored higher in some aspect of sleep quality, but no one group had the clear advantage in sleep quality overall. 

“If you look at the adjustment outcomes for all of these profiles, some profiles do better on sleep indices, some profiles do better on socio-emotional outcomes,” says Yip, the study’s coauthor. “That’s the power of this study, that we have multiple dimensions of health and well-being.”

The complexity of the findings, she says, “underscores the importance of a really nuanced approach to thinking about Asian American youth and their development.”

Like the authors of the previous study, Yip says that regardless of the findings related to the outcomes of these profiles, identifying their patterns is a crucial result of the study, because it reveals the diversity of experiences that Asian Americans bring with them into adulthood. As these profiles illustrate, not all Asian American youth relate to their racial-ethnic identity in the same way.

This may be “a little bit less obvious to people who haven’t really stopped to think about what these model-minority perceptions do in terms of homogenizing the Asian American experience,” says Yip. “So I think it’s incredibly important to show that there are Asian kids for whom their ethnic identity is not that relevant—they don’t think about it, they don’t care about it, it’s not important to who they are. That’s the marginal group.” And then there are some kids, like those in the salient group, for whom their Asian American identity is “really, really important.”

Then there’s the moderate group, at 72% of those surveyed. “What’s interesting,” Yip says, “is that middle group that’s sort of average on everything—that’s actually the biggest group. I think there’s a tendency for non-Asian people to see Asian people as only Asian, but these data are telling us that there are Asian youth for whom being Asian is like, meh. It’s part of who they are, it may not even be that important.”

This is an important thing to understand, she says, not only for clinicians, but for anyone who interacts with Asian American youth “on a daily basis, in their role as educators, neighbors, friends, sports coaches.”

So how can Asian American parents optimize the health and well-being of their kids? Which families of my childhood were getting it right? As both studies show, when it comes to racial-ethnic socialization, there isn’t just one prescription, or pattern of messages, that best serves all or most kids.

And as is true about most aspects of parenting, it’s important to keep in mind that every child is different, says Yip—even when it comes to teaching about racial-ethnic identity. She continues:

As parents, it’s really important for us to recognize what our child brings to their own socialization and to be flexible and adaptable enough to use that individuality that they’re bringing, to tailor our parenting approaches, whether it’s around issues of culture, ethnicity, race, discrimination, whatever it is, that we have some tools that allow us to be adaptable and responsive to the unique needs of each child.

About the Author

Shinwha Whang

Shinwha Whang is a writer in Richmond, CA.

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The Anxiety of Growing Up Asian American

As the child of indian immigrants, i was never as free as my peers..

I come home and take off my shoes. I wash my hands with surgical thoroughness, change into my “inside clothes,” and put my “outside clothes” straight into the hamper. Looking around, I wonder if I am okay, if the world will ever cease to feel perilous.

This is not a description of pandemic life but one of my childhood. As the daughter of South Asian immigrants, this was my daily after-school routine.

Last spring, my Asian American friends and I joked that everyone’s household was starting to resemble those of our childhood: the strict prohibitions, the obsessive hygiene rituals, the sharp distinction between “outside” and “inside,” and an attendant anxiety about the lack of freedom. This latter part is where the joke stopped being funny: when we realized a global pandemic shouldn’t recall childhood.

Even when the pandemic is behind us — a prospect less within reach for countries like India, currently in crisis — this anxiety may linger. Part of the tragedy of America is that despite our resources, we cannot create a country where everyone feels safe. Asian American hate crimes and prejudice are only just beginning to register in the national consciousness.

My childhood anxiety is difficult to name. There is no vocabulary for it, which is part of the problem. Growing up during the 1980s in a predominantly white suburb of Long Island, I felt invisible. This was before yoga and turmeric were in vogue, before Alanis Morissette thanked India and Elizabeth Gilbert prayed there. When City of Joy came out in 1992, my family excitedly went to see it, thrilled by the prospect of a film about India. Two hours later, my parents were slouched over in defeat; the story of slums and white saviors had no connection to the India they knew. It was the first and last time we ever went to the movies.

There were no after-school specials about the dynamics of my family home: the abuse, the oppressive silence, the shoddy coping mechanisms of my immigrant parents. They regarded the world beyond our home with suspicion. They didn’t socialize with neighbors, organize birthday parties, or host play dates. Carefree restaurant meals, leisurely vacations, partaking in American society: These were unthinkable. It’s not that we never went out, but on the rare occasion we did, the experience proved so miserable that we decided it wasn’t worth it. My parents decided we were better off staying at home. It was as though we were living through our own pandemic.

The threat was America. My parents’ anxiety took different forms. On the mildest level, they feared American culture would infect me and my brother in the virulent way culture spreads: invisibly at first, with a seemingly benign pop song or movie, and then causing rapid and full-blown alarm when, for example, I had my first boyfriend. I was forbidden from seeing him and told he would ruin my life. My socializing was confined to one or two preapproved friends: an early form of the pod.

More broadly, my parents feared what America might do to them. They experienced a powerlessness in the States that was wholly new. As Brahmins, they were treated with deference in India. Their upper-caste status gave them ready access to resources and security, privileges that members of other castes did not have. My mother was a physician, my father an engineer. Their degrees accompanied them across the ocean, but their status did not.

Contrary to glorified notions of the American Dream, my parents experienced life in the States as a demotion. They were now at the bottom of the totem pole. That the caste system is reprehensible was not something they discussed. Like most people, they enjoyed having privilege and disliked losing it.

When my mother was mugged in broad daylight in the parking lot of the hospital where she worked, dragged into a van at knifepoint by two white men, I asked her why the security guards hadn’t intervened. She snorted. “No one here protects us,” she said. “They do not even see us.”

I was in the eighth grade at the time. It was the first moment I registered my parents’ reality as more fraught than I’d imagined. My mother’s paperwork listed her as an “alien,” the official term for an immigrant then. She told me she didn’t find it offensive. It captured how she felt. The phrase “melting pot” made her laugh. “People here don’t want to melt with us,” she said.

My parents had immigrated through the H-1-visa program for specialized labor, part of the long American tradition of viewing people of color through a utilitarian lens. Borders open up to Asia when workers are required (for the building of a transnational railroad, for example) but close out of racial prejudice (the Chinese Exclusion Act). In the 1923 ruling United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind , the Supreme Court voted unanimously to revoke the rights of a naturalized American citizen, a Punjabi man who had attended the University of California at Berkeley and served honorably in the U.S. military. None of it mattered. Thind and other South Asians had their rights stripped out of xenophobic fears of “radicals.” In the 1990s, in the run-up to Y2K, American tech companies lobbied the U.S. government to allow an enormous influx of South Asian computer programmers. After 9/11, when hate crimes against South Asians skyrocketed, they experienced the same lack of protection my mother felt in that parking lot, the turning of a blind eye.

My parents were not dreamy-eyed fools. Their plan was to work in the States for a few years to help relatives back home. They left my older Indian-born brother in the care of my maternal grandparents so they could focus on their careers. My father, one of thirteen children, had countless nephews and nieces in need of school fees. My mother, an only child, wanted to help her parents.

Their plan depended on visa renewals. As a young girl, I thought the term H-1 referred to a blood test. Why else would relatives look so worried when it was mentioned? Whenever there was good news about an H-1, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. I figured a green card meant one was healthy. For immigrants, paperwork is a lifeline. Children can absorb this message literally.

The reason my parents ended up staying in America was simple: me. I was an unplanned pregnancy. I learned of this only recently. People imagine “anchor babies” as desirable for immigrants. For my parents, it was the opposite.

While I didn’t always understand my parents’ anxiety, occasionally I experienced a flicker of it. In my suburban elementary school, I was the only South Asian child in my year. My classmates held their noses and complained I smelled. They pantomimed applying a “dot” to their foreheads. I dreaded the appearance of that word in any written material, for I knew it would cause snickering and sidelong glances my way. Teachers didn’t offer safety. When my fourth-grade teacher asked me to describe India, she didn’t want to hear about my grandparents’ lovely flat or the way I was treated like a princess when I visited. She asked in a whisper if I had seen lepers.

My parents had different approaches to the loss of status living in America entailed. My father wanted a place where he still commanded authority. He turned to our household. Like a desperate dictator, he made juvenile grabs at power. He hit my brother so hard that he drew blood. He called me a worthless girl who would amount to nothing. He created elaborate rules so that he could have the satisfaction of seeing them obeyed.

Toxic masculinity is often discussed in the context of the loss of white male privilege: the downtrodden white guy who no longer sees a place for himself in society and retaliates through violence. But this phenomenon has long existed in Asian American households, where displaced men who feel devalued and emasculated try to assert their authority at home.

My mother’s strategy was to tell elaborate stories of India that presented it as vastly superior to America. Her logic was simple: America was the backward place, which was why she was treated unjustly. India had elected a woman as prime minister. “That will never happen here,” she declared firmly. In India, public hygiene was poor, but private hygiene was excellent. “Here, they have restrooms, but people do not wash their hands!” she fumed.

“I don’t understand,” I once said to my mother. “Is it good that I’m American, or is it bad?”

She regarded me for a long moment and then said, “That is a good question.”

On the rare occasion that I went to a white American friend’s house, I was stunned by the lackadaisical ease. None of the strict rules from my house applied. Kids wore sneakers on couches, watched TV without having to ask permission, ate Oreos and potato chips, danced in the living room. It was dizzying, a nearly bacchanalian display.

What struck me most was the lack of anxiety in my friends’ households — not that they didn’t have problems, but they could name them. They confided in me about their worries. They had seen them voiced in sitcoms and novels and magazine articles. They were on their home turf.

I didn’t know how to describe what I felt. I didn’t even know how to tell my friends why they couldn’t come over. I only knew that my friends didn’t have to follow elaborate rituals or heed strict prohibitions or listen to nationalistic propaganda in a way that meant shedding their identities. Their parents weren’t trying to compensate for a hostile environment by establishing alternate republics. They didn’t have to perform one way inside and a different way outside. They were free.

Despite being an American by birth and a fortunate member of society, I’m not sure that I have ever known such freedom. A good day in my childhood was when nothing bad happened. This put a low ceiling on happiness. My parents’ misery stemmed from feeling invisible. Ironically, this became my coping strategy. I hid from my father, accepted my mother’s stories, took up as little space as possible. Childhood strategies are hard to shed.

“Are you glad you stayed here?” I once asked my mother.

“I would have been happier in India,” she replied. “But … perhaps you will be happier here.”

I live in that “perhaps,” a threshold of possibility, hoping for an America where I can feel at ease, stretching, taking up space, finally at home.

• first person
• anti-asian hate
• asians in america

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Hiding my mental illness from my Asian family almost killed me

The silent shame of having a mental illness in a Chinese family.

by Amanda Rosenberg

“Don’t you dare go back to that doctor,” my mother growled into the phone. “He’ll put ‘bipolar’ on your record and then you’ll never be able to get a job.”

I nodded into the receiver. “Okay.”

I never went back. Seven years later, I woke up in a psych ward.

Growing up, I thought I was emotionally healthy. I had a large Chinese family on my mother’s side (my father is white). We were a lively, loud, tight-knit group consisting of around 20 blood relatives and 3 million non-blood relatives. Everyone knew each other’s business. Distant family members inquired about school, commented on my weight, and asked if I had a boyfriend. The only time it was “quiet” was when the Mahjong table came out and the only noise you’d hear was the click-clacking of tiles.

But when I look back, I realize that we shied away from the important topics. Mental health was rarely discussed, but when it was, it was always in a negative light. At no point did any of my relatives tell me having a mental disorder, theoretically at this point, was unacceptable — I could tell by their hushed tones, and their quick dismissals, that mental illness was not an option.

I never questioned it. If relatives felt comfortable enough teasing me about my grades or weight, then surely they’d be okay with talking about mental health? The reality was not even close.

Most people know the stigma associated with mental illness. But there’s even more stigma within communities of color, and within Asian culture, it’s particularly bad. It’s like Russian nesting dolls of shame.

Scientific research shows the severity of mental health issues among Asian Americans. Studies have found a few common causes — shame, fear, and avoidance, all of which have roots in the culture and the “model minority” stereotype . One could argue most people, regardless of race, are reluctant to discuss their mental state, but studies show Asian Americans are three times less likely than white people to seek mental health treatment. Another study carried out in 2011 showed that Asian Americans typically avoid mental health services because “opting to utilize such services requires admitting the existence of a mental health problem and may cause shame to the family if personal issues become public.”

For the first 27 years of my life, I kept my deteriorating mental health under lock and key for one straightforward reason: I was scared of embarrassing my mother. I believed I would be seen as broken or defective and bring shame on my family.

Any Asian person, especially women, will tell you about the pressures of growing up in many Asian households — the high expectations, the keeping up of appearances, and the toxic “model minority” stereotype that continually hums in the background of your life. There’s an expectation to stand out for the “right” reasons — meaning good grades, a fancy job, high salary, good social standing, and having a husband or wife. In my family’s minds, having a mental illness can prevent you from achieving those things. And if you’re not achieving everything, then why are you even here?

Asian women in particular feel the need to prove themselves. Historically, we’re on the back foot since birth because Chinese families have long favored sons over daughters. Those attitudes have changed over time, but the feeling still lingers — we weren’t born the first choice, but we’ll work twice as hard to prove we deserve to be here. On top of all of that, we’re pressured by society (and Chinese culture) to start a family at a much younger age than men, meaning we’re on a shorter timeline to achieve anything. No wonder Asian-American women have a higher lifetime rate of suicidal thoughts than the general population.

My mother took me to see a psychologist once. I couldn’t talk.

My depression started in my teens. I didn’t think it was a problem: I assumed it was normal to feel low and isolated for long periods of time. From the ages of 13 to 18, I had several anxiety attacks. A few of my friends knew, but I rarely talked about it, and never to my family.

I managed to hide all of this from my mother, except for one incident when I was 17 and going through an incredibly low period. Like many people with a mental illness, I showed no visible signs of anxiety or depression. But I retreated into myself, finding it hard to communicate or perform basic tasks like showering or brushing my teeth. I knew I felt sad, but I didn’t know anything was “wrong.”

My mother became frustrated I wasn’t my “usual” self. And because there wasn’t anything physically wrong with me, she took me to the emergency room to see a mental health professional. I sat on a chair in a windowless room, my mother next to me, while a specialist straight up asked me what was wrong.

I refused to say what was wrong. My mother was in the room, and I didn’t want her to know. I could tell she was annoyed I wouldn’t talk, and even more annoyed she had to bring me in the first place. As my silence deepened, I remember her saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but her breath smells.” She was disgusted by me.

The specialist asked her to leave the room so he could talk to me in private. He said he couldn’t help me unless I told him what was wrong. I couldn’t. After hearing the disdain in my mother’s voice, I was too ashamed of embarrassing her. I didn’t want to let her down, so I said I was “fine” and left.

My mother and I didn’t talk about it again. And, unlike my grades, who I was dating, and my physical appearance, it wasn’t brought up at family gatherings. Maybe my relatives knew I was “down” and simply chose not to discuss it with me. Perhaps they just didn’t know how. After all, this stigma has been around as long as mental illness. At the time, I didn’t care; I was more interested in maintaining my reputation within the family than my mental health.

It comes back to this specific Asian brand of shame and pride. The shame prevents us from talking about it within the family, and the pride covers up the shame for those outside the family. According to an article by psychologist Ben Tran , this particular behavior has a name: “hiding up.” Hiding up is the act of both keeping your mental illness hidden from the community and not doing anything to treat the illness itself. It’s a dangerous combination.

The problem with “hiding up” is that the behavior became so ingrained that I continued to do it when I left home. By the time I went to university, my commitment to the cover-up was unwavering. Meanwhile, my mental state felt like it was tearing at the seams. I went to see a campus doctor — this time, my mom wasn’t there, and I told him as much as I could. He told me he suspected I was bipolar but that I would need to see a psychiatrist for a proper diagnosis.

I left the appointment feeling a mix of relief and terror: relief that I wasn’t crazy in thinking I was crazy, but terrified of making that phone call. I never worked up the courage to do it. It would take another eight years and a life-threatening situation before I’d finally receive a diagnosis for bipolar II from a psychiatrist.

The last straw

I was 27 when I first tried to kill myself. I was admitted to a psych ward, then transferred to a psychiatric hospital. I was incapacitated my first day in the ward. One of the psychiatrists called my mother to tell her what happened. When I asked how she reacted, he said she was angry. The first thing she asked was, “Why did no one tell me?”

I was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in November. There, I called my mother to talk about Christmas plans; I’d booked my flights a couple of months earlier and was excited to come home for the holidays. She was curt on the phone. She said I couldn’t stay with her, making up excuses about the broken heating in the house. It quickly dawned on me that these were flimsy cover-ups for the real reason — she was ashamed and didn’t want me around. My mental illness had become impossible to hide from the rest of my family.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help.

Crisis Text Line : Text CRISIS to 741741 for free, confidential crisis counseling The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline : 1-800-273-8255 The Trevor Project : 1-866-488-7386

Outside the US:

The International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country. Click here to find them . Befrienders Worldwide

I ended up staying with a friend and her family for the holidays. I didn’t see my mother, nor did we have any contact during that time. There was a smattering of communication in the subsequent months that quickly petered out. Our relationship hasn’t been the same since. I realized I couldn’t have someone in my life who couldn’t accept my mental illness, even if that person was my mother. We’ve been estranged for more than four years now, and my contact with the rest of the family is patchy at best.

To be clear, I don’t judge or blame my family at all. If anything, I empathize with them. I’m sure they’ve had struggles of their own that they’ve had to repress. Maybe they were scared. Maybe it wasn’t that they didn’t want to talk about it, but instead didn’t know how . I have no idea what they’ve been through — not just because they refuse to speak about it, but also because I didn’t ask.

The stigma associated with mental illness is so deeply entrenched in Asian culture; it’s unrealistic to think people can change their minds that easily. But this pressure to hide our problems away has dangerous consequences. The shame is killing us — older Asian-American women have the highest rates of suicide compared to any other race.

If we want to see change, it needs to come from everywhere both big and small. In 2017, a new bill was introduced to reduce the mental health stigma in the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community through specific outreach and education. And while it’s promising to see changes come from the top, those of us who are living with mental illness can make the most impact. By continuing to share our experiences, we can give people the strength to come out of “hiding.”

Amanda Rosenberg is a writer based in San Francisco. You can find her work in McSweeney’s, the Establishment, Anxy Magazine, GOOD, Huffington Post, Quartz, and the Mighty. She’s an editor for Slackjaw and is currently writing her first book — a collection of essays on mental illness.

First Person is Vox’s home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines , and pitch us at [email protected] .

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January 29, 2018

Growing up in an asian household.

5 comments:

My parents were very strict as I was growing up as well. I remember all the times I was stuck inside the house, looking out the window at other kids playing and wishing so badly I could go and join them. But instead I had to stay in and do chores and math problems or study for things I absolutely hated. I used to have a sketchbook hidden under my school books and hide just so I could draw. My best friend was music, as always, and I don't remember having a second separated from my walkman - the only thing I felt really understood me. Just like you, I ran away from home too, but not to go out with my friends, but to follow my dream of becoming a designer and trying to get a resemblance of how freedom must feel. Now my parents and I are getting along great and I understand they only wanted me to have a better future. But I wouldn't raise my kids that way, I think that kids can grow up to be respectful adults without being overly strict with them and instead just trying to resonate with them and explain things in a way that makes a difference and they feel truly valued. Anyways, loved your post! Thank you so much for being so open and vulnerable. As always, much love <3 xoxo Style Unsettled https://www.styleunsettled.com

Reading this brought tears to my eyes. I can absolutely relate to your up bringing in so many ways. I too, grew up in an immigrant asian family and my parents (especially my Mom) were extremely strict. The way they communicate there love is so different from western culture. There were no hugs, no "I love you's", no praises and compliments. They are over protective, abusive at times, and need to have full control over their kids. Yet they are so incredibly hard working, and I know they would do anything and everything they can to see us succeed in life. I want to write so much more, yet I feel as if you have already taken the words out of my mouth with this post. Especially your final sentence: "I wouldn't enact the extremity of her discipline onto my children, but I will try to match the level of sacrifice and love my mother had always shown." I am now in my early 30s, and a mother to two little girls, your words gave me goosebumps as this is exactly how I feel about how I want to raise my kids. Whenever someone asks me what was the one thing (that stood out the most) I felt has changed after I became a Mom my reply would be my love for my parents - it has deepened, grown even stronger, and I appreciate them for every thing they have done for me. The good, and the bad, because I know it came from a place of love. Thank you for this post. <3

As I was reading this, I was both appreciating how it sounded so familiar to my own experience, but also feeling a little twang of pain, because I know that hesitation to divulge too much information in fear of others thinking less of your family, when their hardships are, in fact, responsible for your successes. The immigrant experience is so nuanced that I don't believe it can be broken down into "Oh, your parents hit you? That's so wrong!" or "Being too strict limits children's abilities". Perhaps it is so because there is never any doubt, in stories like yours, or mine, that our families love us. Thank you for sharing this, for writing this. I love seeing fellow Asian women shining and doing their thing. <3 Trang A Mainstay @trngbe

thank you so much for sharing- I'm sure it wasn't easy! I am so happy to read that you and your mother have a great relationship now as you realized that she was just a product of her upbringing. You will be a great mother. xo. SN | www.sahonynatasha.com

Definitely the realest, most raw post I've ever read from you. It must have take a lot of courage to write down these truths to share with us readers, and for that, THANK YOU, Stephanie <3 I'm especially happy to hear that you and your mom have the best relationship now. I've heard plenty of "tiger mother" stories and while they may be hard to swallow for some people (I didn't experience it but I'm Malaysian so it's easier for me to listen to the stories), the children in these stories amazingly always end up doing well in life, and you're obviously a living proof of that xxoo xo, Liyana | Affordorable

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English Works

Growing Up Asian: identity and difference

Practice your teel paragraphs:, relationships define who we are.

Topic sentence : If parents set unrealistic expectations and wield excessive control, children often develop psychological problems. (Expand/Explain) In Vanessa Wood’s case, her mother refused to listen to her pleas to become a writer, and wanted her to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor. The mother aggressively compares Vanessa with their cousin and considers her a failure and a disappointment.  (Examples: Evidence: how this affects Vanessa) As a result, Vanessa loses her respect for her mother and becomes extremely resentful. Out of spite and desperation, Vanessa resorts to anti-social behaviour, such as feigning sick in the toilet and stealing other children’s lunches. She resents the fact that she is poverty-stricken, but more than this she resents her mother’s “emotional terrorism” and her “two-faced” comments that deride and humiliate her.  She refuses to pay the ultimate price for her mother’s failed marriage and personal sacrifice.  ( Link ) Vanessa’s turmoil shows the problems of excessive parental control and the lack of personal freedom.

For many parents, especially mothers, in Growing Up Asian , it is extremely difficult to be “oneself” because of the pull of one’s cultural roots and the emphasis on “saving face”. Vanessa Wood’s mother becomes trapped in an unhappy marriage because she is unable to admit defeat and disappointment.  The father’s Australian family is discriminatory,  and refers to the mother as a “chongalewy-chow shiela” and she becomes the “dutiful wife” who “slits her wrists in shame” after the divorce.  She is constantly imprisoned by cultural customs and after her marriage she transfers her anger and shame onto her children, almost destroying a happy relationship with them.

CONFLICT can lead to problems for personal growth

Vanessa Woods : “Perfect Chinese Children”

Topic sentence : If parental expectations are unrealistic, this can lead to a soul-destroying relationship between parents and children as well as psychological disturbance. (Evidence/ examples) In Vanessa Wood’s case, her mother refused to listen to her pleas to become a writer, and wanted her to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor, like her cousin. The mother channels her frustration towards her children, whom she aggressively compares with their cousin. However, such expectations set Vanessa up for failure; she loses her trust and respect for her mother and becomes extremely resentful. Out of spite and desperation, Vanessa resorts to anti-social behaviour, such as feigning sick in the toilet and stealing other children’s lunches. She resents the fact that she is poverty-stricken, but more than this she resents her mother’s “emotional terrorism” and her “two-faced” comments that deride and humiliate her. She feels that because of the focus on success and hard work, her mother fails to show any love or care.   (Link) This increases Vanessa’s humiliation as she redoubles the family’s sense of shame and makes her feel even more worthless.

Diana Nguyen: “Five Ways to Disappointment your Mother”

Topic sentence: Unreasonable or excessive parental expectations can be detrimental to a child’s self esteem and dignity. (Evidence/ Examples) They can create a great deal of animosity between parents and children and strip children of their self-worth.  For example Diana’s mother expects her daughter to pursue a medical career and becomes disappointed at her inability to fulfil her academic expectations. Diana portrays her as a harsh and cruel person who is never satisfied and sets the daughter up for failure, which undermines her respect for her mother. Furthermore, the mother is portrayed as selfish because she prioritises her need to ‘save face” over her daughter’s happiness. ( specific examples) In fact, the mother is contemptuous of the daughter’s struggle to become an actor. Diana is wounded on several occasions by her mother’s determination to reject her desire for an acting career. When her mother walks out on her performance she is “shattered”.  She recalls her humiliation and the loss of dignity as she recoils and lets the “hurt sink deeper into my soul”.

 Having a sense of being different makes it difficult to belong.

  what is the difference.

Race/culture: Often our physical appearance makes us stand out, and this can provide personal problems for many people, especially children and young adults/ migrants.  In the 1980s, many Asian migrants were conspicuous (stood out) because of their skin colour or their appearance.   Their cultural background led to cultural differences.

Why is it difficult to belong? It is difficult to belong because they are often being discriminated against and they are made to feel inferior. Many are humiliated because of their skin colour; they are treated like ‘germs” or “human turds”.  Because of their cultural differences, many experience language barriers which also reinforces their difference.

Views, values, goals, expectations, interests: What is the difference? Often people or children develop different interests; they have different expectations and values from other family members or from parents. They may want to follow different career paths or goals.

Why difficult?:   It becomes very difficult because the parents force them to do something that they do not want to do; they become unhappy; the parents criticize them and believe that they are ungrateful ; the parents make them feel as if they had failed; Diana was very upset when her mother left the performance.

(Sexuality and gender) Sometimes we may not fit into certain groups because of our sexual orientation or becomes of our choice of partner. Many homosexual people struggle to fit into groups because they are discriminated against. Diana conflicts with her mother because she wants to choose her own Chinese boyfriend.

Whilst such differences do make it very difficult for the individual to belong,  such conflict or differences can also strengthen individuals. Sometimes we need to become stronger; we need to become more determined and we need to be sure about our values.  Often individuals have to try harder and sometimes this helps them to succeed in the long-term .  Vanessa and Diana do all become more determined in trying to follow their goals. Sunil takes pride in his name even though he realizes it is a myth

Although family should be a place of comfort and nurture the children’s emotional and psychological development, differences in expectations, views and values can tear families apart and leave children shell-shocked and inhibited.  Many of the Asian children have different professional and personal expectations from their parents, and the parents, who have sacrificed so much to come to the new country, make them feel like ungrateful outcasts if they do not fulfil their parents’ goals.

The children don’t share the same priorities as the parents such as emphasis on public image, and many do not hanker after  careers that bring wealth and status. Instead they are influenced by the freedom afforded by the new country and prioritise personal fulfillment.

• Home becomes an unbearable place, full of tension and recriminations.
• Diana Nguyen is vehemently opposed to her mother’s expectations of her gaining status, health and happiness as a lawyer or doctor.
• Likewise Vanessa woods’ mother believes that writers inevitably end up “penniless in the gutter”.  The “emotional terrorism” waged by her mother makes Vanessa rebellious; out of a sense of desperation she ends up stealing children’s lunches, perhaps to gain her mother’s attention.
• When Diana is finally “kicked” out of home she is the first Asian in her group to endure such a humiliating sense of isolation and exclusion from the home base. Because she chose to live with her boyfriend she will be forever the “slut daughter” – the one who brought shame upon her mother.

Leads to pain and suffering: The children have to cope with their parents’ disappointment, disapproval and sense of rejection.

• Vanessa suffers from what she sees as her mother’s brand of “emotional terrorism” and fears coming home when she has been reprimanded at school.
• Home is full of threats, such as her aunty her wants to burn her tongue.
• Vanessa’s pain and suffering are evident when she resorts to anti-social behaviour such as stealing so as to gain her mother’s attention. This increases her humiliation as she redoubles the family’s sense of shame and makes her feel even more worthless.  Leads to a loss of pride and confidence… …

Often the mothers suffer from cultural and social dislocation because of their domestic situations that also compound their difficulties. Some of them experience more difficulties than their daughters and suffer from social ostracism that makes them feel different in the new society.

• Vanessa’s mother does not want to lose face after her divorce and practices her brand of “emotional terrorism” on Vanessa so as to recover their dignity and status in the new society.

A sense of difference often occurs because of a sense of rootlessness or homelessness. This can impact upon people in very negative ways and affects their attempts to belong, to find a secure sense of place and to find fulfilment.

• The buffalo becomes a metaphor of the father’s displacement and cultural estrangement owing to the destruction of his village in Vietnam, and as the buffalo increasingly becomes exposed to danger and at risk, so too does the father disintegrate in his new culture because he is simply out of place.  The buffalo’s ability to adapt to its environment is reduced in extreme temperatures; the calf is susceptible to danger during the “first two months of its life”. (35)  His sense of difference is evident in the anonymity of his identity, as well as in the faceless self-portrait.
• The daughter i n “Water Buffalo” introjects her father’s estrangement from his culture; his yearning for home are displaced onto his daughter this affects her ability to paint.
• (The daughter also feels estranged from her home environment because she has betrayed her father’s goals and sacrifice. She gave up a promising medical career to become a painter . “This destroyed her father.” During a fight, she made many derogatory comments such as “you’re worthless” that completely humiliated him and destroyed their relationship.) However, she feels powerless to explore her creative talent because she cannot grasp his “lost heart”. It is only when she views his final painting that depicts the water buffalo, which connects him to the land, that she can appreciate his life of heroism, his “private hopes”, his pain and dignity.
• Likewise Blossom Beeby, an adopted Korean child in a white environment, experiences a similar type of homelessness and cultural confusion because the images of whiteness which dominate her world are at odds with the Asian face she sees in the mirror. She is taught to push her “Asian-ness” to a “crevice in the back of (her) mind”.
• It is only when she frequents nightclubs with her Ghanaian friend that they find a milieu that reflects their cultural confusion. “It was a cultural hodge-podge and a comfort zone I’d never known before”. She states that this is the only place where she begins to feel comfortable about being an Asian.
• She clings to snippets about home so as to give her a sense of place; however, when she travelled home to Pusan and located the place of her illegitimate birth, she discovered that her name had been given to her arbitrarily by a social worker based on the landmarks.

  Whilst differences can be soul-destroying and lead to a lonely sense of exclusion, individuals might find comfort and solace in unexpected places.

Cultural difference gives a sense of urgency to Aditi and Wei Lei’s special friendship just as it does to Simon Tong’s and Stewart’s.

Alternatively, the sense of homelessness and cultural confusion can lead to a special place to belong – a place inbetween two cultures or two worlds that may bring a host of advantages.

• Joo Inn Chew uses the symbol of the homeless waif to depict her contradictory identity in Bendigo as a half-Chinese person growing up in 7 th generation Australian – farmer country. However, her difference also works in her favour as she gains a special place on stage and in the Chinese dances. She realises that her differences need not necessarily lead to a failed sense of belonging or even a sense of exclusion. She can belong in just a different way.
• Likewise Michelle Law realizes that despite her difficulties growing up in an Australian sporting environment she is nevertheless “incredibly lucky” to have been able to bridge both worlds.

Many children struggle to maintain their identity if their personalities, interests and desires clash with their parents. Often they suffer enormous pressure to sacrifice their dreams. This seems to be the typical Asian experience in Growing Up Asian . Many of the youngsters have a need to follow a creative path that is often at odds with the parent’s desire for them to follow in a professional straitjacket. The parents insist on perfect scores so that, like cousin David they will be able to pursue a medical career and emulate Dr Victor Chang, the heart surgeon.  Many are told that they will end up “penniless in the attic” if they follow an artistic profession. This clash leads to a great deal of disappointment and frustration on behalf of both parents and children that creates a tense and debilitating relationship. Many of the children feel as if they have failed their parents, they feel ashamed and inadequate that they have not been able to help realize their parent’s dream of success in the new society. For example, Diana’s mother’s expectations lead to a soul-destroying moment when her mother walks out on her concert during interval. Diana hoped that her mother would see her “shine” and accept her desire to become an actor. She becomes a failure in the mother’s eyes which leads to a constant need to justify herself.

Migrants may struggle with language barriers, and this makes it very difficult for them to maintain a firm sense of identity among the group. Many of the young Asian migrants struggle with their identity in a school setting because of their language problems. Often they cannot express their desires and feelings; other times they may be misunderstood or become the butt of derision. Sometimes they feel that people are patronizing towards them and this causes them to become introverted and timid. For example, Simon Tong’s feelings of inferiority are compounded by his inability to express his thoughts in language. He is unable to defend himself in words so his reticence makes him almost invisible. “If I couldn’t express myself then who was myself”. The right words would enable him to reclaim his dignity and give him confidence.  Language would allow him to assert himself and present himself in a desirable way as a suave 14-year old Don Juan who desires to woo the girls, but sadly, he struggles to maintain his identity among his peers at school.

When people move to new communities, cultural differences often force them to re-evaluate who they are and how they should fit in to the new group. During the 1980s, many Asian migrants felt exposed in Australia because they felt culturally and racially different. They were often made to feel inferior by their school peers.  For example, before he came to Australia Simon Tong had never seen a white person before, and when he finds himself in the playground among freckled boys and those with caterpillar-like eyebrows he finds the experience confronting, demeaning and painful.  Because he is so conspicuous he is treated like an “animal in the zoo” and the playmates ridicule him. He cannot defend himself and starts to feel inadequate and defenceless.

Some migrants like Simon suffer an identity crisis because they cannot articulate their feelings or defend themselves.  He is humiliated because he feels that he is always the butt of derision.   However, he negotiates his identity and reclaims his dignity by mastering the English language. He learns to find comfort in the prosodics of the English language which helps him to gain confidence and reclaim his dignity.

There is often a clash of views, values and expectations between parents and children that lead to a  reevaluation of identity on behalf of both conflicting parties. In Growing up Asian, many parents expect that their children will follow professional pathways, so as to bring the family status and prestige. The children must therefore negotiate their identity. They must decide whether they will follow their parent’s expectations and hence suppress their own desire for fulfilment or happiness or compromise their relationship with their parents so as to pursue their own career.  Those who prefer an artistic career have to battle with the feeling that they have failed their parents. To resist their parent’s pressure also demands a lot of courage and stamina. Diana Nguyen is one such person who finds it difficult to abide by her mother’s dream of a high-status occupation. She is desperate for her mother’s approval, but is shocked when her mother walks out of her performance. Likewise, Vanessa Woods wants to be a writer but the mother using her brand of “emotional terrorism” tries to convince her that she will end up “penniless in an attic”. However, these girls must find a way to build their own lives and find confidence. Diana finds solace and freedom in her relationship with her Chinese boyfriend whom the mother detests and Vanessa eventually comes to find love in the mother’s sacrifice.  In the process, Diana has to realise that she will always be the “slut in her mother’s eyes”.

In their turn, parents, too, have to negotiate who they want to be in the eyes of their community and their children. Many feel that they “lose face” and this is humiliating for them. Many like Diana’s mother prefer to sacrifice the relationship with her “slut daughter” because they do not want to change their customs. To them, the public persona is much more important than the daughter’s feelings.

Communities may offer challenges to newcomers but they often provide a chance to explore one’s identity and find personal satisfaction. For example, my life in Australia is not subjected to strict rules and regulations as it was in Korea, and I can take advantage of greater freedom to be who I want to be.  I feel that I am able to make choices in determining my career;

Similarly, some migrants discover, through compromise, the best of both worlds, which has a positive impact on their identity and level of personal fulfilment.    Although Michelle feels different in both Australia and Hong Kong, she realizes that she has been “incredibly lucky” to have had the influence of both cultures. She realizes that she needs to cope with her painful self-consciousness and become aware that she has to deal with her self-centred perspective in whatever culture she finds herself. Likewise, Jo Anne Chew finds that the “liabilities” can also become cultural “assets”.

Families can often provide support during times of stress or difficulty and this often affects how individuals cope with conflict as they grow up. Just a hug or embrace and some reassurance can often give children a great deal of confidence. When Mr Lai’s parent’s Asian grocery store is declared bankrupt, he retains an optimistic outlook. One of his graphic images poignantly depicts how his parents comforted him and tell him “we love you”, which is unexpected but treasured because they had “never said that before”. Despite his problematic relationship with his parents, Holden finds refuge in his idyllic and sentimental relationship with his younger sister, Phoebe. She provides solace and a person to talk to, even though she does not necessarily understand him. In contrast, where children are not valued or do not feel they are understood this can lead to feelings of worthlessness and depression. Many of Asian parents did not understand their children and certainly had no empathy for their struggles at finding a voice and a new self in the new culture. This makes it so much harder for their children. As Pauline states of her father, “he had never attempted to get to know or understand his children”. To avoid her father’s tyranny, Pauline is forced to leave home for the sake of her own mental health.

  Many migrants of Asian parents suffer from unrealistic expectations; they are aware that their parents have sacrificed a lot to give them opportunities, but they often feel enormous stress and pressure to satisfy their parents. Frequently, the parents’ expectations deny their own individual interests and  dreams and this makes many children unhappy and dissatisfied… Pauline felt so oppressed by her father’s draconian expectations and subsequent punishment regime that she constantly felt a failure. The beatings and constant humiliation affected her confidence and self esteem in very damaging ways. She states that it was ironic that her father escaped the oppression of the communist regime in Vietnam and yet in Australia “we in turn have had to escape the tyranny of his rule to find freedom for ourselves”.  Likewise, Vanessa Woods refers to her mother’s “emotional terrorism” and the fact that her mother suffered incredible financial hardship to provide better opportunities for her daughter. Vanessa was a constant failure when compared with successful relatives who achieved high professional status and wealth.

To many Asian parents, public image is more important than the child’s satisfaction. This often has very damaging repercussions for the children. Diana Nguyen’s mother compromises her relationship with her daughter because of the need to save “face”, which mortally wounds Diana. Her mother refuses to tolerate Diana’s Chinese boyfriend whom she met on the internet. Diana is so humiliated and feels like a “slut daughter”, who is forced to move out of home. She not only feels shameful but regrets never having a decent relationship with her mother…

However, as they grow up and develop their own individual identity, many Asian migrants appreciate the incredible sacrifices their parents have made, They realize such sacrifices have enriched their lives despite their trials and tribulations associated with coping in a different culture. Although Michelle feels different in both Australia and Hong Kong, she realizes that she has been “incredibly lucky” to have had the influence of both cultures. Vanessa Woods finally learns to look for “love” in unexpected places. She realizes just how much her mother has sacrificed for her, when she only keeps one chicken wing for herself. Although chicken wings are the “cheapest part of a chicken” she has nevertheless “bought all her salary can afford”.

Where individuals are supported and nurtured, this helps to create well adjusted human beings who can face the problems they are bound to encounter in life. However, where families are destructive or set unrealistic expectations then this can rebound in very negative ways on individuals.

Difference and diversity can be character-building.

Often when we attempt to assimilate into a dominant culture we are confronted with the stark reality of our differences. This makes us question our identity, and in particular our values, customs and traditions.  

For example in “Anzac Day”, when James Chong participates in the Anzac Day march he imagines himself as a proud Australian. However, when he notices that he has been singled out on the current affairs program as an inappropriate “dinky di” Australian he feels isolated and alienated. He is struck by the painful realisation that he has been excluded from Australian traditions.

In “The face in the mirror”, Blossom Beeby is confronted by the differences between her experiences in Australia that have conditioned her to see herself as a “white Australian” and yet she is aware that she has suppressed her “Asian-ness”. This gives rise to feelings of inferiority and shame that lead to a “rebellion of sorts”. It propels her on a soul-searching journey, starting with mixing with multi-cultural people in clubs where she feels comfortable for the first time. She also returns to Korea to find the origins of her name and realises that she is just as dislocated and foreign in her “original” environment.

(“Five Ways to disappoint your Vietnamese mother”) Diana’s experiences as a performer at school alert her to the fact that she is not happy fulfilling her mother’s high academic expectations. Her difference is confirmed when she challenges her mother by living with her Chinese boyfriend, thus becoming the “slut” in her mother’s eyes.

Simon Tong similarly feels like an “animal in the zoo” which draws attention to his cultural inferiority and sense of shame arising because of his physical appearance. His humiliation is compounded by language barriers that affect his identity and expression of self.   “If I can’t express myself that who am I”.

(“Perfect Chinese Children”) Growing up, and negotiating her identity is a painful and traumatic process for Vanessa Wood because of her relationship with her mother. Her mother has high expectations and expects Vanessa to become a doctor. However, the mother also expects that Vanessa will save her from the shame of her divorce by providing status and respect. Given such high demands, Vanessa feels a sense of desperation not only at their poverty but also at her mother’s brand of “emotional terrorism” that seeks to hold her responsible for bringing the family much-needed wealth and status. Vanessa’s pain and suffering are evident when she resorts to anti-social behaviour such as stealing children’s lunches so as to gain her mother’s attention. This increases her humiliation as she redoubles the family’s sense of shame and makes her feel even more worthless.

Anh Do – character building and insight into self through conflict

The Australian-born Vietnamese comedian, Anh Do reflects upon the most difficult act he ever did which he believes was character building. He had to perform at the RSL at a function for war veterans that was commemorating the fallen brothers in World War Two, in Korea and Vietnam.

Because of their war experiences, they discriminated against people of Asian-background. He performed a five-minute comedy gig to complete and utter deafening silence.  A member of the crowd pretended to shoot him with an imaginary finger.  To break the ice, he proves that he is just an “Aussie kid”.  He tells footy, kiwi and farming jokes. Gradually he breaks the ice.  Eventually the audience of war veterans could say that “this Vietnamese kid was just an Aussie comedian up there talking about his working-class childhood.” It was one of the most rewarding moments of his career and he even got praised. “You’re funny for a slope” is the ultimate compliment.  (183)

Return to Growing Up Asian: stories and summaries  

Nova izdaja Jurija Dudia s stripom Sergejem Orlovom, ki je dejal, da je bil v družbenih omrežjih že dolgo obsojen zaradi dejstva, da se je poročil z “eksplozijo s prikolico”, je postavila pomembno vprašanje. Ali otrok iz pretekle poroke resnično daje stigmo žensko https://slolekarna24.com/kupite-kamagra-100mg-brez-recepta-online/ gradi nove odnose o svojem potencialu? Statistični podatki kažejo: Gospod z otroki sploh več možnosti za ustvarjanje srečne družine.

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by Design Matters

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Learning from Failures and Growing Up in an Asian Household

A candid conversation with tokyo-based creative art director roy husada.

Giorgia Lombardo

28/06/2022 7 min read all articles.

Roy Husada is crispily energetic and curiously reserved. He’s unapologetically creative but also relentlessly seeks order. He is known as the socially awkward founder and managing director of Rival Schools, a creative brand localization agency. By starting this company, he bet the farm on his lifelong, unyielding passion for connecting people and ideas through creativity. He believes that exercising creativity is everyone’s god-given right and practicing it should be fun and inclusive.

His career started back during the dot-com era. His core experience comes from all forms of digital media and interactive design. He believes that adopting design thinking is the key to success — a philosophy that has served him well in his career as a Creative Art Director for some of the most amazing brands in the world.

Roy gave a talk ( watch it here ) at  Design Matters Tokyo 22  (May 14–15, 2022), a design conference based in Tokyo, established in 2020 with the goal of sharing knowledge, offering inspiration to creatives who share the same passion for design, and connecting designers from all over the world. The belief behind the Design Matters conferences is that connecting cultures and sharing experiences have the potential to foster brilliant ideas. This is why at our conferences, designers are always encouraged to talk about their processes, challenges, ideas, and fuck-ups too!

In his talk at Design Matters Tokyo 22, Roy touched upon a series of topics, such as: 

• The struggle of finding something you are good at from a very young age   • Growing up with strict parents who don’t necessarily get your passion or the career potential of your interests •  The pressure to conform and perform in an Asian household vs personal aspirations   •  Academic success not necessarily being a marker for economic success •  The fact that it’s never too late to change your life/career, but this requires taking risks

Paraphrasing Roy, ‘his parents were not as strict as other Asian parents, but they definitely did not understand what he was into. They still don’t really understand’. How many times have we confused our parents, and even more our grandparents, when we tell them how much we love playing D&D or try to explain our job?

Many of us can also relate to the sense of confusion and anxiety we felt when we were asked as kids, “what are you going to do after school?”. And today too, there are many kids out there as young as 10 or 15, who have no idea what they will be once they’ve grown up.

There are also people who need to go through a series of failures in life before they can find their path and finally thrive. Talks like Roy’s are definitely a type of representation we need to see more of.

What’s your take on success and failure?

RH: I think the tricky part here is that we actually don’t have a widely understood image of what success is. If that is the case, can we actually know what failure is? I feel like we just feel the negativity of ‘failure’ without knowing what we’re actually trying to achieve.

Let’s look into the parents-son relationship and all the set of expectations that come with growing up Asian.

Roy’s talk in a way reminded me of the recent Pixar movie  Turning Red , which tackles the topic of growing up Asian in the West. The animated film is about Mei, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who is cursed with turning into a red panda any time she has a strong emotion. Mei grows up in Toronto and struggles with the strict and traditional expectations of her Chinese mother, who spies on her in school, makes sure she has straight A’s, stays proper and conforms to other elements of Asian culture and expectations. Have you seen Turning Red ?

RH: I haven’t watched it yet! It’s on my list though!

In the animated film, Mei’s mother, Ming, is voiced by Sandra Oh, who once said in an interview: “What I hope this film opens up is a conversation for those in the Asian community. When you’re a young person, you’re going to disappoint your parents”. This is something that you mentioned in your talk as well. But the point is growing up and finding your identity, not growing apart from your family, right?

RH: There is definitely an aspect of wanting to keep close to my family. My family is really close. We’ve got each other’s back for sure. There were several moments growing up where I had to chip at them little by little. Eventually, they just wanted me to grow up without the struggles they faced. I’m sure that is also common in Asian families. They’re strict because they have love for their kids. I guess, being a parent is hard no matter what, as I have my own teenager to deal with now!

What is your personal experience?

RH: My parents were kind of strict, but definitely not as strict as other Asian parents. However, because I had a lot of other Asian friends growing up, I had first-hand experience of all kinds of Asian parents. My best friend’s dad had expected that his son would get a Ph.D. at a top University. And constantly signaling that he would be worthless if he couldn’t achieve that as a minimum.

Academic success ≠ life success

Other topics Roy touched upon in his talk are the fact that academic success is not necessarily equal to economic success in life, and that failure can be the catalyst of change in one’s life/career — even though that requires taking risks.

What are your thoughts on this?

RH: All my closest friends had very proud parents when their kids got top marks and got into the best universities. However, those Master’s degrees were not the surefire way to a successful career or life, so it seemed. I think a better way to look at it is that even without a Master’s degree, you can achieve incredible things and succeed without it.

From Roy’s talk:

“I let the voice of failure make me blind to everything else in life”

“Thinking about success or failure can really weigh down on us. It can push us to making the wrong decisions and forgetting about the priorities in life” Roy Husada

What do you consider priorities in life?

RH: The boring but true answer is: my family. The more interesting and truer answer is: to satisfy my curiosity. That includes things like, can I make a creative company that fosters incredible creativity and a playful culture out of thin air? Can I make my own unique soap product? Can I move to a completely foreign country and stand on my 2 feet? 

Maybe failure doesn’t matter too much, in the grand scheme of things

Jack Ma’s life is perhaps the greatest example of success through failure. He failed primary school twice and middle school three times. He also failed his University entry exam three times. He was rejected even by KFC. He applied to Harvard ten times and was rejected each and every time. But now, he is one of the richest people in the world as the founder of Alibaba, one of the biggest e-commerce companies on the planet.

Even though this is an extreme case, we can all relate in our own little ways that sometimes a pretty big failure (or many) can really turn our life around.

“The fear of failure maybe doesn’t matter so much, if I have the mental space to have fun. If you’re having fun at least you’re paying attention to life” Roy Husada

Anything you want to add?

RH: I said this in my presentation, but if you’re going to fail and not have fun, that just plain sucks. If you’re going to fail, don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it.

Speaking of fun, what do you do at Rival Schools? Can you show us any of your projects?

RH: Most of my recent work is under confidentiality agreements, unfortunately, but I’m happy to show some of my personal projects.

2020 Survival Kit.

RH: This was a small little project we created that included craft beer, instant ramen, and hand sanitizer. We sent this out to our friends and partners during the pandemic to just let them know we care. All of the products were sourced domestically and we had a lot of fun coming up with the label designs. I worked with one of my talented designers to put this together.

Team Profile Illustrations

RH: During the pandemic, we couldn’t meet but I wanted to show people how much I appreciate them so I illustrated their portrait for their birthday. The reality though is I just wanted an excuse to try drawing in different styles!

Brambleberry Tales

RH: I actually talked about this project in my talk, but this is the kids’ storybook app that ultimately didn’t go anywhere. I’m still proud of it though. It took several years of my life to get this done. This project actually started while I was still living in Canada. The story originates from the aboriginal people of British Columbia.

Interested in discovering more about Roy and Rival Schools? You can follow him and his work on  Behance ,  Instagram ,  Twitter , or you can visit  rivalschools.jp  and his personal website  soulbomber.com .

Would you like to  watch Roy Husada’s talk ? Subscribe to the platform  Design Matters + , and watch Roy’s talk, together with more than 200 other talks from all the previous Design Matters events. On the same platform, you get first access to all the best content from the Design Matters events and community, as well as design book offers and discounts on the upcoming conferences.

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The Rise of Asian Americans

• Chapter 5: Family and Personal Values

Table of Contents

• Asians in the U.S. and in Asia
• Differences among Asian-American Subgroups
• Native Born and Foreign Born
• Perceptions of Discrimination
• Group Relations
• Perceptions of Success
• Political and Social Attitudes
• Chapter 1: Portrait of Asian Americans
• Chapter 2: Life in the United States
• Chapter 3: Intergroup Relations
• Chapter 4: Immigration and Transnational Ties
• Chapter 6: Political and Civic Life
• Chapter 7: Religious Affiliation, Beliefs and Practices
• Appendix 1: Survey Methodology
• Appendix 2: External Advisers

Asian Americans have a distinctive set of values and behaviors when it comes to parenthood, marriage and career. Compared with the U.S. population as a whole, they are more likely to be married, and Asian-American women are less likely to be unmarried mothers. They place greater importance than the general public on career and material success, and these values are evident in their parenting norms. About six-in-ten say most American parents don’t place enough pressure on their children to do well in school; only 9% say the same about parents from their own Asian heritage group.

Marriage and family are of central importance to virtually all Americans, regardless of their ethnic or racial background. But in recent decades, sweeping social changes have transformed the institutions of marriage and parenthood. A smaller share of adults in the U.S. are married (51% now, down from 69% in 1970), 75 more babies are being born outside of marriage (41% in 2009, up from 11% in 1970), and fewer children are being raised by two married parents (63% in 2010, down from 82% in 1970). In most of these realms, today’s Asian Americans—particularly the foreign born—represent something of a throwback; their behaviors resemble the patterns that prevailed before these changes in American society took hold.

Asian Americans and the overall American public are in broad agreement that parenthood and marriage are at the top of the list of “the most important things” in life; other priorities such as career success, homeownership and helping others in need trail far behind. However, while the rank order is similar, Asian Americans place a higher level of importance on each priority compared with the general public.

Within the Asian-American population, there are a few key differences between immigrants and those born in the U.S. Foreign-born Asians place a higher priority on marriage, homeownership and career success than do their native-born counterparts. Indian Americans stand out from other Asian Americans for the emphasis they place on being a good parent. Vietnamese Americans stand apart from other groups in the value they place on homeownership and career success.

In addition to exploring Asian Americans’ values and priorities, this section will look at their views on appropriate parenting and the influence parents should have over their adult children. The image of the Asian American “tiger mom” may be overblown, but a majority of Asian Americans question whether most American parents put enough pressure on their children to do well in school. And a solid majority of Asian Americans say parents should have at least some influence over their adult children’s choice of spouse and career.

What Matters Most in Life?

Survey respondents were asked how important each of six aspects of live is to them personally. 76 Asian Americans place the highest priority on being a good parent. About two-thirds (67%) say this is “one of the most important things” in their lives, and an additional 27% say this is “very important but not one of the most important things.” Only 5% say being a good parent is “somewhat important” or “not important” to them personally.

A similarly worded question was asked of the general public in a 2010 Pew Research survey. The public also ranked being a good parent the top priority. However, a smaller share (50%) said this was one of the most important things in their lives. An additional 44% of American adults said being a good parent was very important to them but not the most important thing. There are similar gaps between U.S. Asians and the general public on all of these items. Part of this may be a result of slightly different question wording. 77 However, the gaps may also be attributable to cultural differences between Asian Americans and the general public that influence the way in which respondents from each group answer this type of question.

When it comes to marriage and parenthood, the gap in attitudes between Asian Americans and the general public may also reflect different patterns of behavior in these realms. Overall, Asian-American children are more likely than all American children to be growing up in a household with two married parents. According to data from the 2010 American Community Survey, 80% of Asian-American children age 17 or younger were living with two married parents. This compares with 63% of all American children. In addition, only 15% of the Asian-American women who gave birth in the previous year were unmarried. This compares with roughly 40% of women giving birth among the general public.

Among U.S. Asians, Indian Americans are more likely than others to say that being a good parent is one of the most important things in their lives (78%). Chinese Americans (57%) and Japanese Americans (59%) are somewhat less likely than other Asian Americans to rank this as a top priority.

Whether an Asian American was born in the U.S. or outside of the U.S. does not have a significant impact on the priority placed on parenthood. Asian immigrants and U.S.-born Asians are equally likely to say that being a good parent is one of the most important things in their lives.

After parenthood, Asian Americans place the highest priority on having a successful marriage. Just over half (54%) say this is one of the most important things in their lives. An additional 32% say this is very important but not one of the most important things to them. Among U.S. Asian groups, those of Indian, Korean and Vietnamese heritage place a higher value on marriage than do the other three U.S. Asian groups.

Asian immigrants place a greater degree of importance on marriage than do Asians born in the U.S. Fully 57% of foreign-born Asians rank having a successful marriage as one of their top priorities, while 47% of native-born Asians give it the same ranking.

Compared with all American adults, Asian Americans place more importance on marriage. Among the general public, only about one-third (34%) say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives. On average, Asian-American adults are more likely than all U.S. adults to be married. In 2010, 59% of all Asian-American adults were married, compared with 51% among the general public. Among U.S. Asian groups, Indian-American adults are the most likely to be married (71%), while Japanese Americans are the least likely (53%).

Homeownership, Career Success, Altruism and Leisure

Parenthood and marriage are the top two priorities for both Asian Americans and the general public. After those is a second tier of items outside of the realm of family: homeownership, career success and helping others in need. Roughly one-third of Asian Americans (32%) say that owning their own home is one of the most important things in their lives. An additional 36% say this is very important to them but not one of the most important things. One-quarter (26%) say this is somewhat important, and 6% say it is not very important.

When compared with the general public, Asian Americans are more likely to place homeownership near the top of their list of life goals. Among U.S. adults, 20% say that owning a home is one of the most important things in their lives.

Vietnamese Americans are more likely than any other U.S. Asian group to place a high priority on owning a home. Roughly half (49%) say owning their own home is one of the most important things to them. By contrast, only 21% of Japanese Americans and 24% of Chinese Americans say the same.

As a group, Asian Americans are less likely than all U.S. adults to own their own home (58% vs. 65%). Among Asian immigrants, those who arrived in the last decade are much less likely to be homeowners than those who emigrated before 2000. In spite of this gap in homeownership, these two groups of immigrants are equally likely to say that owning a home is a top priority for them.

Many Asian Americans also value career success. Overall, 27% of U.S. Asians say being successful in a high-paying career is one of the most important things in their lives. Four-in-ten (39%) say this is very important but not one of the most important things. Some 27% say career success is somewhat important to them, and 6% say it is not important. The general public places significantly less importance on career success. Among all U.S. adults, only 9% say being successful in a high-paying career or profession is one of the most important things in their lives.

The drive for success is particularly strong among foreign-born Asian Americans. Roughly three-in-ten (29%) rank being successful in a high-paying career as a top priority, and 41% say this is very important to them though not one of the most important things in their lives. By comparison, 19% of U.S.-born Asians say career success is one of the most important things in their lives, and an additional 35% say it is very important.

Across U.S. Asian groups, Vietnamese Americans (42%) place the highest priority on career success. Japanese Americans are more in line with the general public on this measure: 12% rate being successful in a high-paying career as a top priority (as do 9% of all U.S. adults).

When it comes to helping others in need, 28% of Asian Americans say this is one of the most important things in their lives. An additional 44% say this is very important to them but not the most important thing, and 26% say this is somewhat important. Only 2% say this is not important to them. Compared with the general public, Asian Americans are somewhat more likely to place a high priority on helping others in need (20% of all American adults say this is one of the most important things in their lives).

Views on this are fairly consistent across U.S. Asian groups, with one exception. Chinese Americans are somewhat less likely than other Asian Americans to say helping other people in need is one of the most important things in their lives (17%).

Finally, respondents were asked how much importance they place on having lots of free time to relax or do things they want to do. Relative to the other five life goals included on the list, free time ranks at the bottom for Asian Americans (and near the bottom for the general public). One-in-five Asian Americans (20%) say this is one of the most important things in their lives, an additional 37% say this is very important but not one of the most important things, and 36% say it is somewhat important. Only 6% say having enough free time is not important to them.

Among all American adults, 10% say having lots of free time is one of the most important things in their lives and 43% say it is very important to them but not the most important.

There is some variance on this measure across U.S. Asian groups. Korean Americans (30%) and Vietnamese Americans (29%) are more likely than other Asian Americans to place a high value on having free time. By contrast, only 15% of Chinese Americans say having free time is one of the most important things to them. Filipino (19%), Indian (19%) and Japanese Americans (18%) are closer to the Chinese in this regard.

How Trusting Are Asian Americans?

When it comes to trusting other people, the views of Asian Americans are similar to those of the general public. Respondents were asked to answer a classic social science question: “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?” Overall, 36% of Asian Americans say most people can be trusted, while a 56% majority says you can’t be too careful. In a 2010 Pew Research survey of the general public, 35% of American adults said most people can be trusted and 61% said you can’t be too careful in dealing with people (slightly higher than the share of Asian Americans who say that).

The views of Asian Americans regarding social trust are in sharp contrast to those of Hispanics. Among Hispanics, only 12% say they believe most people can be trusted. An overwhelming 86% majority says you can’t be too careful in dealing with people. Within the Asian-American population, immigrants and those born in the U.S. express similar levels of trust. Within the Hispanic population, immigrants are less trusting than the native born. Fully 89% of Hispanic immigrants say you can’t be too careful in dealing with people; 81% of U.S.-born Hispanics say the same.

The level of social trust Asian Americans express is remarkably consistent across U.S. Asian groups, with one exception. Filipino Americans are less trusting than any other group. Only 23% say most people can be trusted, and 73% say you can’t be too careful in dealing with people.

Parenting, Pressure and Children: How Much Is Too Much?

Amy Chua set off a swirl of controversy last year with her Wall Street Journal essay entitled, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.” The article was excerpted from Chua’s book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” in which she details her strict approach to parenting and her unwillingness to accept anything short of academic excellence from her children. Chua contrasted her approach to parenting with the more nurturing, accepting approach taken by most Western parents.

The opinions of Asian Americans suggest that they, too, see a major gap between their own approach to parenting and the approach taken by most American parents. Survey respondents were first asked whether, on the whole, they think American parents put too much pressure on their children to do well in school, not enough pressure, or about the right amount of pressure. A strong majority of Asian Americans (62%) say American parents do not put enough pressure on their children. An additional 23% say American parents put about the right amount of pressure on their children. Only 9% say they put too much pressure on their children to do well in school.

Later in the survey, respondents were asked about the approach taken by parents from their country of origin or ancestral background. Chinese respondents were asked about Chinese American parents, Koreans were asked about Korean American parents, and so on. While roughly half of all Asian Americans (49%) say that parents from their Asian group put about the right amount of pressure on their children to do well in school, a large minority (39%) says Asian-American parents put too much pressure on their children. Only 9% say they put too little pressure on their children.

Views on the parenting styles of Americans and Asian Americans do not differ significantly by gender or parental status. Attitudes do differ, however, by educational attainment. When thinking of the amount of pressure most American parents put on their children to do well in school, Asian Americans with a college degree are much more likely than those with no college education to say most American parents don’t put enough pressure on their children (66% of Asian-American college graduates say this, compared with 50% of those with a high school diploma or less).

In addition, Asian-American college graduates are more likely than those who have not attended college to endorse the approach taken by parents from their own country of origin. While roughly half (51%) of Asian-American college graduates say parents from their country of origin put about the right amount of pressure on their children to do well in school, only 43% of Asian Americans with no college experience share this view.

U.S.-born Asian Americans are more critical of most American parents than are their foreign-born counterparts. Among Asian Americans who were born in the U.S., 71% say most American parents do not put enough pressure on their children to do well in school. This compares with 59% of foreign-born Asian Americans. And when it comes to their own parenting, U.S.-born Asian Americans have a somewhat more positive view of the approach taken by parents from their own Asian group than do those born outside the U.S. Some 56% of U.S.-born Asian Americans say parents from their ancestral background put the right amount of pressure on their children. Among foreign-born Asian Americans, that share is 46%.

Across U.S. Asian groups, opinion is fairly consistent with regard to the way Americans raise their children. About half or more of each group say most American parents do not put enough pressure on their children to do well in school, while very few say American parents put too much pressure on their children. Indian Americans are more likely than other Asians to say American parents are too easy on their children (71%).

There is much less agreement about the pressure that Asian-American parents place on their children. Filipino Americans and Japanese Americans are more likely than other groups to say that parents from their own country of origin put about the right amount of pressure on their children to do well in school. In fact, majorities from each group (64% of Filipinos and 60% of Japanese) say parents from their group take the right approach with their children.

The balance of opinion is quite different among most other U.S. Asian groups. A solid majority of Korean Americans (60%) say Korean-American parents put too much academic pressure on their children; only 30% say they put the right amount of pressure on their children. Among Vietnamese Americans, 49% say Vietnamese-American parents put too much pressure on their children, while 35% say the amount of pressure is about right.

Indian Americans and Chinese Americans are more evenly divided. Roughly four-in-ten from each group say parents from their country of origin put too much pressure on their children. At the same time, roughly half from each group say these parents put about the right amount of pressure on their children.

The Scope of Parental Influence

For many Asian Americans, parental influence extends beyond pushing their young children to do well in school. Two-thirds of Asian Americans say parents should have at least some influence over a child’s career choice and nearly as many (61%) say parents should have some influence over their child’s choice of spouse.

Survey respondents were asked how much influence, if any, parents should have in choosing a child’s profession or line of work. Overall, 17% of Asian Americans say the parents should have “a lot of influence” in this regard, and an additional 49% say parents should have “some influence.” Roughly one-in-four say parents should not have too much influence in choosing a child’s profession, and 9% say parents should have no influence at all.

Asian Americans with adult children, for whom this may be less of a hypothetical question, are more likely than those who do not have children to say parents should have some influence over career choices. About two-thirds (68%) of parents with children ages 18 and older say parents should have at least some influence over what profession a child chooses. This compares with 58% of those with no children.

Asian Americans who have graduated from college are somewhat more likely than those without a college degree to say parents should have some influence over the career choices their child makes—70% of colleges graduates and 62% of non-college graduates say parents should have a lot of influence or some influence over their child’s career choices.

Perhaps the biggest gap in opinion on this measure of parental influence is between foreign-born and native-born Asian Americans. Those who were born outside of the U.S. are much more likely than those born in the U.S. to say parents should have some influence on their child’s choice of profession or line of work. Seven-in-ten Asian immigrants say parents should have a lot of (20%) or some (49%) influence. By contrast, 55% of U.S.-born Asian Americans say parents should have at least some influence in this regard (8% a lot, 47% some). This pattern is consistent within the Chinese-American community with a higher share of the foreign born saying parents should have some influence over their child’s career choice. However, among Japanese Americans and Filipino Americans, there is no significant difference between the native born and foreign born on the question of parental influence over career decisions. 78

Across U.S. Asian groups, Korean Americans are more likely than other Asians to say parents should have at least some influence over their child’s career choices. Three-quarters say parents should have a lot (22%) or some (53%) influence. Japanese Americans are less likely than other U.S. Asians to say parents should have influence over their children’s career choices (8% say a lot, 51% say some).

Respondents were also asked how much influence parents should have in choosing a child’s spouse. Overall, 61% of Asian Americans say parents should have at least some influence—17% say a lot of influence, and 45% say some influence. Women are somewhat more likely than men to say parents should have some influence over their child’s choice of a spouse (65% of women vs. 58% of men).

Asian Americans who have grown children are more likely than those without children to say a person should be influenced by his or her parents when it comes to choosing a spouse (66% vs. 54% say parents should have at least some influence). About one-in-five parents with children ages 18 and older say they should have a lot of influence. This compares with only 12% of those with no children.

Once again there is a substantial gap in opinion between foreign-born and native-born Asians regarding the scope of parental influence. Asian immigrants are much more likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to say that parents should have at least some influence over a child’s choice of a spouse (65% of foreign born vs. 49% of native born).

There are significant differences across U.S. Asian groups as well. Korean Americans are more likely than other Asians to say parents should have some influence over their child’s choice of a spouse (75% say a lot of or some influence). Japanese Americans are the least likely to say parents should have influence in this area; about half (48%) say parents should have a lot of influence or some influence.

• Chapter 1 reports that in 2010, 37% of all American women who gave birth in the previous year were unmarried. That figure is based on data from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS). The 41% figure reported here represents the share of births to unmarried mothers and is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for 2009. The discrepancy between the two numbers (37% vs. 41%) is attributable to at least two factors: The ACS data includes 18- to 44-year-old women, while the NCHS data includes 15- to 44-year-old women. In addition, NCHS derives its marital status data from birth certificates (recorded at the time of birth), while the ACS uses the mother’s marital status at the time of the interview (some time after the birth). ↩
• The full list in the Asian-American survey included seven items. The item that asked respondents how much importance they place on “living a very religious life” was held for future release ↩
• While these questions are comparable, they are not identical. There was a slight wording change between the version of the question that was asked in the 2010 Pew Research survey of the general public and the version asked on the 2012 Asian-American survey. For each item, Asian-American respondents were asked the following: “Is that one of the most important things in your life, or very important but not one of the most important things, or somewhat important, or not important?” In the 2010 general public survey, respondents were asked, “Is that one of the most important things in your life, very important but not the most, somewhat important, or not important?” The wording change is minor, but it may have affected the responses. Therefore, the gaps in opinion between Asian Americans and all American adults should be interpreted with caution. ↩
• Subsample sizes did not allow for foreign born vs. native born comparisons for three of the six major U.S. Asian groups (Indian, Korean and Vietnamese). ↩

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• Family Relationships

If You Grew Up as the Eldest Daughter in an Asian Household, I Feel You

"You're not a personal babysitter ," read the text from my friend after I told her I wouldn't be able to meet up. "Tell your parents you don't exist to serve them and that you have your own sh*t to do."

"I can't," I replied. "I mean, if I don't do it, who will?"

I have two younger sisters. I'm five years older than my middle sibling, and 13 years older than the youngest. When both my parents are out working, I'm entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of them. Still, that's a pretty standard job for the oldest sibling . But when you're the firstborn in an Asian or immigrant family , the line doesn't stop at merely babysitting.

In addition to taking care of your siblings, you're also expected to take on more household chores, help with homework, and be held at an overall higher standard. With such a large age gap between me and my sisters, this burden can sometimes feel heavier than usual. It's hard not to feel like a third parent to my siblings as opposed to a sister. I can't really confide in them when I'm the person they should be going to for support and guidance.

When you're a part of a culture that values collectivism and filial piety, it's pretty common to hear stories like mine from other Asian firstborns.

My experiences as a firstborn aren't exclusive to Asian families by any means. But when you're a part of a culture that values collectivism and filial piety, it's pretty common to hear stories like mine from other Asian firstborns, especially from Asian eldest daughters. Sons are traditionally preferred and valued above all else in several Asian countries — often at the expense of daughters. Some Asian daughters are confronted with this overt inequality when it comes to how they're treated compared to their brothers, regardless of age difference. Sons are more likely to enjoy more independence and be coddled, while daughters are tied to stricter curfews and pushed to take on more obligations at home.

A study led by Kaidi Wu, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate of social psychology, examined why Asian American firstborns are so heavily relied on and how they are affected by their family role . Wu explained that the emphasis on vertical hierarchy in East and South Asia results in a distinctly defined sibling structure, which often leads to an overreliance on firstborns. Firstborns in immigrant families tend to serve as "language brokers" and "decision makers" for parents who haven't adapted as quickly to a Westernized culture and environment. This causes an increase in pressure on eldest Asian siblings from their parents. "Regardless of gender, greater familial obligations may have adverse impacts on the older Asian American siblings," Wu wrote. Some of these effects include greater levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.

Another consequence that isn't discussed in the paper is the social impact of being the firstborn in an Asian family. More responsibilities means less free time for yourself. It means having to miss out on some friend hangouts and parties. It means less time for you to discover who you are as a person. In my experience, many older Asian siblings express that they mentally feel younger than their actual age. They feel behind on life since they had to "grow up" so quickly.

I've found it difficult to relay my family position and its importance to friends and acquaintances who simply don't share the same experience or culture.

I've found it difficult to relay my family position and its importance to friends and acquaintances who simply don't share the same experience or culture. The friend mentioned in the beginning was particularly vocal about how unfair my family treated me and my lack of a backbone, but she failed to see it from my parents' perspective. It's true that their expectations can be exhausting, but I know that they're like this because they place a unique level of trust in me.

Despite everything, I'm proud to be an eldest sister. I'm cognizant that I represent something much larger than myself. In everything I do, I have an underlying awareness that my siblings emulate my behavior. I want to be someone they can look up to. Growing up, I can't deny that I got the most attention — for better or worse (but mostly for the better). That's something I'll forever be grateful for. I hope that I can remain a steady and reliable presence in my sisters' lives as our family grows older.

If you relate to this in any way, I see you. Your resilience and ability to manage so much on your plate makes you unstoppable. There truly isn't anything in the world that you're not capable of doing. However, it is important to learn how to establish boundaries if you're taking on way more than you can handle. This is a process I'm still working through myself. Burnout is real, especially if you're a massive introvert like me. It's never selfish or dishonorable to prioritize yourself and your mental well-being . Your family will simply have to catch up and let go of some outdated cultural beliefs.

• Personal Essay

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10 things you experienced growing up in an asian household, let's just hope you're that one overachieving cousin.

Growing up in an Asian household had its perks. From having a large family to eating the best food in the world at home, it's a place to cherish with fondness. That being said, there are some common themes that appear across most Asian families.

1. Being compared to a cousin

There's always that one cousin in the family who's been playing both the violin and piano since age 4 and has a whole shelf of medals. They probably also volunteered with the local animal shelter for all of high school and aced their SAT, became president of 20 different organizations and currently attends Harvard Medical School. Why can't you be more like them?

2. Family dinner parties with aunties and uncles you weren't actually related to

There are family-family parties, then there are family-friend parties. You can never tell which was which, because you probably knew these aunties and uncles since you were a baby. These adults have seen your awkward middle school days, and now they're asking you for advice on how you got into college so their kid can start preparing by the time they start middle school.

3. Sliced fruit

It didn't matter what type of fruit it was - after dinner or during work time, your parents will always bring out a plate of sliced fruit for everyone to enjoy. From peeled apple slices to triangular watermelon pieces, these were an integral part of every day.

4. A fear of asking if you can go out

The process of convincing the parents to let you hang out with friends was a multiple day affair. Starting from laying out good news after good news the few days before, you slowly improve your parents' moods and ask only when they're in a great mood. If they aren't, don't even bother trying. You might even somehow end up being accused of not caring about the family and never being around.

5. Endless comments on your dating life and your weight

Doesn't matter if you're a size 2 or if you've been gaining muscle at the gym. Your family and relatives will always discuss your physical features with or without you in the room. They will also most likely have asked you countless times about getting a significant other and settling down even though you were probably still barely in college.

6. Extra work outside of school

Whether this took the form of math workbooks or weekly Saturday Chinese school, it was never enough that you did well in school. From Kumon to learning about Li You and Wang Peng, every Asian child seems to have spent their Saturday morning at a learning institution.

7. Learning an instrument/skill

The most common one were piano and violin, but there were also plenty of flutes, clarinets, guzhengs, and the chinese yo-yo. Especially around middle school time, everyone would be learning at least one of these things. Bonus point if you were asked to perform it at a family gathering.

8. Your parents decided whether you were cold or not

It didn't matter if it was sunny and beach weather outside. If your parents decided you were going to be cold, you are wearing that extra jacket and hat. If it's nice sweater weather, you'll probably end up leaving the house in a Uniqlo down jacket with a scarf and parka on.

9. A lack of shoes inside the house

Shoes were an absolute no-no inside the house - unless they were house slippers, then those were heavily embraced. You have never experienced true pain until someone steps into your house with their outside shoes on. Without realizing that the rest of the shoes that existed in the house were stacked by the entrance.

10. Questionable "scientific" theories

Will eating watermelon when you're sick really make your body "colder"? Will not drying your hair after you shower reeeeally cause migraines for the rest of your life? You don't really know, but you were probably taught from a young age to follow rules like these because a picture circulating on WeChat that said so.

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25 beatles lyrics: your go-to guide for every situation, the best lines from the fab four.

For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to The Beatles. Every year, my mom would appropriately blast “Birthday” on anyone’s birthday. I knew all of the words to “Back In The U.S.S.R” by the time I was 5 (Even though I had no idea what or where the U.S.S.R was). I grew up with John, Paul, George, and Ringo instead Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance (I had to google N*SYNC to remember their names). The highlight of my short life was Paul McCartney in concert twice. I’m not someone to “fangirl” but those days I fangirled hard. The music of The Beatles has gotten me through everything. Their songs have brought me more joy, peace, and comfort. I can listen to them in any situation and find what I need. Here are the best lyrics from The Beatles for every and any occasion.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

The End- Abbey Road, 1969

The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence- The White Album, 1968

Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

Because- Abbey Road, 1969

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

All You Need Is Love, 1967

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

We Can Work It Out- Rubber Soul, 1965

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come Together- Abbey Road, 1969

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand- Meet The Beatles!, 1964

It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They've been going in and out of style, but they're guaranteed to raise a smile

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-1967

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Strawberry Fields Forever- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Rain- Paperback Writer "B" side, 1966

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

Here Comes The Sun- Abbey Road, 1969

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

Saw Her Standing There- Please Please Me, 1963

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

Michelle- Rubber Soul, 1965

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

Revolution- The Beatles, 1968

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Eleanor Rigby- Revolver, 1966

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

With A Little Help From My Friends- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better

Hey Jude, 1968

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday- Help!, 1965

And when the brokenhearted people, living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.

Let It Be- Let It Be, 1970

And anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

I'll give you all i got to give if you say you'll love me too. i may not have a lot to give but what i got i'll give to you. i don't care too much for money. money can't buy me love.

Can't Buy Me Love- A Hard Day's Night, 1964

All you need is love, love is all you need

All You Need Is Love- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird- The White Album, 1968

Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more

In My Life- Rubber Soul, 1965

While these are my 25 favorites, there are quite literally 1000s that could have been included. The Beatles' body of work is massive and there is something for everyone. If you have been living under a rock and haven't discovered the Fab Four, you have to get musically educated. Stream them on Spotify, find them on iTunes or even buy a CD or record (Yes, those still exist!). I would suggest starting with 1, which is a collection of most of their #1 songs, or the 1968 White Album. Give them chance and you'll never look back.

14 Invisible Activities: Unleash Your Inner Ghost!

Obviously the best superpower..

The best superpower ever? Being invisible of course. Imagine just being able to go from seen to unseen on a dime. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be invisible? Superman and Batman have nothing on being invisible with their superhero abilities. Here are some things that you could do while being invisible, because being invisible can benefit your social life too.

1. "Haunt" your friends.

Follow them into their house and cause a ruckus.

2. Sneak into movie theaters.

Going to the cinema alone is good for your mental health , says science

Considering that the monthly cost of subscribing to a media-streaming service like Netflix is oft...

Free movies...what else to I have to say?

3. Sneak into the pantry and grab a snack without judgment.

Late night snacks all you want? Duh.

4. Reenact "Hollow Man" and play Kevin Bacon.

America's favorite son? And feel what it's like to be in a MTV Movie Award nominated film? Sign me up.

5. Wear a mask and pretend to be a floating head.

Just another way to spook your friends in case you wanted to.

6. Hold objects so they'll "float."

"Oh no! A floating jar of peanut butter."

7. Win every game of hide-and-seek.

Just stand out in the open and you'll win.

8. Eat some food as people will watch it disappear.

Even everyday activities can be funny.

9. Go around pantsing your friends.

Even pranks can be done; not everything can be good.

10. Not have perfect attendance.

You'll say here, but they won't see you...

11. Avoid anyone you don't want to see.

Whether it's an ex or someone you hate, just use your invisibility to slip out of the situation.

12. Avoid responsibilities.

Chores? Invisible. People asking about social life? Invisible. Family being rude? Boom, invisible.

13. Be an expert on ding-dong-ditch.

Never get caught and have the adrenaline rush? I'm down.

14. Brag about being invisible.

Be the envy of the town.

But don't, I repeat, don't go in a locker room. Don't be a pervert with your power. No one likes a Peeping Tom.

Good luck, folks.

19 Lessons I'll Never Forget from Growing Up In a Small Town

There have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble .

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

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Growing Up Between Two Cultures: Young Chinese Americans in New York City

• First Online: 21 March 2021

Cite this chapter

• Uwe P. Gielen 6 &
• Jonathan Palumbo 7  

Part of the book series: Advances in Immigrant Family Research ((ADIMFAMRES))

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This chapter discusses selected themes in the bicultural lives of predominantly working- and lower middle-class Chinese Americans coming of age in New York City, the largest “Chinese city” outside Asia. Findings are partially based on a series of autobiographical essays by, and interviews with, first- and second-generation immigrants. Their self-conceptions and life stories reflect the influence of competing Chinese and American visions of the good life, family relationships, child-rearing strategies, the importance of filial piety ( xiao shun ), gender-based ideologies and body images, and the nature of education. Many of the adolescents and young adults have had to deal with immigration-related challenges such as family separation due to migration, low family incomes, encountering racial-ethnic prejudice and discrimination, and cultural differences between parents and children. The chapter also includes a brief discussion of culturally appropriate mental health services for the Chinese-American community.

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Gielen, U.P., Palumbo, J. (2021). Growing Up Between Two Cultures: Young Chinese Americans in New York City. In: Chuang, S.S., Moodley, R., Gielen, U.P., Akram-Pall, S. (eds) Asian Families in Canada and the United States. Advances in Immigrant Family Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56452-0_5

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How It Feels to Be Asian in Today’s America

By The New York Times Sept. 25, 2021

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I d o n ’ t r e a l l y k n o w w h o I a m , o r w h a t I a m , b u t I ’ m s t a r t i n g t o e m b r a c e w h a t e v e r i t m e a n s t o b e A s i a n A m e r i c a n , a l t h o u g h I ’ l l t e l l y o u t h e t r u t h : W h e n I m o v e d f r o m F l o r i d a t o C a l i f o r n i a , I w a s n ’ t A s i a n e n o u g h f o r t h e A s i a n s , a n d t o t h e A m e r i c a n s I ’ m n e v e r A m e r i c a n e n o u g h .

I’ve learned over time that Asian American voices shouldn’t be heard only when we are feeling like our lives are being threatened. We should be vocal long before and long after the news cameras turn away from us to focus on the next big headline.

Despite the fact that my mother’s family has resided in this country for four generations, we are perpetually viewed as foreigners, making assimilation seem impossible. That is the reason that I personally find the “American” in “Asian American” to be so important, because I am, culturally, by birth and in every other way, 100 percent American.

I have always viewed our status in this country as being one of second-class citizens. While, in the past, American-born people of Asian descent have said that they were grateful for their parents or ancestors having come to this country to give them a better life, I have long felt that this was a wrong decision on the part of my parents.

Seeking economic gain and being misguided by this country’s false promises of equality, they came here and now I and my descendants are basically stuck being second-class citizens in a country that we can never truly call our own because it seems to disown us. I also find it hard to feel any patriotism or even loyalty to this country as it is hard to love something that seems to hate you back.

I ’ d l i k e t o s a y t h a t w e ’ r e n o t a m o n o l i t h . J u s t b e c a u s e t h e v i r u s s t a r t e d i n C h i n a d o e s n ’ t m e a n t h a t w e ’ r e a l l C h i n e s e . T h e r e a r e m a n y o t h e r c o u n t r i e s i n A s i a . A n d j u s t b e c a u s e w e ’ r e A s i a n d o e s n ’ t m e a n t h a t w e ’ r e l o y a l t o o t h e r g o v e r n m e n t s a n d t h a t w e ’ r e t r y i n g t o p l a y a g a i n s t y o u a n d t h a t w e ’ r e o n a n o t h e r t e a m . O n t h e c o n t r a r y , w e ’ r e o n t h e s a m e t e a m . W e ’ r e A m e r i c a n s . W e s e e o u r s e l v e s a s A m e r i c a n s , a n d w e h o p e t h a t y o u d o , t o o .

When do we stay and fight for an equal and just piece of the American pie, and when do we choose a better life elsewhere, like our parents and grandparents did?

Our ancestors were pragmatic — they wanted to provide a better life for themselves and their children, and they did everything they could to make that happen, even if it meant leaving their homes and venturing into unfamiliar lands where they didn’t speak the language.

What if that better life is no longer in the U.S.? What if that better life is actually possible in many other places now, including the very lands our ancestors came from?

Asian American has become a term that is co-opted by states, corporations and other oppressive forces and no longer stands for the radical solidarity it once did. Sure, coalition building is useful — but I am interested in a coalition that doesn’t erase the oppression that occurs within and among “Asian” communities. As a Sikh American, I don’t want to be labeled as Asian American because other “Asian” communities express discriminatory anti-Sikh prejudice. I don’t want to have the same name as my oppressors.

Asian American no longer captures the nuances and layered oppressions faced by marginalized “Asian” communities, such as Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, Dalit, Sri Lankan, Assamese, Sikh, Indian Muslim, Indian Christian and Uyghur communities, among others. I want to be seen. I want to define myself. I don’t want to be defined by a generic label that has lost its power of resistance.

I was adopted from China into a white family, and the rise in hate crimes and violence and racist rhetoric has brought up some difficult conversations with my parents.

My parents see me as their daughter, someone they love and are proud of. They don’t see me through the eyes of society: a young Asian woman who is often hit on for being exotic, or constantly asked where I am from. It’s hard to have these conversations with my white family, to get them to understand and to recognize that even as they try, they will never fully understand my experience.

Like most white people who are currently trying to understand what it means to be a person of color in America, their intentions are good but the burden to educate is on me.

Like many second-generation Asian Americans, I was the kid with the stinky lunch and the only one among friends whose parents had an accent. It was embarrassing. Now, what’s embarrassing is that I ever felt that shame about my family’s roots.

As an American of Chinese descent, I feel like we are being given two options, neither of which truly solve our problem. The first comes from the older generation, those who tell us that our silence will be our survival. Then there’s the second option, from those my age, who feel like we have to show more than just our passports and polished American English as proof of our belonging. We aren’t even unified in our beliefs, and that’s our greatest weakness.

My grandparents were interned during World War II. This had a profound impact on my family financially and emotionally. Due to the anti-Japanese postwar sentiment, my parents were encouraged to assimilate as much as possible into the dominant (white) culture. Growing up in the 1980s, I experienced some discrimination, yet it wasn’t until the last decade that I became more educated and engaged as an advocate for racial equity, including standing with my Black and brown friends to fight injustice.

I only think of myself as Asian American when I check off an identity box on a form. Otherwise, I’m a Sikh American, a Punjabi American and a South Asian American. The Asian community is not a monolith, and the term “Asian” to describe all of our various experiences and cultures is not helpful or accurate.

I’m married to a Caucasian man and we used to think it’s possible for us to belong. Now we don’t. Now people look at me differently when I’m alone versus when I’m with him. I don’t feel as safe. I carry a passport that says “U.S. citizen” to prove to people that I belong. Though at times I wonder if it’s a reminder to myself that I do.

Like all immigrants, I have an American dream. As a queer woman from a country marred by military dictatorships, censorships and blood coups, I saw the United States as a safe haven where diversity is celebrated.

That sense of security and optimism was shattered after my assault. It took me a month after my assault before I could confess to my father, who dreamed of being reunited with me after my medical training. A former monk known for his calm and gentle presence, my father cried for the first time in my life. He asked, “Are you hurt?” I hope to one day be able to tell him, “Yes, I was hurt, but I am also healing.”

Introduction by Jill Cowan. Illustrations by Sally Deng. Produced by Ruru Kuo, Adriana Ramic, Deanna Donegan, Alice Fang, Rebecca Halleck and Antonio de Luca. Additional production by Fahima Haque, Brad Fisher, Aidan Gardiner and Clinton Cargill.

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Growing up in an Asian-American home, I always felt different; DIVERSITY ESSAY

marmaria 10 / 30   Sep 8, 2013   #2 hi kaybee I think your english is pretty good and I am not so much confident to tell you some problems that sounds for me. I just want to mention some points that comes to my mind. I would be happy if I could help you. I think your oversea experience was the turning point of your writing and it should be mentioned. also if you want to make your essay shorter, there were some sentences that meant one thing but it was over written. for example Now that I'm in college, I've met so many people from so many places around the world. I get excited when I see people from other countries at my college you could just say, "Now I am really excited to have many non native students in my college " or you can say " Having many foreign people in my college makes me excited" but they made me feel like the elephant in the room everyday. I really did not understand what this part meant people became accepting of my background I think become should be omitted. " people accepted my background" coming from a different background from others I think it looks better if you write "having a different background from others " it makes me want to get to know them and know more about their culture " and I want to know more about them and their culture" Starting the process of looking at schools to transfer to has been overwhelming, but exciting Although the process of looking for a new school to transfer would be overwhelming, but I still find it exciting" or you can say " looking for a new school to transfer is an overwhelming, but also exciting process" . and about people like myself people like me? and have it be a learning experience for everyone. it seems a little strange for me but I do not know what is wrong about it

dumi 1 / 6839   Sep 26, 2013   #3 while they left theirs on. while they kept having theirs on. As I got older, more and more people became accepting of my background. In midde school, I was embarrassed when other people saw me with my mother and wished that I was a normal, American girl with a normal, American mother. I never wanted anybody to come over to my house because I thought that they would make fun of all the little Japanese decorations around my home. well... here, your first sentence sounds as if the situation is changing. But second and third again talks about the previous times... I think you need to work on that and arrange them in a logical sequence. We fundraised for a total of about seven or eight months to raise money to go overseas and do some service work. For a period of seven to eight months, we engaged in raising funds to go overseas to be involved with some service work.

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Introduction

If you, like me, grew up Asian in Australia, you might think you already know a thing or two about, well, growing up Asian in Australia. Our stories can be pretty similar—just have a scroll through the ‘subtle asian traits’ Facebook group, or have a conversation with literally any Asian Australian about their parents.

At the same time, it’s also important to recognise that everyone’s experiences are diverse, especially given how broad an identity ‘Asian’ can be. Also important is to recognise how broad and intersectional identity can be in general—intersectional meaning that race isn’t the only thing that defines any one of us. Things like gender, socio-economic status, ability, sexual orientation and religion can also be really central, for example. Each of these things can impact the way we navigate the world.

Covering a broad range of these stories is Alice Pung’s anthology, Growing Up Asian In Australia . Some of the contributors in this volume include Sunil Badami , Matt Huynh , Bon-Wai Chou , Diana Nguyen , Michelle and Benjamin Law, and Shaun Tan , and already this cross-section is fairly diverse in nature. You can also click on their names to find out a bit more about each of their work. I think this is worth a few minutes, just to get acquainted with the sheer range of Asian-Australian creatives who are represented in this book, and to locate their work within the themes they write about—in other words, having a think about the ways that cultural heritage, or experiences with family, or economic hardship permeate their work, both in the anthology and in their lives outside it.

The anthology is (perhaps quite helpfully) divided into sections which revolve around key themes, which is also going to inform the structure of this guide. I’ll be using this guide to go through an exercise that I found really helpful when learning the text, which involves:

• taking two stories per section and drawing up some dot-point similarities and differences
• translating two of those points into paragraphs, a bit like a ‘mini-essay’

We’ll go through some an example of what this might look like, and why it’s a helpful exercise to try.

Before we start diving into Growing Up Asian in Australia , I'd highly recommend checking out LSG's Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

Strine (Badami & Tseng)

Strine is what’s called a syncope , a shortened way of pronouncing Australian (a bit like ‘Straya’)—it refers to Australian English as it’s spoken by locals. This section of the book is all about language , and about the difficulties of juggling two languages growing up, and Badami and Tseng’s stories are great examples of this.

1. Similarity: connections to one’s mother tongue fade over time. Tseng recounts how, one by one, she and her sisters stopped learning Chinese as they progressed through their Australian education. Badami on the other hand compromises his name which stood out as too Indian when he “just wanted to fit in.”

2. Similarity: for ‘third-culture kids’, losing knowledge of their language also strains their relationship with their forebears. Badami’s mother is shocked to hear the anglicisation of his name despite the significance it carrie for her (“she spat my unreal new name out like something bitter and stringy”), and Tseng describes the experience of communicating with her father in “Chinglish” so that they can both understand each other.

3. Difference: language can be an internalised, personal experience, or a highly exposed and interpersonal one. While Tseng feels her loss of her language as a “sense of shame, a vague unease”, Badami is almost bullied into changing his name, “Sunil? Like banana peel?”

The Clan (Law & Chau)

This section delves into the complex ties that hold migrant families together. Chau’s poems are starkly different to Law’s story, so it’ll be interesting to compare how these different narrative forms work to explore those ideas.

1. Similarity : it can take at least one generation for migrant families to dig their roots into their new home. While Law’s parents are proud tourists at Queensland theme parks, he and his siblings “groan” at their comportment. Chau’s poem ‘The Firstborn’ traces his ancestry forward until he arrived, “an ABC” and his son “by amniotic sea”, both of them born into Australia.

2 . Similarity: family dynamics are still traditional and therefore gendered. Law notes how his mother’s health suffered when divorcing his father, and Chau notes that the women members of his family were “cast off” the family tree “as if they were never born.

3. Difference: family history and heritage can vary in importance. Chau’s family traces back “twenty-eight generations” of history, whereas Law’s family very much lives in the present, the only tie to older generations being his “Ma-Ma”, or grandma.

4. Difference: families show their love in different ways. Whether it’s dedicating a poem to his son about his life as one of “ten thousand rivers” of Chinese diaspora into the Australian sea, or taking the kids to theme parks on weekends, all sorts of affection can hold families together.

Putting it together

So I’ve tried to choose two sections (and four stories) that are all a bit different to try and mix it up and get some rich comparative discussion out of these. You might be studying this text alone, but even as one text, remember that there’s a lot of diverse experiences being represented in it, so discussing how stories connect, compare and contrast is just as important as discussing the content of individual stories themselves.

If we do a mini-essay, we might as well go about it properly and pick some sort of contention. Without a fixed prompt though, it might be easier to start with those dot points and pick which ones we want to write out and string together. Let’s pick two—connections to mother tongue fading over time (Strine similarity 1) and digging roots into Australia over time (The Clan similarity 1). A contention covering these points might look like:

While second generation migrants may struggle with loss of culture, they also constitute a unique and significant part of the diaspora.

Many migrants lose connections to their heritage over time, and these connections are often in the form of language. Particularly for Asian migrants, there is not as strong a need to preserve their mother tongue in the English-speaking Australia, and as such their knowledge of those languages can be easily lost. Ivy Tseng, for instance, recalls how she was never able to “grasp the significance” of learning Chinese as a child, and eventually she and her sisters would prioritise “study” and other academic pursuits over learning Chinese. Because tertiary study and education as an institution generally carry a lot of weight in migrant cultures, there is often a compromise made at the expense of heritage and language. These compromises can come from other factors as well, particularly the group dynamics of being in white-dominated Australia. Bullying is a frequent culprit, and Badami for example is indeed peer-pressured into resenting—and ultimately anglicising—his name, “Sunil? Like banana peel?” More generally speaking, a sense of shame for one’s difference is a common part of the migrant experience—Law experiences it as well at theme parks, where he and his siblings attempt to “set [them]selves apart” from the faux-pas of their parents. Not always an intentional goal, but a general willingness to compromise connections to heritage underscores many Asian Australian migrant stories, particularly of second-generation migrants.

However, the extent to which migrants feel socially integrated in society shifts generationally and over time as well. Second generation migrants are thus unique in that they have the closest connection to their heritage while also initiating this process of integration. Law and his siblings exemplify this, with their “Australian accents” and “proper grammar and syntax.” While some loss of their native Cantonese takes place, they are also the first in their family to sound Australian, one step closer to being Australian. They constitute part of the distinct, third culture of “ABC”—Australian-born Chinese—to which Chau alludes in his poem, ‘The Firstborn’. Distinct from first-generation migrants, ABCs are a product of diaspora and spend their formative years immersed in the Australian way of life. Chau’s poem goes on to highlight how sizeable this demographic now is—“the sea is awash with the unfathomable Chinese sons.” Thus, we can see how ABCs, or second generation Asian migrants, represent a unique and significant social group exemplified by great compromise, but also great change.

Why is this useful?/How can I apply this?

I like this exercise because it gets you thinking creatively about the key implications of the stories. Within a section or theme, you want to identify similarities in how both stories contribute to our understanding of that theme . You also want to identify differences to explore how stories can be unique and nuanced , which will provide your essay with more depth when you ultimately need it. Then, putting it all together helps you synthesise new connections between themes .

For an analytical study of this text, you’d flesh out those ideas until they become paragraphs, introducing relevant evidence and mixing it up with explanatory sentences as you go. Explanatory sentences keep you analysing rather than story-telling, and they usually don’t have any quotes—an example from above might be “because tertiary study and education as an institution generally carry a lot of weight in migrant cultures, there is often a compromise made at the expense of heritage and language.”

For a creative study, you’d take away those ideas and look at how else you might explore them in other stories. Feel free to challenge yourself for this; I remember falling back on more personal writing when studying this creatively, but don’t neglect other genres or forms! If second generation migrants are in fact more on their way to belonging, write a speculative story about how an apocalypse tests those connections to white Australians. I dunno, but don’t be afraid to really push the boundaries here and test the implications you draw from the stories.

Give it a go

Try it for some of these:

• UnAustralian? (Loewald & Law) and Leaving Home (Diana Nguyen & Paul Nguyen)
• Battlers (Dac & Law/Huynh) and Mates (Phommavanh & Ahmed)
• The Folks (Lazaroo & Tran) and Homecoming (Beeby & Larkin)

Growing Up Asian in Australia Essay Prompt Breakdown

Video Transcription

The essay topic we’ll be looking at today is short and sweet;

To belong is to sacrifice. Discuss. 

The key terms are evidently “to belong” and “to sacrifice”, so these are the words and definitions that we’ll have to interrogate. 

Belonging is a feeling of being accepted by someone or being a member of something, so we’d have to ask who is doing the accepting, and what are the writers seeking to be members of. On the other hand, sacrifice is loss, it’s giving something up—it’s implied that seeking belonging means you may have to navigate compromises to what you have, how you live, or maybe, who you are. Have a think about what sacrifices are made by whom, and why.

With that in mind, let’s brainstorm a contention . We usually want to avoid going fully agree or fully disagree to create a bit more ‘grit’ for the essay—and in this case, the prompt is pretty deterministic or absolute; it’s saying that belonging is all about sacrifice. 

I’d probably argue that belonging is sometimes about sacrifice, and for migrant children they often give up some of their culture or heritage for Western lifestyle or values. That being said, belonging in these cases is probably more about synthesis than sacrifice—it’s about being able to negotiate and bring heritage into increasingly Australian ways of life.

The brainstorming section of writing a killer essay is where my THINK and EXECUTE strategy comes in. If you haven’t heard of it before, essentially, it’s a method of essay writing that emphasises the importance of really thinking about all aspects of a prompt and exploring all the different avenues you can go down. To be able to EXECUTE a well-reasoned, coherent and articulate essay that contains enough nitty-gritty analysis, you have to do enough THINKing to get some meat on the essay’s skeleton, so to speak. To learn more, check out my top selling eBook, How To Write A Killer Text Response .

In paragraphs , we could start by looking at some of the sacrifices people make in order to belong . The poem, ’Be Good, Little Migrants’ has a more of a cynical take on this, suggesting that migrant groups are expected to sacrifice economic mobility and even personal dignity in order to gain favour with locals: “give us your faithful service”, “display your gratitude but don’t be heard, don’t be seen.” 

Economic sacrifices are seen across many stories, from the working class “decent enough income” in ‘Family Life’ to the failing business in ‘ABC Supermarket’. Other forms of sacrifice might be less material—for example Benjamin Law’s sacrifice of his Mariah Carey cassettes in an attempt to fit in at school from the story ‘Towards Manhood’. This example is interesting because it isn’t a cultural sacrifice, but a gendered one—it’s a good reminder that identity is always multi-layered. 

For migrant children though, the sacrifices usually revolve around their race and culture . Diana Nguyen for example notes language as a key sacrifice: she quits Vietnamese school because she didn’t feel like she belonged with the grade ones in her class, and her ultimate “lack of interest in learning [Vietnamese] created a lasting barrier” between her mother and her. In Sunil Badami’s story, ‘Sticks and Stones and Such-Like’, the sacrifice is his name, as he Anglicises it to Neil. When his mother finds out, “she spat my unreal new name out like something bitter and stringy, too difficult to swallow.” The common denominator here is that Asians growing up in Australia often have to navigate sacrificing some of their heritage in order to belong in western society. 

However, the challenges faced by the Asian diaspora growing up abroad are more complex and more nuanced than just sacrifice. More often than not, they’re required to synthesise a ‘third culture’ identity that balances their heritage with western values and lifestyles. 

Diana Nguyen goes on to discuss her career trajectory in becoming a “working actor” in Melbourne’s entertainment industry, carving out a path for herself in spite of her parents’ disapproval, and going on to represent a new generation of Asian Australians in the media. The story ‘Wei-Lei and Me’ also points to this shifting demographic in Australia, as Gouvernel and her best friend stave off a racist primary school bully only to see their home change for the better as they grew up, with new restaurants from their home cuisines opening up. At the same time, they “had become what [they] thought [they] could never be: Australian,” describing a way of life in Canberra that is unmistakably Australian. 

So, belonging isn’t necessarily all about sacrifice—it doesn’t mean you can’t pursue your passions or become ‘Australian’. Sure, sometimes sacrifice is necessary, but ‘third culture kids’ synthesise conflicting identities in order to belong. 

Having arrived at the contention, let’s just have another think about the takeaway message - being able to bring other themes into an essay topic that only really raises one theme. To answer this topic fully, a good essay wouldn’t just discuss belonging and sacrifice, but it would also bring in discussion about family, friends, careers and cultures, just to name a few. Hopefully this is something you can translate into your own future work!

Growing Up Asian In Australia is an anthology with a lot to unpack, but there are plenty of unique stories with plenty of interesting links to be made. However you’re learning this text, being able to draw conclusions from stories and extrapolate them into your writing is a really important skill.

As you go, ask yourself about the implications: ‘so what?’ and ‘why?’. These sorts of questions will help you get richer insights and write about the anthology in a more interesting way.

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If you’ve been studying John Donne’s metaphysical poetry, you’ve probably noticed that his works are riddled with different symbols and motifs. Embedded throughout his poetry, these literary devices may seem slightly abstruse to the reader. You may find yourself asking: What do they mean? And in relation to what? Even Donne’s contemporaries failed to appreciate his poetry. The neoclassical poet John Dryden rejected Donne’s works because it “affects the metaphysics” and “perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love”.

One thing that you should understand about Donne’s romantic poetry, is that while his stark images of compasses and spheres may seem foreign to you, they were also alien to his predecessors too. So, if you’re struggling to comprehend his enigmatic poetry, not to fear! Because John Donne’s poetic peers didn’t initially get it either.

The reason for this is because Donne refused to conform to the poetic conventions of the time. The poet emerged as an idiosyncratic in the Elizabethan era, the Renaissance. Unlike his contemporaries, he didn’t employ elaborate descriptions of symbol natural landscapes, classical myths and female beauty. The reason for this was because Donne did not believe in the one-sided love and emotional frustrations that his contemporaries tried so hard to convey in such imagery.

Donne’s poetry was so different because he rejected and even openly mocked the idea of such a high-minded religious worship in literary romance. In “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” Donne criticises the “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests” of the “dull sublunary lovers.”. In a similar vein, Donne satirises the “sighs” and “tears” (The Canonisation) so prevalent in Petrarchan works.

Instead, Donne advocated for a different kind of love. He espoused a love that comprised of the Body and the Soul, which was a dominant intellectual issue in the literary treatment of love in the 1590s. More specifically, Donne embraced the balance between Platonic love and the Ovidian love.

Platonic: Platonic love is essentially love that surpasses the mere sensual and physical. It is a very spiritual concept and is based on reason, affection, respect, intellect and compatibility.

Ovidian: Ovidian love

The idea of balance derived from discoveries being made about the human body during the Elizabethan era. The Renaissance was fundamentally a time of discovery (particularly in the area of science). Elizabethans believed that elements in the body needed to be balanced,

Top Tip: When you’re analysing John Donne’s poetry and writing essays, be aware of Donne’s overarching message in his romantic poetry. Most explanations about his use transcendent relationship with his lover is thus determined by obtaining a balance between the spiritual and earthly pleasures. Most examination questions will leave room for to discuss the connection between the material and the divine world! Make sure to understand this, because this is a huge component to his poetry.

Measure for Measure is currently studied in VCE English under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

INTRODUCTION ‍

Ahh William Shakespeare. That guy. You’re probably thinking, “Great. More fancy language. Hasn’t he been dead for centuries? Why does he keep popping up in our English curriculum?”

At least, that’s how I reacted.

Shakespeare is actually a huge figure in the history of the English language, and really no high school English curriculum is complete without a mandatory dose of him. In fact, the current VCAA study design demands that one of his texts must be on the text list. What a legend.

Shakespeare doesn’t only influence our world in the classroom. The Bard coined many words and phrases that we use today. We can thank this playwright for “be -all, end-all”, “good riddance”, and my personal favourite, “swagger”.

The Bard’s play “Measure for Measure” was first performed in 1604; over 400 years ago. So why do we still study his works today? In fact, the ideas and themes that are evoked in his plays are universal and timeless; pertinent to his contemporary counterparts, as well as today’s audience. Shakespeare’s plays are like soup (bear with me, this is going somewhere). One could say the playwright is a master chef; he mixes tales of the human condition and experience and asks us to question people and ideas. Everyone, regardless of their time, will gobble up the story.

So, what is this soup- I mean ‘Measure for Measure’ about? The play is known as a “problem play” and/or “tragicomedy”. That’s right, it’s both a tragedy and a comedy. Dire trials and tribulations are intertwined with humorous gags and jokesters. I guess Shakespeare couldn’t choose just one.  

‘Measure for Measure’ is also a problem play. Critic W.W Lawrence defined a problem play as one in which "a perplexing and distressing complication in human life is presented in a spirit of high seriousness ... the theme is handled so as to arouse not merely interest or excitement, or pity or amusement, but to probe the complicated interrelations of character and action, in a situation admitting of different ethical interpretations".

Ok, crazy, but he also said that "the 'problem' is not like one in mathematics, to which there is a single true solution, but is one of conduct, as to which there are no fixed and immutable laws. Often it cannot be reduced to any formula, any one question, since human life is too complex to be so neatly simplified.”

In short, a problem play presents lots of complications and issues that are open to different ethical interpretations. As in “Measure for Measure”, the “problem(s)” is/are not always solved.

So, what actually happens in this play that is problematic? What are our ingredients in this problem soup?

‍ P(L)OT SUMMARY

Get it? Cause soup is cooked in a pot. Sorry.

The Duke of Vienna appoints his deputy, Angelo, as the temporary leader. This Duke then pretends to leave town but instead dresses up as a friar to observe what happens in his absence. Angelo, strict and unwavering in his dedication to following the rules, decides to rid Vienna of all the unlawful sexual activity; including shutting down the brothels. Prostitutes like Mistress Overdone (pun alert) and her pimp Pompey are poised to lose their livelihoods. Laws against this activity exist, but they’ve gotten lax over the years. Angelo, a stickler for the rules, has Claudio arrested because young Claudio has gotten his engaged wife-to-be (Juliet) pregnant before they were officially married. Claudio is to be executed.

The virtuous Isabella, Claudio’s sister, is poised to enter a nunnery. Upon hearing of her brother’s arrest and sentence, she goes to Angelo to beg him for mercy. He hypocritically, in an absolutely dog move, propositions her, saying he’ll pardon her brother if she sleeps with him (with Angelo, not Claudio). She immediately refuses, being the religious and chaste woman that she is. At first Claudio is upset because he wants to live, but then he calms down and accepts death.

Luckily, the Duke (secretly dressed as a friar) helps in their sticky situation. He brews up a plan; Angelo’s former flame Mariana was engaged to him, but he broke off their engagement after she lost her dowry in a shipwreck. The Friar (Duke) plans to have Isabella agree to sleep with Angelo, but then send Mariana in her place. In theory, Angelo would pardon Claudio and be forced to marry Mariana by law.

The old switcheroo goes off without a hitch. But come morning, Angelo refuses to pardon Claudio, fearing he will seek revenge. The Duke, in collaboration with the Provost, send Angelo the head of a dead pirate (Ragozine) who died of natural causes. They claim that it’s Claudio’s head, and Angelo is satisfied, thinking him to be dead. Isabella is also told that her brother is dead and is encouraged by the Friar (Duke) to complain about Angelo to the Duke, who is returning home.  

The Duke makes a grand return to Vienna, saying he will hear any complaints immediately. Isabella tells her story, and the Duke feigns disbelief, despite having orchestrated the plan himself. In an act filled with more twists and turns than a Marvel movie, everything comes out; the Duke reveals he was a friar all along, Angelo is forced to confess, and Claudio is pardoned amongst other things. To top it all off, the Duke proposes to Isabella. Crazy!

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

It’s important to acknowledge what was going on in the world during the writing of a text. This may help give insight into why the author has included (or not included) some aspect of their work.

The Divine Right of Kings

This holy mandate states that a monarch derives his right to rule from the will of God and is not subject to earthly authority. The “king” or monarch is hence practically divine, and questioning his orders is also questioning god; blasphemy.

The Great Chain of Being/Class divides

This chain is a hierarchy of all life forms and matter in the following order:

• Kings & Royalty
• Commoners (Gentry, Merchants, Yeoman, Laborers)
• Non-living things

Hence, alongside The Divine Right of Kings, this ideal gave monarchs huge power over their subjects.

In early 1600s England, there was a defined social hierarchy and class system. Everyone had a place in the hierarchy, and there was little movement between the classes. Within each class, men were considered superior to women.

Shakespeare encourages us to ask a few questions of our supposedly holy leader and his actions. According to the Divine Right of Kings, the Duke is god’s right-hand man, and thus all his decisions are holy and backed by heaven. However, the Duke is pretty shady when he plots his bed-trick plan with Isabella and Mariana. Is this deceptive behavior still holy? Furthermore, is it not sacrilege to pretend to be a holy friar when one is not truly a holy man?

Moreover, when the Duke assigns Angelo as his deputy, would this transform Angelo into a divine ruler too? Could he be divine, considering his cruel rule and despicable request to Isabella?

Women were considered subservient, lower class citizens then men. Alliances were forged between powerful families through arranged marriages of daughters. These girls may have received an education through tutors attending their homes (there were no schools for girls), but their endgame would be marriage, children and maintaining the home. Women and girls of a lower class did not receive any formal education but would have learned how to govern a household and become skilled in all housewifely duties. Impoverished and desperate women (Mistress Overdone) would turn to prostitution to stay alive.

Shakespeare perhaps highlights the struggle of women in his female characters; Isabella, Mistress Overdone, Juliet, and Kate Keepdown. Their futures appear bleak; Isabella is poised to enter a nunnery, Juliet’s husband (her only source of income and protection) is to be executed, while the brothels that facilitate Mistress Overdone and Kate Keepdown’s livelihoods are being closed down by Angelo.

Jacobean Audience

It was a tumultuous time when Shakespeare penned ‘Measure for Measure’ in 1604. A year earlier came the end of the 45 year long Elizabethan era and began the Jacobean era under the rule of King James. Since the late Queen Elizabeth had no direct heirs, King James of Scotland (a relative) took to the throne. Little was known by the English people of this foreign king.

Perhaps, as Shakespeare portrays the ruler in ‘Measure for Measure’ as clever and good-hearted, the Bard sought to appease the king by calming the people and encouraging them to trust in their new monarch.

The playwright characterizes the Duke as loving his people, but not enjoying being before their eyes and in the spotlight; much like King James, a quiet ruler who relished studying privately in his great library.

‍ Playhouses and Brothels

The general public (commoners) paid a penny (could buy you a loaf of bread back in the day) to see Shakespeare’s plays, standing in the “yard”; on the ground, at eye-level of the stage. The rich (gentry) paid 2 pennies for seating in the galleries, often using cushions. The really rich (nobles) could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself. Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the Globe Theatre. Playhouses in Shakespeare's time were often close to brothels, both in terms of their physical locations in the suburbs and the way they were viewed by some of polite society. Thus, Shakespeare's relatively sympathetic portrayal of sexual deviance in ‘Measure for Measure’ may also constitute a defence of other suburban entertainment—his plays—and a way to humanize lower classes who patronized them.

WRITING ABOUT 'MEASURE FOR MEASURE'

If you’re lucky enough to study this interesting piece, the study design requires you to prepare “sustained analytical interpretations…discussing how features of the text create meaning and using textual evidence to support (your) reasons”. Basically, you’ll be given a topic; this topic could surround themes, characters, etc., and you must write analytically.

While you may choose to structure paragraphs around themes, ideas or characters, make sure to embed some historical context in there; that’ll show the examiner that you’ve done your research and have a thorough and deeper understanding of why Shakespeare put this or that in. Talking about authorial intent in your analytical essay leads to a more in-depth analysis.

“Shakespeare portrays characters that are flawed as a result of pre-destined circumstances. These characters, such as bawd Pompey and prostitute Mistress Overdone, lived in a time when there existed strong class divides, and movement within the social hierarchy was rare. As per the “Great Chain of Being”, a contemporary religious dogma, there was a hierarchy of all living things and matter, from lofty God and his angels down through the ranks of men and finally to animals and non-living things. In some cases, attempting to move up the social ranks was even considered a blasphemous rejection of the fate chosen by God.”

- embedding historical context (The Great Chain of Being) into a paragraph that discusses characters being flawed because of their circumstances

“Shakespeare offers characters such as Isabella and The Duke who strive for self-improvement through understanding and temperance. Perhaps the playwright suggests that perfection is very difficult if not impossible to attain, even for a ruler like the Duke and a pure soul like Isabella. However, he posits that it can be strived for and that perhaps this attempt to become better is what truly matters.”

- talking about authorial intent - what is Shakespeare trying to tell us?

Think of it as an opportunity to make your very own soup! Add some themes, stir in character analysis, sprinkle in some quotes and serve with historical context and authorial intent. Just like with a soup, there’s got be a good balance of all your ingredients; test out different structures during the year to find what works for you. (Just try not to overcook it, like I have done with this soup metaphor). If you need more help, How To Write a Standout Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare Essay is for you!

So, you see, there’s more to Shakespeare and ‘Measure for Measure’ than just fancy old language and iambic pentameter (What’s that? Well...). Keep on reading this blog post, where we’ll delve into themes, characters and symbols/motifs. In the meantime, let’s have a break. Grab a snack, a drink, and enjoy this tasty Shakespeare meme.

...Aaaaand we’re back!

Are you ready for part 2 of the Shakespeare train? Hop on board as we explore themes, characters and symbols/motifs. ‍ ‍

These are the major themes in ‘Measure for Measure’.

As you can see, the themes are interconnected. (Do you like the diagram? Made it myself :)) Why does this matter? Well, if you get an essay topic about Justice, for instance, you can also link it to Sexual and Gender Politics as well as Social Decay/Cohesion.

So, why is any one theme an important theme?

Which moments and characters are these themes related to?

Is there a link to historical context?

What are some key quotes?

What could be Shakespeare’s potential message? (Keep in mind that depending which pieces of evidence you look at, the Bard could be saying something different. In this piece, we’ll only discuss one or two authorial messages. The beauty of Shakespeare is that much is open to interpretation. You can interpret characters and ideas in so many different ways!)

Those are some great questions. Let’s explore some of the biggest themes...

Power and Authority

Power not only dictates the Viennese society, but we see it is a basis for moral corruption (I’m looking at you, Angelo!). The Duke is the leader of Vienna, ordained by God. He hands this power to his deputy Angelo, who misuses it in his request of Isabella. Now consider Isabella - she has power too, but a different kind… Also consider characters who have little to no power - Mistress Overdone, Pompey etc.

This theme could be linked to the Divine Right of Kings, the Great Chain of Being and Women.

• “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant” - Isabella when she pleads to Angelo to not kill her brother (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 130-132)
• “He who the sword of heaven will bear should be as holy as severe” - The Friar (Duke) to himself, not happy with Angelo’s dog move (Act 3, Scene 1, 538-539)
• “When maidens sue, men give like gods” - Lucio to Isabella, encouraging her to convince Angelo not to kill Claudio (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 87-88)
• "Hence we shall see, if power change purpose, what our seemers be.” - The Duke lowkey suggesting that once Angelo gets power, he’ll change into something evil (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 57)
• “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” - Escalus is sneakily hating on Angelo. This quote shows that power and authority often involve corruption (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 41)

Perhaps Shakespeare is suggesting that power is a dangerous weapon and that in the wrong hands, it could be deadly.

Morality and Sin

This is an interesting theme. What defines sin? For instance, if Isabella sleeps with Angelo she’s sinning before God. But if she doesn’t, then she’s letting her brother die, which is not good either. Bit of a pickle that one. Some characters to consider include Isabella, Angelo, The Duke, Claudio, Lucio, the Provost…. jeez just about everyone! So many of the characters take part in questionable deeds. Was it immoral for the Duke to pretend to be a holy friar? Is Claudio’s sin of impregnating Juliet really punishable by death if both parties were willing, and no one else has been punished for the same “crime”? Are Pompey and Mistress Overdone being immoral in being in the prostitution business, if it’s the only way to survive?

Deep stuff man. This can be linked back to class divides, women and the contemporary playhouses/brothels.

• “What sin you do to save a brother’s life, nature dispenses with the deed so far that it becomes a virtue” - Claudio begs his sister to sleep with Angelo (immoral, especially since she’s poised to enter a nunnery), saying that it’s for a good cause, and will actually be a virtue/good deed (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 146-148)
• “Might there not be a charity in sin to save this brother’s life?” - Angelo asking Isabella to sleep with him and trying to paint the act as a charitable deed (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 65-66)
• “I am a kind of burr, I shall stick” - Lucio, who represents sin and immorality in Vienna (we’ll talk more about this later in symbols/motifs) (Act 4, Scene 3, Line 182)
• “To bring you thus together ‘tis no sin, sith that the justice of your title to him doth flourish the deceit.” - The Friar (Duke), encouraging Isabella and Mariana to do the dodgy bed-trick and trick Angelo (Act 4, Scene 1, Line 79-81)

Perhaps Shakespeare tries to tell us that there is a fine line between something moral and something sinful. Maybe he’s asking, “who are we to judge?”, since we all do questionable things sometimes. Everyone from the almighty Duke to a lowly prostitute has committed potentially immoral acts. Perhaps audiences are encouraged to be more understanding of others, and their reasons for these deeds.

Mmm, this theme ties in nicely with just about all of the others. How does one define justice? The play explores this idea; does justice mean punishment? Or mercy? How do we balance the two to deliver the right punishment/lack thereof? Characters that dispense justice include The Duke, Angelo (although they have differing ideas of justice) and Isabella. Since Vienna is a religious place, consider the divine justice system (ie. a perfect, flawless system meted out by God) and the earthly one (ie. the flawed, human justice system). Laws exist in an attempt to ensure justice. But does it always work? Consider also the Old and New Testament ways of thinking - the former strict and punitive, while the latter is more measured and merciful (see symbols/motifs below for more info).

This theme can be linked to the Divine Right of Kings, Great Chain of Being, Women, and Jacobean Audience.

• “Justice, justice, justice, justice!” - (Wait, are you sure this quote is about justice?) Isabella pleads for (you guessed it) justice to the Duke (no longer dressed as a friar), thinking Angelo has, in fact, killed her brother (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 26)
• “The very mercy of the law cried out… ‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!’ Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure, like doth quit like, and measure still for measure” - The Duke, explaining that it’s only fair that Angelo die for “killing” Claudio. (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 437-441)
• “liberty plucks justice by the nose” - The Duke tells Friar Thomas that the laws have slipped over the years, and the citizens of Vienna are not being punished for immoral deeds (prostitution, sex before marriage etc)

Perhaps Shakespeare says that since we humans are inevitably flawed, that any justice system created by us will too be imperfect. Who are we to decide the fates of our fellow man? Furthermore, the Bard may be encouraging us to be kind when dispensing justice, leaning more to mercy than punishment.

Sexual and Gender Politics

Who run the world? Gir- no it’s a bunch of men. This theme contributes to why ‘Measure for Measure’ is a problem play. The exploration of the female characters in this play are very interesting, and kind of sad. Of 20 named characters, only 5 are women. Together, their lines make up only 18% of the play. Yikes! There is a lot to unpack here. Our female characters are Isabella, Mariana, Mistress Overdone, Juliet, Francisca (a nun who speaks twice) and Kate Keepdown (who we never meet). Their situations: a maiden poised to enter a nunnery, a prostitute, a pregnant girl about to lose her husband, a nun, and another prostitute. Quite gloomy, isn't it? Meanwhile, the men are leaders (The Duke, deputy Angelo, and ancient lord Escalus) and gentlemen (Lucio, Claudio, and Froth). Over the course of the play, our female characters are put into worse situations by men. Their experiences are dictated by men. Consider taking a “feminist perspective” and exploring ‘Measure for Measure’ from a female point of view.

This theme links to the Great Chain of Being, Women and Playhouses/Brothels.

• “see how he goes about to abuse me!” - These are the last words we hear from Mistress Overdone, as she calls out Lucio for betraying her even though she kept secrets for him. All this happens while she’s being carted off to prison in only Act 3! What do you think Shakespeare is saying to us? (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 481)
• “Then was your sin of heavier kind than his” - The Friar (Duke) says to Juliet that she sinned more than Claudio, even though their sin was “mutually committed”. Even though they were both consenting, the woman is blamed more. Consider what would become of Juliet if Claudio was executed. She’d probably end up like Mistress Overdone... (Act 2, Scene 3, Line 31)
• “Who will believe thee, Isabel?” - Angelo says this after Isabella threatens to reveal his disgusting request. Ouch. It really goes to show how untrustworthy women are deemed.  (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 163)
• “Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?” - The Duke says this to Mariana. Basically, he says a woman can only be those 3 things. Jeez. (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 196-197)
• “When maidens sue, men give like gods” - Lucio to Isabella, encouraging her to convince Angelo not to kill Claudio. So, perhaps women do have some power. But, it’s due to their sexuality; something evaluated by men. Peachy. (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 87-88)

Perhaps Shakespeare suggests that women are treated unfairly in society. Maybe he posits that women are afforded so few opportunities in a man’s world. The Bard potentially says that such sexual and gender politics do not create a cohesive and just society.

This theme, again, connects to many others. It can link to all groups of people (The wealthy, the poor, women, criminals etc). Most of the mercy is dispensed at the end of the play when the Duke does his grand reveal. Characters who choose to mete out mercy over punishment include The Duke and Isabella. Also consider Angelo, who instead of choosing to spare Claudio, decides to kill him to uphold a law that hasn’t seen anyone punished for the same deed. We might think this is harsh, but it a legal and lawful decision.

Connect this idea with historical context, specifically Jacobean audience and playhouses/brothels.

• “I find an apt remission in myself” - Apt remission = ready forgiveness. The Duke says this after pardoning Angelo (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 539)
• “pray thee take this mercy to provide for better times to come” - The Duke pardons murderer Barnadine, asking him to use it to do better. How lovely!  (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 525-526)
• “let us be keen (shrewd/sharp), and rather cut a little than fall and bruise to death” - Escalus says this to Angelo, who wants to enact all strict laws immediately. The ever-reliable Escalus advises Angelo to be lenient and merciful. (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 6-7)
• “Mercy is not itself that oft looks so, pardon is still the nurse of second woe” - Escalus says this, defending Angelo’s decision to punish Claudio. He suggests that sometimes being merciful can encourage further wrongdoing. (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 282-283”)
• “I show it (pity) most of all when I show justice” - Angelo says to Isabella that he is showing Claudio pity/mercy by punishing him. A firm believer in the law, Angelo thinks he’s doing the right thing and teaching Claudio a lesson by punishing him.  (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 123)

Perhaps Shakespeare encourages us to look at mercy and punishment from different perspectives. Angelo believes he is punishing Claudio for his own good, and cleaning up Vienna of lechery too. Maybe we ought to be merciful in our opinion of the deputy. Nonetheless, the Bard shows that in the case of young Claudio, mercy and forgiveness is the right path to choose. Finally, consider why Shakespeare may have portrayed a merciful leader to his Jacobean audience. Maybe if he were to portray a leader as fair and merciful, the Jacobean audience would trust that their new king (a man similar in character to the Duke) could be kind and merciful too. Earning the favour of the king and writing a killer play? He’s killed two birds with one stone.

Human Frailty & Fallibility

I’ve encountered many essay topics about how humans are flawed and imperfect. It’s a pretty big theme in many texts, not just in our friend William Shakespeare’s. Human fallibility is to blame for a lot of the going-ons in ‘Measure for Measure’. Angelo takes the law too seriously, he gets heart eyes for Isabella and kills Claudio even though he thinks he’s slept with Isabella. Why? He wants to save his own ass, fearing Claudio will seek vengeance. The Duke is flawed too. He’s a leader, but he just avoids his problems, leaving Angelo in charge to deal with them. Then he plans to swoop in and look like a hero. Kinda dodgy. Consider Claudio and Juliet too. They, like Angelo, succumbed to lust and slept together before they were officially married. (Sigh, humans just can’t get it right.) It’s also worth thinking about the “low-lives” and poorer characters. Are the poor frail in a different way? For example, Mistress Overdone keeps Lucio’s secrets for him. In that way she is virtuous. However, she sells her body to survive. Perhaps she is not prone to desire like Angelo, but serves another desire - a desire to survive?

In terms of historical context, consider the Divine Right of Kings, the Great Chain of Being and Playhouses/Brothels.

• “They say best men are moulded out of faults, and for the most become much more the better for being a little bad” - Mariana pleads to Isabella to support her in begging the Duke to pardon (her new husband) Angelo. She is optimistic for man, believing our bad deeds can lead to self-improvement. (Act 5, Scene 5, Line 473-475)
• “Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once” - Isabella pleads to Angelo to pardon Claudio. She states that all souls were flawed before Christ offered redemption. (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 93)
• “I speak not as desiring more, but rather wishing a more strict restraint” - Isabella is speaking to a nun as she is poised to enter the ranks of the nunnery. We usually think of a nun as living a very strict life, but Isabella wants it even stricter! Here we see her flaw is that her thinking is too singular and blinkered. (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 3-4)
• “Lord Angelo is precise, stands at guard with envy, scarce confesses that his blood flows, or that his appetite is more to bread than stone.” - The Duke talks about how unhuman Angelo is. The deputy follows rules very closely, almost to the point where he’s like a machine. His nature is too strict.  (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 53-56)
• “I love the people, but do not like to stage me to their eyes” - The Duke says this to Angelo and Escalus as he hands over power to his deputy. Even the Duke is not perfect, in that he does not like being before crowds of his people (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 72-73)

Perhaps Shakespeare suggests that no one is truly perfect, not even a leader supposedly ordained by God, a law-abiding deputy, or a maiden who is poised to enter a nunnery. Yet while Angelo is overcome by his lust and emotion, the Duke and Isabella attempt to better themselves by showing mercy and temperance. Maybe Shakespeare suggests trying to improve one’s flawed self is most important.

God, Religion and Spirituality

Phew, we’re at our last theme. So, society in Vienna is very much religious. Their beliefs dictate actions and laws within the city. Some very religious characters include Isabella and Angelo. However, our novice nun, who is obsessed with virtue and chastity, agrees to and takes part in the bed-trick, a deception that is not particularly Christian. Our lusty deputy also succumbs, hellishly propositioning a maiden to sleep with him in exchange for her brother’s life. Even The Duke, supposedly semi-divine, makes some dubious choices. He spends most of the play posed as a holy man, even though he is not. He plans the bed-trick to deceive Angelo and lets poor Isabella think her poor brother is dead, instead of saving her so much pain. Furthermore, the title of the tale, ‘Measure for Measure’, comes from the Gospel of Matthew. (See symbols/motifs for more deets). The question of how much we should let religion dictate us is another reason this piece is a problem play.

The theme of God and Religion can link to historical context such as the Divine Right of Kings.

• “more than our brother is our chastity” - (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 194) and “Better it were a brother died at once, than that a sister by redeeming him should die forever” - (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 111-113) show that Isabella values her chastity and virtue over her brother!! Damn girl!
• “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, to lie in cold obstruction and to rot” - Claudio tells Isabella that he fears the uncertainty of death. Perhaps his belief in a heaven has left him in the wake of his impending death? (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 129-130)
• “Let’s write good angel on the devil’s horns - ‘tis not the devil's crest” - Angelo is talking to himself about his lust for Isabella. It’s an appearance vs reality (ooh another theme!) kind of idea, where you can try to pretend something is something else (ie. Angelo doesn't lust after Isabella), but it doesn't change the thing (ie. he’s still keen). The deputy is comparing his emotions to these religious extremes. (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 16-17)

Perhaps Shakespeare criticises religious extremism in his portrayal of characters like Isabella and Angelo. Or maybe he just wants us to remain open-minded about ideas and our spirituality.

Yikes, there are so many themes in this play! Let’s move it along, and talk a little bit about characters.

Each character can be viewed in different lights, even more so than themes can be. We’re going to discuss characters very briefly because it’s up to you how you want to read them.

Here are the characters, in order of how much they speak in the play. To keep things short, let’s pretend these are all tinder bios. Who would you swipe right on? (Hint: not Lucio)

• super chill (the benevolent ruler of Vienna who’s let the laws slip a little)
• loves dressing up (actually spends most of the play disguised as a friar)
• clever/cunning (secretly counteracts the injustices decreed by Angelo)
• strong morals (would rather her brother die than she lives in shame)
• can get wild (conspires with the Duke to complete the bed-trick)
• holy gal (poised to enter a nunnery)
• a gentleman (well, his title is. He’s rude about the Duke and abandoned a prostitute that he got pregnant, so maybe he’s not that kind of gentleman)
• loves attention (legit! He’s a minor character but he has the third most lines of them all! Lucio loves to stir the pot!)
• loves some symbolism (Lucio represents all the bad stuff in Vienna…..see symbols/motifs)
• plays by the rules (a little too much)
• hypocrite (Sentences Claudio to death for sex before marriage, while asking the same thing of Isabella…. wow we’ve found our antagonist)
• Deep (Angelo is a bit of a complex character. He seems aware of his misdeeds and struggles to deal with these desires. It’s hard not to pity him at times)
• reliable (consistently counsels Angelo against acting too harshly)
• virtuous (he’s merciful, lets Pompey go with a warning in Act 2 Scene 1)
• loyal (trusts in the Duke)
• hard worker (he’s a prison ward)
• virtuous (does what’s right by him, disobeying Angelo’s orders to behead Claudio)
• magician (not really, but he makes Angelo believe that pirate Ragozine’s head is Claudio’s)
• clever (philosophically debates whether prostitution is worse than murder)
• funny (his character is the clown, and he’s got some sassy comebacks)
• poor (Pompey is a bawd employed by Mistress Overdone. Not the best dating bio)
• down for a good time ;) (impregnates Juliet before they are officially married)
• cool family (he’s Isabella’s brother)
• good hearted (initially is horrified at Angelo’s request of Isabella, saying she shouldn’t do it. Unfortunately, his fear of death get’s to him. After he’s calmed down, he’s accepting of death)
• a man in uniform (a policeman)
• a little dumb (he speaks a lot of malapropisms - hilariously using similar but incorrect words)
• not like Pompey (Pompey is a clever poor man, while Elbow is a policeman who’s a little bit all over the place)
• dedicated (still in love with Angelo even though he called off their engagement because her dowry was lost)
• a willing accomplice (participates in the bed-trick)

Mistress Overdone

• poor (she’s a prostitute, who fears for her livelihood when Angelo announces he’s destroying all the brothels)
• good hearted (kept Lucio’s secret. What secret? Read on…)
• works for the Duke (as an executioner…. there’s no way to make that sound nice)
• doesn't have a great name (c’mon it’s true)
• also likes to have a good time ;) (pregnant before official marriage)
• dependent (if Claudio dies she will probably end up as a prostitute to survive)
• can sing (Mariana asks him to sing a sad song about how she lost her beloved Angelo)
• holy gal (she is a nun)

Kate Keepdown (we never actually meet this character)

• a colleague of Mistress Overdone (a prostitute)
• single mum (Lucio got her pregnant and then ran away. He thinks marrying a prostitute is akin to whipping and hanging)

Ragozine (we never actually meet this character)

• dies (legit that’s all he does)

SYMBOLS & MOTIFS

These are people, objects, words etc that represent a theme or idea. For instance, the fact that I’ve used a bad soup metaphor AND a tinder reference means I need to go outside more. But let’s move on…

The title, “Measure for Measure” draws from the gospel of Matthew. The idea of heavenly justice vs earthly justice is prominent throughout the text. Moreover, it’s worth exploring the Old Testament ways of “an eye for an eye” and “measure for measure” in comparison to the New Testament teachings which lean towards forgiveness and mercy. Now, where do the Duke’s actions fit in? Is he harsh and equalising? Is he just and sympathetic?  

New Testament vs. Old Testament

When the Duke sentences Angelo to death, he makes a fancy speech which includes the play’s title.

“‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure.

Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.”

Act 5, Scene 1, Line 439-441

This mimics the Old Testament views, which famously states “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Exodus 21:24). These ideals teach that the person who committed a misdeed shall have the same misdeed done unto them. (For example, if you don’t like my new Facebook profile picture, I’m not liking yours…..but way more severe.)

In comparison, the New Testament states that we “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:36-37)

So, when sentencing Angelo the Duke employs the words of the Old Testament. However, he doesn’t go through with Angelo’s execution, instead showing the mercy encouraged by the New Testament. He’s not really following either way. Perhaps he’s instead choosing a middle road; one of temperance and justice.

Wait, who? We haven’t mentioned the “gentleman” Lucio much in the plot and in this blog post. That’s because he doesn’t really do that much other than buzz around and annoy everyone. Maybe that’s why his name rhymes with mosquito….

Regardless, we do see enough of Lucio’s character to learn that he’s not a very nice person. He treats Mistress Overdone and Pompey poorly, makes visits to the brothel, doesn’t take responsibility for his actions (getting Kate Keepdown pregnant) and bad-mouths the Duke. So yeah, we don’t like Lucio, what’s the big deal? Well, in Act 4, Scene 4 Line 182, Lucio says something very intriguing.

“I am a kind of burr, I shall stick.”

Burr - those little brown prickly things that get stuck to you.

We can think of Lucio as representing all the sins and misdeeds in Vienna - lechery, immorality, lack of justice, selfishness etc. Hence, Lucio is saying that these shortcomings and flaws will always be present to people and in Vienna, sticking to the city like a nasty burr. Damn, that’s deep.

Prose/Verse

The metre of the verse (ie. the classic Shakespeare writing) in ‘‘Measure for Measure”  is iambic pentameter. This means that each line is divided into 5 feet. Within each foot, there is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

I’ll TELL him YET of ANgelO’S reQUEST, And FIT his MIND to DEATH, for HIS soul’s REST. (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 195-196)

Verse does not have to rhyme, as the above lines do. Shakespeare often employs a rhyming couplet to close a scene and add some drama.

Verse is usually reserved for the higher class citizens, with those who are less fortunate speaking in prose.

Prose is language in its ordinary form, with no metre.

Certain characters, such as Lucio, switch between verse and prose depending on who they are speaking to. This could allude to Lucio’s duplicity, or perhaps a deep understanding of class divides in Vienna.

Names: Escalus and Angelo

Escalus is the ever reasonable and loyal lord and close confidant of the Duke. His name gives connotations of scales and balance - characteristic of the rational man.

Angelo’s name has connotations of “angel”. If we judge him only by his name, he should be a pure and heavenly being. Bah! That’s so fake! We can see that appearance is very different from reality. Isabella notices this too, stating that “this outward-sainted deputy...is yet a devil” (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 95-98).

Angelo’s Words/Actions

There is so much to unpack about this douchebag. Let us briefly consider 2 ideas. When he propositions Isabella to sleep with him, he requests that she “lay down the treasures of (her) body” (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 100).

Firstly, that’s weird. Perhaps Angelo can be seen as someone who is obsessed with the physical - Isabella’s body and treasure. Maybe this obsession leads to his immorality and poor leadership.

Secondly, Angelo struggles to directly say, “hey, let’s sleep together”. He weaves his way around the request, propositioning Isabella so indirectly that at first, she does not even seem to understand his request! However, once she threatens to tell everyone about his vile demand, he speaks bluntly; “Who will believe thee, Isabel?” (Act 2, Scene 4, Line 163). Perhaps this shows Angelo is self-aware that he’s being an ass. Or maybe this scene is yet more evidence of a patriarchal society, with the men knowing very well the power they hold.

We never actually meet this fellow. Ragozine is a pirate who dies in jail while “Measure for Measure” unfolds. His head is used in place of Claudio’s to convince Angelo of the former’s execution. Fascinatingly, Ragozine is the only person who dies in the entire play. ALSO, he dies of natural causes. Interesting. It feels like the play is full of death, grief and many heads on the chopping block. But curiously, there is only one death, of a minor character, of natural causes. Perhaps this says something about fate and justice or offers some commentary on life and hope.

Elbow vs. Pompey

Elbow is a silly policeman who speaks in malapropisms (using a similar but incorrect word for humorous effect). Pompey is a clever pimp who seems to have a deep understanding of justice and the Viennese people. The comparison of these characters, fortunate and dumb to unfortunate and clever, perhaps serves to show that the law is not always apt and that sometimes those who break the law are more clever than it.

Mistress Overdone (or lack thereof)

Mistress Overdone is a pitiable prostitute. She worries for her survival when Angelo begins pulling down the brothels, and she keeps Lucio’s bastard child a secret, only for him to throw her under the bus to save his own skin. The last we see of Mistress Overdone is her getting carted off to prison, crying “See how he goes about to abuse me!” (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 481) Yes, the last we witness of one of five speaking female characters is of her imminent incarceration. Furthermore, this happens in Act 3 of 5, around halfway through the play! The audience never hears from Mistress Overdone again, and her future is left uncertain. Even Barnadine, a convicted murderer, is given freedom and a happy ending.

Consider writing a few sentences of your essay from a feminist’s perspective. Think about the events of the play from the female characters’ points of view. What is Shakespeare saying by portraying Mistress Overdone (and other women) in such a way? Perhaps he is pointing out the injustices of the patriarchal system, or how uncertain a woman’s life was in his contemporary time.

“Measure for Measure” truly is an incredible text. This blog post is by no means an exhaustive list of all its quirks and complexities. This play’s relevance has survived centuries, and I believe it will continue to be pertinent to audiences well into the future. You are very lucky to be studying a text with such universal themes and ideas that you can carry with you even after high school.

Updated on 15/12/2020.

• Summary: A Brief Snapshot
• Character Analysis
• Stage Directions

Essay Topics

Essay topic breakdown.

Extinction is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

1. Summary: A Brief Snapshot

At the heart of innovative technology and products lies exceptional human creativity. Our brains are practically wired to create and innovate newness. Naturally, the influx of products entering the market creates a consumer frenzy. Suddenly, everything is a commodified entity with a dollar-sign attached to it. Its inherent value lies in how much consumers covet the item. 

Let’s take the iPhone for example! An idea of a communication device - both sleek in its functionality and aesthetic - is mass produced, consumed by millions and the cycle perpetuates itself. It is an item so coveted and desired, a 17-year-old boy from China sold a kidney to buy the iPad and iPhone. This phenomenon of consumerism is symptomatic of a contemporary world’s obsession with vanity and aesthetic. Our fixation on the surface-level and glossy facades is similarly echoed by Extinction ’s main protagonist, Professor Heather Dixon-Brown, who criticises the ‘charismatic fauna push’ where we are ‘making celebrities out of pandas and polar bears’. While those campaigns are successful in raising better awareness and positivity in the realm of conservation, they do not change the ways in which we live and consume.

How we live today is inflicting a deep ecological impact on planet earth. Furthermore, as urban landscapes inevitably expand, we continue to encroach on the territory of the natural world.

These are the kind of thoughts that popped into my mind after reading Extinction . Hannie Rayson’s provocative play delves deep into the central question of what it means to uphold a personal conviction in the face of self-interest and necessity. Casual flings, extinguishing of life and the friction between ‘ideological purity’ and functionality threatens to unhinge even seemingly robust characters such as Heather Dixon-Brown, an ecologist who preaches that she ‘uses her head, not her heart’. Rayson’s literary work endeavours to capture how the human character is, in fact, multidimensional and never static! As the passionate environmentalists and pragmatic ecologists are entangled in ethical quandaries, the playwright also illustrates how divorcing your mindset from emotion is a universal struggle. Furthermore, she explores how moral conviction is consistently at odds with the demands of the personal and professional domains we inhabit.

Throughout the drama encapsulating mining magnates, environmentalists and ecologists, Rayson combines their fictional voices to echo a cautionary tale of how self-interest and misconception about ‘the other’ may distort rationality. When the CEO of Powerhouse mining, Harry Jewell, bursts into a wildlife rescue centre in Cape Otway, holding a critically injured and endangered tiger quoll, he inadvertently catalyses a conflict that will draw out the prejudices withheld by the trio of environmentalists.

I encourage you to think about the lessons embedded in the play. What are the take-home messages YOU have discovered?

Guiding Questions:

• What is the message the playwright is attempting to deliver to her audiences?
• When you finished the play, what feelings were you left with?
• Which characters did you find likeable? Who aggravated you the most? And most importantly, provide evidence for why you felt that way! Was it because of their problematic ways of dealing with an ideological crisis? Or their fierce passion towards upholding moral conviction?

2. Character Analysis

Let's take a look at these deeply flawed human beings:

Professor Heather Dixon-Brown ‍

• Director of the CAPE institute 
• Interested in only saving species that are ‘statistically saveable'.
• Bureaucrat with the realism to match.

'I am an ecologist, not an environmentalist. I use my head, not my heart.'

'Species are like commodities…I just don’t approve of this ‘charismatic fauna’ push - making celebrities out of pandas and polar bears.' (p. 99) 

'You want me to close the CAPE. Is that what you want? Then we can bask in ideological purity…' (p. 120)

The never-ending struggle between heart and mind is central theme in the play.

Harry Jewell

• An idealist with the knack for alluring women to fall for him.

'You don’t serve your cause by being indifferent to the interest of working people.' 

'I know his type: the kind of greenie who’s always saying no. No dams. No mines. No roads.' (p. 114)

'I am not some multinational corporation devouring the Amazon. I’m just a bloke who’s come back home.' (p. 114)

Piper Ross ‍

• Zoologist from San Diego Zoo (temporarily transferred) 
• Andy Dixon’s girlfriend 
• Gets entangled in a romp with Harry Jewell aka Mr. Evil

'They are all 'worth saving''. (p. 83)

• A vet who is extremely pragmatic in his mindset towards his work and personal life
• Slight aversion to technology
• The inevitability of technology supplanting certain occupations 
• Technological evolution? (Is it the kind of evolution we want?)

'…the great advocate for our native flora and fauna… ' (p. 118)

'You should see this dairy farm. It’s all computerised. They’ve got one bloke managing a thousand cows. No human supervision of the milking. No-one to check the udders. I’m just there, doing the rounds. Like a robot.' (p. 82)

Logic vs. Emotion (Pragmatism vs. Ideological Purity)

To divorce your emotions from affecting your decision-making capacity is a universal struggle aptly captured by Rayson’s depiction of Dixon-Brown’s gradual inclination towards the tiger quoll project funded by a coal company. In this case, we can argue that her objectivity and ‘her head’ is seemingly beguiled by the charms of Harry Jewell. 

Early in the play, Professor Dixon-Brown is anchored to her desk, filing applications and paperwork instead of ‘getting back to her own research’. This prospect changes when Harry - big coal - offers 'two million dollars on the table' to fund the tiger quoll campaign. Nonetheless, we see the two unexpected collaborators setting a dangerous precedent where one can simply equate a species’ livelihood to ‘commodities’ and ‘a good return’ of profit.

What is compelling about Harry’s character is that he combines both pragmatism and ideological purity. Firstly, Harry has the means and business acuity to manoeuvre a board of directors bent on exploring coal ‘right on the edge of the national park’. However, ‘Mr Evil’ is also inspired by nostalgia and sentimentality over a childhood memory where a tiger quoll steals his drumstick.

Conversely, Andy Dixon-Brown’s stance against the mining industry and automated dairy farms is admirable considering how technology has become a central cornerstone of modern-day life. His partner Piper Ross, a zoologist, echoes similar distaste for mining companies, however, her passion for ‘saving’ all animals eclipses her own presumptions towards ‘Mr Evil’. She is eventually persuaded to head the tiger quoll project.

Whereas, Professor Dixon-Brown enjoys the uncomplicatedness of numbers and statistics. However, her carefully crafted algorithm fails to differentiate between the diversity of animals within the ecosphere. Instead, it filters out populations of 5000 and above to collate only the ‘statistically saveable’.

In this respect, Harry’s actions showcase how a striking a balance between pragmatism and emotion is important.

Unity in a Socially Divisive World

In this play, the ‘us vs. them’ mentality pervades the minds of the protagonists. Through the heated dialogue between environmentalists, ecologists and mining moguls, Hannie Rayson delivers the message that as a society we should not be so reliant on simplifying individuals based on age-old presumptions and surface-level characteristics. Harry Jewell echoes a similar sentiment as he discusses his company’s plans to Piper: 'Who’s this ‘we’? You don’t serve your cause by being indifferent to the interests of the working people.' (p. 92)

Zooming in: Andy & Harry: Let's explore the volatile dynamic between the two males

Andy’s indignant stance against collaborating with the mining industry showcases his resilience in sticking to his moral code. One can argue that his immediate demonisation of Harry Jewell, as evidenced by the nickname ‘Mr. Evil’, is a symptom of Andy’s oversimplified thinking. It is through Andy’s inflammatory and infantile language towards the Mining CEO that Rayson articulates how the politics of conservation is in shades of grey. Conversely, Harry’s admits that he knew Andy was ‘the type of greenie who’s always saying no [from the moment he came through that door]’. In highlighting the binary oppositions of the two men working in different fields, the play acknowledges how prejudice inhibits potential collaborations.

Harry and Andy showcase how our own misconceptions about ‘the other’ detract from our own moral causes - such as in this case, saving the forest. Both men are committed to the same cause. However, Andy’s antagonistic approach towards Harry undercuts his own integrity as he willingly allows prejudice to cloud his thinking simply because it is the more convenient thing to do, as opposed to collaborating and accommodating each other’s interests.

Categorising strangers into convenient stereotypes is pure laziness.

• Andy: 'Hope he didn’t damage that cruise missile he’s got out there?' (p. 73)
• Harry: 'I know the type - knew him the moment he came through that door. He’s the kind of greenie who’s always saying no. No dams. No mines. No roads.' (p. 114)

Romanticism vs. Reality

Against the backdrop of familial arguments and budding romances, Extinction ’s Professor Dixon-Brown’s blunt dialogue about conservation reveals its politicised nature. Her heated dialogue with Piper echoes her frustration at ‘writing [Stuart Decker’s] applications so he can get ‘a sun tan’ conducting research on The Great Barrier Reef and win accolades for it'. Furthermore, she satirically exclaims that ‘[the institute] needs to defend its territory’. Her mocking of the vice-chancellor who acted like they were in a ‘White House Situation Room’ implicitly demonstrates her growing disdain towards the tenuous politics of her workplace. Essentially, Heather’s realist approach exposes what lies beneath the glossy exterior of conservation efforts.

I’ve seen quite a few videos of baby pandas circulating on my Facebook feed, most of them are part of a conservation effort or campaign. The comment section of these videos is like a medley of heart-eyes and exclamations of ‘How cute!!’ This relatively harmless sentiment is dismissed by Professor Dixon-Brown when she states that she is completely disengaged with ‘charismatic fauna’ (p. 99) push - making celebrities out of pandas and polar bears’. Our overwhelmingly positive reactions towards such campaigns is based on a societal gravitation towards the aesthetically pleasing which bleeds into the next thematic idea revolving around our fixation on appearance (surface-level).

Essentially, in the context of this play, the preferential treatment of endangered animals reflects our own biased thinking.

Vanity and Our Obsession With Appearance

The idea of vanity also pervades the sub-consciousness of both male and female protagonists. Against the backdrop of environmental conservation dilemmas, Hannie Rayson manages to entwine a secondary story strand which captures the insecurities peppering the female experience in this contemporary age. The audience learns that Heather Dixon-Brown spends $267 on hair removal every five weeks. Interestingly, her brother, ‘a screaming heterosexual’ (p. 95), likens the hair removal process to ‘getting a tree lopped’. The destructive and almost violent imagery of chopping down a tree echoes the crippling pressure for Heather to ‘sculpt’ herself into a particular ideal of femininity.

It is in this way that Rayson articulates a broader thematic idea that womanhood is still being defined in terms of attractiveness and perseveration of youth. Heather’s internalised insecurities resurface in her heated confrontation with Harry. She accuses him of ‘prefer[ing] a younger woman’ and having ‘never been with a woman with pubic hair’. Both of which Harry indignantly refutes. Through this heated dialogue, audiences gain an insight into Heather’s vulnerability as a divorcee-to-be and interestingly, we are exposed to her assertiveness as she questions 'can’t [you] stomach a woman who stands up to you?'

Her conflicting ideologies on womanhood are best exemplified through Harry who almost admonishes her for embodying ‘some nineteen-fifties idea of relationships’ where ‘sex with someone’ does not necessarily entail ‘a lifelong commitment’. This is also the central conflict faced by all the characters who engage in seemingly non-committal relationships and false expectation. It is through these failed trysts that Rayson disapproves of uninhibited sexual impulses and by extension, criticises the increasing promiscuity in contemporary times. Essentially, Rayson’s fixation on causal sexual relationships mirrors her own opinion that there has been a paradigm shift in how we govern our sexuality and bodies since the 1950s.

Conservation in a World of Destruction

You can define conservation in terms of ‘preservation of… ’, ‘sustaining…’.

In the personal domain, Piper maintains that she and Harry ‘slept in separate tents’ to her boss Professor Dixon-Brown who also doubles as her potential sister-in-law. Conversely, Professor Dixon-Brown is forced to make an ethical compromise to prevent a career besmirching orchestrated by a mass-email insinuating a sordid romance between her and her newest collaborator, Harry Jewell. Her reputation as CAPE’s director is nearly tarnished by the vengeful force of a fling’s ex-wife.

Do I preserve my moral compass or my professional reputation?

Other thematic ideas that relate to this umbrella phrase include: misuse of authority and ethics of the digital world.  

Deleting emails is tantamount to rewording/reworking history. Professor Dixon-Brown’s attempt at salvaging/restoring her pristine moral code of ‘using her head, not her heart’ is encapsulated in her desperate dash to the IT servers at 1am in the morning to delete the incriminating email detailing her illicit relationship with Harry Jewell. This, undoubtedly, compromises both of their careers as professionals. Furthermore, their intimate fling casts Dixon-brown as a seducer/a woman who is easily compromised, which is untrue. However, it is the facades that count in the play.

4. Symbolism

Euthanising the female tiger quoll.

In this case, by virtue of being female, we can assume the tiger quoll ‘with a crushed spine’ has reproductive capabilities. The injured tiger quoll was a life-giving entity. Technically, if she recovered fully, the tiger quoll could be the solution to its endangered status. 

Andy’s swift decision to euthanise the animal in great pain could be in reference to his own desire to ‘make [his life] over’. He has inadvertently projected his own fears and anxieties over his GSS diagnosis onto the critically injured creature. Essentially, in the moment of mutual pain, Andy could resonate with the tiger quoll. 

One-Night Stands/Casual Sex/Non-Committed Relationships

My theory is that the images of casual sex serve as an ironic layer to a play titled Extinction . Both Piper and Heather unwittingly develop sexual relations with Jewell on a casual basis which symbolises how intercourse is no longer purely valued as a means for continuing the species. These ‘efforts’ for reproduction are fruitless. 

1. They show how mankind is centred on pleasure and instant gratification, prioritising the self above all matters. 

2. They demonstrate how modern living expectations, consumerism and the perpetuation of gluttony have led to a plateau in human evolution.

Real-life Amanda -> Tutor comment translation:

As I was reading the text, a recurring question kept nagging at me: Why are there intimate scenes sandwiched between the layers of ideological conflict and tension?

Tutor -> real-life Amanda translation:

Oh my goodness, are these characters THAT sexually frustrated? Someone’s heart is going to get broken and then we will have to analyse that in our essays. Ughhhhhh.

5. Stage Directions

Weather transitions.

1. The opening scene showcases how vets and environmentalists alike are surprised by the first sighting of a tiger quoll in a decade. Their surprise at this unprecedented occurrence is reinforced by the ‘wet and windy’ conditions. Typically, stormy weather is symbolic of chaos and unpredictability. 

2. During a particularly heated exchange between Andy and Piper, the interjection of ‘ thunder’ intensifies rising temperament in both characters. (p. 73)

3. When Andy discovers who ‘Harry bloody Jewell’ is, his growing disbelief and rising temperament are complemented by the off-stage sound of ‘ the roar of the motorbike’. The audiological stage cue characterises Jewell as an unwanted presence of chaos and noise. As the motorbike’s roar is a sound incongruent with the natural environment encapsulating Harry.

The Meaning of Fire

In Act Two: Scene One, the secretiveness of Harry and Piper’s tryst is underlined by the ‘vast blackness’ and their figures ‘in silhouette’. Furthermore, its fragile and tenuous connection is symbolically related to how both counterparts repeatedly ‘poke[] the fire’ to ensure its longevity through the night. Perhaps, this imagery is referring to how all temptation and sexual energy need to be moderated, which complements Piper’s reluctance to continue their budding relationship.

6. Sample Essay Topics

We've offered a few different types of essay topics below. For more sample essay topics, head over to our Extinction Study Guide to practice writing essays using the analysis you've learnt in this blog!

Theme-Based ‍

The play, Extinction demonstrates that compromise is necessary in the face of conflict.

Character-Based

As a self-professed ecologist, Heather Dixon-Brown’s decision to collaborate with 'the other’ stems from self-interest. Discuss.

Quote-Based

'I use my head, not my heart.' Extinction explores how human nature reacts under pressure and vice.

How does Hannie Rayson explore the idea of emotion in the play Extinction ?

7. Essay Topic Breakdown

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. This essay topic breakdown will focus on the THINK part of the strategy. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response .

Within the THINK strategy, we have 3 steps, or ABC. These ABC components are:

Step 1: A nalyse

Step 2: B rainstorm

Step 3: C reate a Plan

Theme-Based Prompt: Extinction is a play about personal integrity and environmental responsibility. Do you agree?

Step 1: analyse.

This essay prompt is an example of a theme-based prompt . It specifies both 'personal integrity' and 'environmental responsibility' as themes for you to consider. When faced with a theme prompt, I find it most helpful to brainstorm characters and author’s views that are relevant to the given themes, as well as considering more relevant themes that may not have been mentioned in the prompt itself.

Step 2: Brainstorm

• Personal integrity and environmental responsibility are central themes, but they aren’t the only themes that Extinction concerns itself with
• Environmental responsibility - political, financial, social, pretty much all characters (Piper and Harry as a focus)
• Personal integrity - truth versus lie, how we react under pressure, Dixon-Brown and her choice to delete the emails
• What is left over? Other kinds of responsibility, e.g. interpersonal relationships
• Interpersonal relationships, e.g. Piper and Andy (with a focus on Andy)

Step 3: Create a Plan

P1: Environmental responsibility

• Piper and Harry - the tiger quoll project
• Potential to talk about idealism versus pragmatism?

P2: Personal integrity

• Honesty, morality, ethics
• Dixon-Brown’s choice to delete the emails is motivated by selfishness, not by personal integrity

P3: Responsibility to act honestly and transparently in relationships Andy!

• He is both environmentally responsible and has personal integrity, but still struggles with his relationships until the very end of the play

If you find this helpful, then you might want to check out A Killer Text Guide: Extinction where we cover five A+ sample essays (written by a 50 study scorer!), with EVERY essay annotated and broken down on HOW and WHY these essays achieved A+ so that you know how to reach your English goals! Let's get started.

8. Resources

The Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response

Extinction by Hannie Rayson A+ Essay Topic

How To Write A Killer Text Response ( Study Guide)

How To Embed Quotes in Your Essay Like a Boss

How To Turn Text Response Essays From Average to A+

5 Tips for a Mic-Drop Worthy Essay Conclusion ‍

We’ve explored creative writing criteria, literary elements and how to replicate the text over on our The Ultimate Guide to VCE Creative Writing blog post . If you need a quick refresher or you’re new to creative writing, I highly recommend checking it out!

For many students, writing creative pieces can be slightly daunting. For some, it is about unleashing the writer within as the boundaries and thematic constraints that exist in Text Response are lifted. For others, it can be an opportunity to discover new writing styles, branching out from the generic T-E-E-L structure.

Formats of imaginative pieces include:

• short narratives,
• a personal diary entry ,
• chronicling the character's thoughts,
• and monologues.

Writing in an imaginative style allows you to draw from your own morals, views and feelings. You can weave in personal anecdotes, experiences, and metaphorical language which gives one's writing that pizazz and individualist factor!

Moreover, you can showcase how you have perceived and interpreted the characters within the novel/film, the landscapes they inhabit. Alternatively, you can step into different personas. For example, for the topic of conflict, I can write as an injured army medic, a doctor, a foreign correspondent and a war photographer.

However, imaginative writing also has many pitfalls students tumble into (do not despair; you can get out of it!):

1) Don't get too caught up in emotions and flowery language.

Great imaginative pieces are not only graded on how good your story telling skills are. More importantly, your teachers would be grading on the palpable links to the themes of the text and prompt you have been given.

In Year 11, when I wrote an imaginative piece, I went overboard with the flowery metaphorical language. My teacher said ‘Overall, the piece is good however, at some parts it sounded like purple prose.’ When I read it over now, I shudder a little.

2) In Reading and Creative, there is greater emphasis on extrapolating themes and ideas from your studied text.  

So, those radical and out-of-the box ideas and views you have in relation to the text can now be used.

For example, the overarching themes in  Every Man In This Village Is A Liar  encompass the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, inequality (the unequal status of women in Middle East), the effect of war on the physical body and the human psych and, how the media portrays war and violence. The starting point to planning any context piece is to use quotes and ideas within your text. Infer meaning from those quotes and main ideas and ask yourself:

• 'Does it hold a great degree of relevance to issues prevalent today?'
• 'Can I link it to my sac/exam prompt?' 

So, here's an example of planning a creative piece. Two of my favourite quotes from  Life of Galileo  are:

'Science is the rightful, much loved daughter of the church.'

‘Our ignorance is limitless; let us lop off a millimeter off it. Why try to be clever now that we at last have a chance of being less stupid.’

In essence, this conveys the overarching theme of science vs. religion, and how Church and the inquisition exploit the peoples' views through their own ignorance. Their fear of change, pioneering and gaining of new knowledge stems from the prospect of chaos if society's entrenched values are uprooted. I interpreted this as 'ignorance is not bliss' and instead, it breeds fear in people. This is in relevance with the tragic events that has occurred in recent years - acts of terrorism, and/or racially motivated attacks. In the context of our modern society, religion and science still maintain an intriguing and tumultuous relationship. As the advancement of technology and ethics are not at equilibrium, this is where controversy arises. Conversely, we now have to consider whether this relates to the prompt:

A person never knows who they truly are, until tested by conflict.

Possible idea for this example:

"Is it ethical to administer a new drug capable of rewiring and regenerating brain function at a neuronal level to someone who has sustained extensive brain damage? Is it deemed humane to potentially change a person's character? At what personal cost will this have? - Playing god."

Tips to achieve A+ in creative writing

1. ensure it is related to the text..

A lot of students believe that the reading and creating essay is exactly the same as the old context essay. However, there is a significant difference! While a creative context essay does not have to link to the text in any way and only needs to explore a certain idea (e.g. encountering conflict), the reading and creating essay needs to offer a relevant interpretation of the text as well as show understanding of the text’s messages and how the text creates meaning .

The easiest way to write a creative response that links clearly to the text is to write about a scenario that is related to the plot line. You can do this by writing a continuation of the storyline (i.e. what happens after the end?), or by filling in gaps in the plot line which the author did not explicitly outline (what happens behind the scenes that caused the outcome?) In this way, your response will be completely original and still demonstrate an understanding of the world of the text.

2. Write in a way that shows understanding of how the text creates meaning.

When creating your response, be aware of the features present in your text (such as characters, narrative, motifs etc) that you can use in your own essay. For example, if the text is narrated from a first-person perspective, you may also mimic this in your essay. Or, you could tell it in first-person from another character’s point of view to demonstrate another interpretation of the text. You may also include motifs from the text into your own response. But be careful when making decisions about structure, conventions and language. If the text is written in very formal and concise language, it is probably not a good idea to use slang. Similarly, if the text is a play, structuring your response as a script might be a better choice than writing a poem!

3. Explore the explicit and implied ideas and values in the texts.

Lastly, remember that whilst it is a creative response, your purpose is NOT to tell a nice story but to explore the ideas, values and messages left by the author! There will always be various interpretations regarding these values, and you can express your understanding of the text through your portrayal of certain characters, or through the events in your response. For example, if you were studying Measure for Measure and wanted to explore how human nature cannot be restrained or limited by law and punishment, you could write a continuation of the play in which the city of Vienna has reverted to its original state of moral decay.

4. Show, don't tell

Creative essays are great because they offer interesting and unique stories; however, there is one common downfall that occurs in writing. Some students create pieces that are  too  straightforward. Rather than using vocabulary, imagery and symbolism to express a point, they simply write down a statement that sums up what they wish to say. Your aim is to invite the reader to  experience  the story through your words. This can be done through the character’s thoughts, feelings, actions etc. Thus the well-known phrase among writers, ‘ Show, don’t tell’ . Keeping this idea in mind turn you into a much more successful writer – and you’ll see the difference!

Tell: Katie was very happy.

Show: Katie’s face lifted. Little wrinkles appeared around her bright eyes, her dimples made an appearance that dug into her cheeks as a big grin emerged to show her perfect teeth.

Tell: She felt horrible for the weeping children.

Show: Guilt throbbed inside her as she stared at the weeping children. Her heart pounded against her chest, her hands trembling beside her still body, her brain screaming at her to do  something .

Tell: I was scared.

Show: I hear my breathing; heavy, and rapid. I shut my eyes tightly. I can feel goosebumps running up my arms and down my back.

To test whether or not you are ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’, think about whether or not your sentence leaves room for questions. In Example 1, ‘Katie was very happy’ would leave the reader thinking – what thought or action showed that she was happy? Whereas ‘show’ demonstrated that she was happy without directly stating it.

The key is to go into the finer details of your story!

Finally, have fun and enjoy the process of planning a creative narrative, let your imagination run a little wild and rein it in with your knowledge! Hopefully these tips were helpful and you are now more confident and informed on the Reading and Creating response! 

This blog post was written by Amanda Lau, Rosemary Chen, and Lisa Tran.

Like a House on Fire is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

• Historical Context
• Essay Planning

1. Historical Context

Kennedy’s anthology of fifteen short stories, Like a House on Fir e, explores the impacts of familial and social issues on an individual’s sense of identity and humanity, illustrating the vast spectrum of human condition. Having lived a majority of her life in Victoria, Australia, Kennedy’s collection follows the stories of various protagonists whose voices are characteristic of Australian culture and society. As the text is set in the backdrop of rapid Australian modernisation, the novel also depicts the paradoxical nature of technology, as various characters are depicted to be torn between confronting or embracing this fundamental change. Despite approaching the stories of characters conflicted by modern and social challenges with both humour and cynicism, Kennedy’s lack of judgement is notable; it is with this empathetic stance that she is able to the universal nature of human emotions to her readership. 

Kennedy explores the theme of identity mainly through physical injury, as various characters with physical trauma find themselves to be agonisingly limited within the confines of their condition. In Like a House on Fire , the narrator’s sense of identity becomes intertwined with his subsequently decreased masculinity, as his back injury leaves him unable to physically take care of his family, and his wife begins to undertake stereotypically masculine roles within the household. In tandem with this, Roley’s wife in Little Plastic Shipwreck is rendered humourless and witless due to her brain injury, distorting her once enthusiastic self into one shadowed by her illness; further emphasising the link between physical and mental identity. 

Order and Disorder

The inherent tension between order and chaos is continually examined throughout the anthology, particularly in Like a House on Fire, in which perfectionistic order and scatter minded disorder are embodied in the unnamed narrator and his wife respectively. As the two individuals are unable to establish a compromise between their contrasting personalities, Kennedy suggests that this lack of cooperation is the core reason for the deterioration of their marriage, and their subsequent misery. The notion of disorder is also symbolised by the domestic setting itself, as Kennedy depicts various characters who feel pervasive ennui and dissatisfaction within the ‘chaotic mess’ of their household environments.

Each protagonist in the collection is portrayed as possessing some object of longing, whether it be material or emotional. Kennedy utilises scattered verses of prose within her writing to communicate these human desires, building upon their significance poetically. In Static , Anthony attempts to negotiate his own wishes with those of his wife and family, leading him to wonder whether anything present in his life has been created by his own will or merely his eagerness to please others. His desire for various types of happiness, embodied in material concepts such as money or children, suggest that the human condition is built upon the foundation of dissatisfaction; that innate longing is what ultimately defines us as human.

The theme of love is present in each story of the collection, often used as an instrument through which the characters can heal and grow from their physical or spiritual pain. While suggesting that true love endures all hardship in Like a House on Fire , Kennedy also illustrates the various sacrifices one must make in order to protect the ones you love. Such is depicted in Five-Dollar Family , as a new mother makes the difficult decision of leaving her ‘loser’ boyfriend to give her child a chance at the best life possible, despite the unfortunate situation he has been born into. 

Communication

The vital importance of communication within families is emphasised in the anthology, as the lack of effective communication perceivably exacerbates dysfunctional relationships. The crushing regret of a son is explored in Ashes , as he laments his lack of communication with his father who he can no longer speak to. However, Kennedy empathetically depicts the difficulty of communicating potentially painful messages to loved ones in Waiting , as the protagonist anxiously agonises over the prospect of telling her husband that she may have another miscarriage following an excruciating string of lost children. 

In tandem with longing, Kennedy asserts that empathy is vital to the survival and happiness of a human being. This notion is aptly depicted in Little Plastic Shipwreck , in which the death of Samson the popular show dolphin results in Roley’s revelation of his manager’s complete lack of empathy, and subsequently the abundance of his own. Similarly, the salient importance of empathy is emphasised in Flexion , as the cold-heated and harsh victim of a brutal tractor incident repairs his marriage by allowing himself to feel more empathy for those who have supported his recovery and been understanding of his bitterness. 

The anthology centres around the concept of family, as both dramatic events unfold directly due to altercations and misunderstanding within the household. By depicting both the dramatic and mundane events that contribute to creating dysfunctional families, Kennedy asserts that kindness and understanding is vital to the maintenance of a healthy and loving family. The power of family is also depicted in Like a House on Fire , as the protagonist’s dissatisfaction with life is instantly washed away by the actions of his children, who remind him that despite his life-threatening injury, his family is his constant source of love and support. 

If you'd like to see how themes like these can be identified and analysed in one of Kennedy's short stories, you might like to check out our Close Analysis Of 'Cake' From Like A House On Fire blog post!

By the way, to download a PDF version of this blog for printing or offline use, click here !

3. Essay Planning

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response .

Question 1: ‘Gender plays no role in the tragic identities of the characters in Like a House on Fire.’ To what extent do you agree?

Suggested contention: despite the ubiquitous nature of hardship, the short stories of like a house on fire explore the effect of gender roles on individuals’ sense of self-worth., body paragraph 1: .

• Pain is depicted to have no partiality to either gender in Like a House on Fire. 
• Much of the trauma explored throughout the anthology is a result of lack of emotional connection or familial misunderstanding arising through individual actions, rather than due to stereotypes associated with gender. 
• Kennedy suggests that there is no gender more at fault for these issues, but rather that it is mindset that determines one’s identity and fate, especially in relationships. For example, just as the protagonist’s wife in Flexion makes the mistake of cruelly wielding her physical dominance over her husband, the passive boyfriend in Five-Dollar Family is cruel in his apathy toward his girlfriend and their newborn baby.     

Body paragraph 2: 

• Despite this, Kennedy explores the social views that plague men as a result of their gender, compelling to limit their identity to meet these fatal expectations. 
• The concept of masculinity is explored throughout the collection, often presented as an inferiority complex for many male protagonists due to their physical disabilities. The societal idea that men should be physically strong in order to be able to provide for his family is heavily condemned in Like a House on Fire , as Kennedy depicts the destructive consequences of such on one’s sense of self-worth. 
• For example, the narrator of Like a House on Fire perceives his own physical weakness as unmanly, and subsequently himself as an unfit and useless father. As he is unable to pick up the  family’s Christmas tree, the tree seller looks towards him with disdainful judgment, perceiving the protagonist’s wife lifting the tree to be ‘destroying the social fabric’. 
• In addition to this, the narrator’s extreme attempt to physically help the family results in the destruction of the precious family nativity scene, symbolising the idea that social constructs of masculinity inevitably ends in destruction, as the narrator’s inability to recognise his physical limitations only exacerbates the problem. 

Body paragraph 3: 

• In tandem with this, the collection of short stories also examines the social limitations placed upon women solely due to their gender. 
• The difficulty for women to balance their roles of mother and career woman is explored in Cake , in which the protagonist Liz fails to separate one from the other, leading her to feel dissatisfaction in both. Kennedy ostensibly denounces the social expectations of women to be domestic helpers, as Liz faces judgement at work for bearing a child, whereas her husband is exempt from any judgement despite it also being his son. 
• The complicated and personal concept of pregnancy is further depicted in Waiting , as the protagonist agonises over the fact that she may lose another child due to a miscarriage. As the fear of disappointing others takes over her own pain and anguish, readers of the collection are invited to consider the harrowing expectations placed on women to be successful mothers. 

Question 2: ‘Like a House on Fire shows that family relationships are never perfect.’ Do you agree?

Suggested contention: through the constant depiction of dysfunctional families in like a house on fire, kennedy asserts the importance of communication and empathy in repairing broken relationships, and suggests that perfect families are unrealistic. .

• Every story in the collection depicts a family undergoing some kind of hardship, whether it be financial, emotional or spiritual. Through her depiction of broken families, Kennedy suggests that emotional stress and tension within families is sometimes inevitable, even in a loving and supportive environment. 
• The title of the collection, Like a House on Fire , is emblematic of the dual nature of families, as while the phrase symbolises the chaos and disorder of one’s family dynamic, it also symbolises the love and extreme passion that often coexists alongside it. 
• For example, while the protagonist in Like a House on Fire reminisces upon the ‘fiery’ sexual and emotional happiness of their marriage, he also deplores their current period of domestic stress, describing it as a ‘house on fire’. 
• Kennedy depicts the need for family members to engage in open and honest communication with one another to overcome the effects of trauma. 
• For example, in Ashes , Chris is only able to find closure by finally understanding the mindset off his parents through effective communication. His newly found ability to express his true emotions to his mother allows him to finally perceive the grief that was masked by her supposedly ‘cruel’ actions, and subsequently finally achieve a stable relationship with her. 
• Kennedy also advocates for the exercise of empathy between family members in order to find harmony within dysfunction. 
• This is apparent in Flexion , in which the seemingly emotionless protagonist and his wife undergo their respective journeys of expressing empathy for the other. As their marriage significantly improves due to their increased understanding of each other, Kennedy promotes the importance of vulnerability and openness within families. 

Beyond the Basics: 

How does Kennedy’s short story format add to the reader’s understanding of the themes uncovered in the novel? 

• The range of diverse, Australian voices depicted in the anthology work to portray the vast spectrum of the human condition. 
• The concise narrative present in each of the fifteen stories work to provide the readership with an extremely personal point of view that emphasises the emotions and mindset of the protagonist, furthering the sense of authorial empathy and compassion. 
• It is through this almost voyeuristic advantage we subsequently possess as readers, that we are able to fully understand the depth of each character’s humanity and sense of identity, as well as the various struggles that follow the course of an individual’s life.
• Kennedy’s ordering of the short stories also contributes to the reader’s depth of understanding. There is no apparent chronological order present in the collection, but rather a varied order of stories, depicting its diverse range of voices. For example, while the key themes and tones of the anthology remain consistent throughout, other factors such as age, gender and life experience of the protagonist vary in order to provide contrasting character viewpoints. 
• As such, this variation in narrative voice allows Kennedy to present her stories as universal human experiences, emphasising the ubiquitous nature of the themes present in Like a House on Fire . 
• Finally, the varied structure within each individual story lends an optimistic tone that underscores the entirety of Kennedy’s work. While some stories such as Flexion begin with the inciting event, others emphasise the chain of events that occur in leading up to the key event, as depicted in Ashes . As the undertones of hope and faith are present throughout the collection, the varied plot structure of each story allows Kennedy to assert that no matter the circumstance of hardship, one can always find a glimpse of optimism within its depths. 

If you'd like to see another essay topic breakdown, you might like to check out our Like a House on Fire Essay Topic Breakdown blog post!

4. Essay Topics

The following essay topics are extracted from our Like a House on Fire Study Guide :

• In Like a House on Fire, Kennedy illustrates that perfect families do not exist, and that family dysfunction is inevitable. To what extent do you agree?
• The characters in Like a House on Fire are largely defined by social expectations of their gender. Discuss.
• In Like a House on Fire, how does Kennedy show that in even times of hardship, human strength will prevail?
• ‘The range of narrative points of views used in Like a House on Fire illustrate the characters’ deeply personal responses to life’s challenges.’ Discuss.
• ‘…As the lifetime habit of keeping his responses to himself closed his mouth in a firm and well-worn line.’ How does Kennedy present communication as a key issue in the relationships in Like a House on Fire?

If you'd like to see A+ essays on these essay topics, complete with annotations on HOW and WHY the essays achieved A+ so you can emulate this same success, then you'll definitely want to check out our Like a House on Fire Study Guide ! In it, we also cover advanced discussions on topics like authorial views and values, symbols and motifs and context completely broken down into easy-to-understand concepts so you can smash your next SAC or exam! Check it out here .

5. Resources

Download a PDF version of this blog for printing or offline use

Like a House on Fire Essay Topic Breakdown

How To Get An A+ On Your Like A House On Fire Essay

Close Analysis Of 'Cake' From Like A House On Fire

How To Write A Killer Text Response Study Guide

How to embed quotes in your essay like a boss

How to turn your Text Response essays from average to A+

5 Tips for a mic drop worthy essay conclusion

The Importance of the Introduction

‍ This blog was updated on 05/10/2020.

2. Characters

4. Literary Devices

5. Important Quotes

7. A+ Essay Topic Breakdown

Pride and Prejudice is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice , follows the titular character of Elizabeth Bennet as she and her family navigate love, loyalty and wealth.

When Mrs. Bennet hears that a wealthy, young and eligible bachelor, Mr. Bingley, has moved into the manor of Netherfield Park nearby, she hopes to see one of her daughters marry him. Of the five daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, Jane takes an early liking to Mr. Bingley despite his friend, Mr. Darcy, initial coldness and apathy towards her younger sister Elizabeth. Though Mr. Darcy’s distaste soon grows to attraction and love.

While Jane and Mr. Bingley begin to fall for each other, Elizabeth receives and declines a marriage proposal from her supercilious cousin Mr. Collins, who eventually comes to marry Elizabeth’s dear friend Charlotte. While Mr. Darcy is in residence at Netherfield Park, Elizabeth finds and enjoys the company of a young officer named Mr. Wickham who too has a strong disliking for Mr. Darcy. Mr. Wickham claims it was Mr. Darcy who cheated him out of his fortune, which then deepens Elizabeth's initial ill impression of the arrogant man.

After a ball is held at Netherfield Park, the wealthy family quits the estate, leaving Jane heartbroken. Jane is then invited to London by her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner, which Mr. Darcy fails to tell Mr. Bingley as he has persuaded him not to court Jane because of her lesser status.

When Elizabeth visits her newly married friend Charlotte, she meets Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s (Mr. Darcy’s Aunt) other nephew, Colonel Fitzwilliam. While there, Mr. Darcy appears and proposes to Elizabeth unexpectedly claiming he loves and admires her. To Mr. Darcy’s surprise, Elizabeth refuses as she blames him for ruining Mr. Wickam’s hopes of success and for keeping Jane and Mr. Bingley apart. Mr. Darcy later apologies in a letter and admits to persuading Mr. Bingley not to pursue Jane, but argues that her love for him was not obvious. In the letter, he also denies Wickam’s accusations and explains that Wickham had intended to elope with his sister for her fortune.

Elizabeth joins her Aunt and Uncle in visiting Mr. Darcy’s great estate of Pemberley under the impression he would be absent. It is there that Elizabeth learns from the housekeeper that Mr. Darcy is a generous landlord. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy then have a chance encounter after he returns home ahead of schedule. Following her previous rejection of him, Mr. Darcy has attempted to reform his character and presents himself amiably to Elizabeth’s Aunt and Uncle as she begins to warm up to him.

Mr Darcy happens upon Elizabeth as she receives the terrible news that Lydia has run off with Wickam in an event that could ruin her family. Mr. Darcy then going out in search for Wickham and Lydia to hurry their nuptials. When Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy return to Netherfield Park, Elizabeth is pleased to see him though Darcy shows no sign of his regard for her. Jane and Mr. Bingley soon become engaged.

Soon thereafter, Lady Catherine visits the Bennets and insists that Elizabth never agree to marry her nephew. Darcy hears of Elizabeth's refusal, and when he next comes, he proposes a second time which she accepts, his pride then humbled and her prejudices overturned.

• Elizabeth Bennet
• Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy
• Jane Bennet
• Mr. Charles Bingley
• Mrs. Bennet
• George Wickham
• Lydia Bennet
• Mr. Collins
• Miss Bingley
• Lady Catherine De Bourgh
• Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner
• Charlotte Lucas
• Georgiana Darcy
• Mary Bennet
• Catherine Bennet

Within the text the theme of pride is ever present as it plays a major role in how Austen’s characters present themselves, their attitudes and how they treat each other. For much of the novel pride blinds both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth of their true feelings and hence becomes something both characters must overcome. While Darcy’s pride makes him look down upon those not immediately within his social circle, Elizabeth takes so much pride in her ability to judge the character of others that she refuses to amend her opinions even when her initial judgements are proven wrong. Indeed, this is why Elizabeth despises the benign Darcy early on in the text, but initially takes a liking to the mendacious Wickham. By the denouement of the novel, both Datcy and Elizabeth have overcome their pride by encouraging and supporting each others own personal evolution. Indeed, as Darcy sheds his elitism Elizabeth comes to realise the importance of revaluation.

The tendency of others to judge one another based on perceptions, rather than who they are and what they value becomes a point of prolific discussion within Pride and Prejudice . Indeed, the title of the text clearly implies the related nature of pride and prejudice as both Darcy and Elizabeth are often shown to make the wrong assumptions; Darcy’s assumptions grounded in his social prejudice whereas Elizabeth’s is rooted in her discernment led astray by her excessive pride. As Austen subtly mocks the two lovers biases, she gives the impression that while such flaws are common faulting someone else for the prejudice is easy while recognising it in yourself is hard. While Austen’s representation of prejudice is aligned with personal development and moral growth as she wittingly condemns those who refuse to set aside their prejudices like Lady Catherine and Caroline.

The family unit that Austen displays with Pride and Prejudice becomes the social and domestic sphere as it forms the emotional center of the novel in which she grounds her analysis and discussion. Not only does the family determine the social hierarchy and standing of its members but provides the intellectual and moral support for its children. In the case of the Bennet family, Austen reveals how the individuals identity and sense of self is molded within the family as she presents Jane and Elizabeth as mature, intelligent and witty and lydia as a luckless fool. Not only this, Austen reveals the emotional spectrum that lives within every family as shown through Elizabeth’s varying relationship with her parents; the tense relationship with her mother and sympathy she shares with her father.

At the center of its plot, Pride and Prejudice examines the complex inequality that governs the relationships between men and women and the limited options that women have in regards to marriage. Austen portrays a world in which the socio-economic relationship between security and love limits the woman and her choices as it based exclusively on a family’s social rank and connections. Indeed, the expectations of the Bennet sisters, as members of the upper class is to marry well instead of work. As women can not inherit their families estate nor money, their only option is to marry well in the hope of attaining wealth and social standing. Through this, Austen explains Mrs. Bennet’s hysteria about marrying off her daughters. Yet Austen is also shown to be critical of those who marry purely for security, thereby offering Elizabth as the ideal, who initially refuses marriage as she refutes financial comfort but ends up marrying for love.

Class and Wealth

As Austen focuses much of her novel on the impacts of class and wealth, she makes clear of the system that favours the rich and powerful and often punishes the weak and poor. Characters like Lady Catherine, whose enforcement of rigid hierarchical positions often leads her to mistreatment of others. Other characters like Mr. Collins and Caroline are depicted as void of genuine connection as they are unable to live and love outside the perimeter of their social standing. In contrast, characters such as Bingley and the Gardiners offer a respectable embodiment of wealth and class through their kindness and manners. Indeed, Austen does not criticise the entire class system as she offers examples that serve to demonstrate the decency and respectability. Darcy embodies all that a high-class gentleman should as though he is initially presented as flawed and arrogant, it becomes clear as the novel progresses that he is capable of change. Always generous and compassionate, his involvement with Elizabeth helps to brings his nurturing nature to the foreground, evident in his attempts to help the foolish lydia. Ultimately, Austen suggest through Darcy’s and Elizabeth's union that though class and wealth are restrictive, they do not determine one’s character nor who one is capable of loving.

• Literary Devices
• Symbolism, imagery and allegories
• Writing style
• Three Act plot

Important Quotes

• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (ch.1)

When writing on any text in Text Response, it is essential to use quotes and analyse them.

Let’s take this quote, for example.

“it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”

This is the opening line of the novel. It is satirical, ironic and mocking in tone. Austen makes fun of the notion that wealthy bachelors must be wanting to marry in order to be valued in society. By using this tone, she subverts this “truth universally acknowledged” and encourages readers to question this societal presumption of wealth and marriage.

Have a look at the following quotes and ask yourself, ‘how would I analyse this quote?’:

• “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” (ch.3)
• "An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do." (ch.20)
• “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (ch.34)
• “They were all of them warm in her admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” (ch.43)
• “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.” (ch.58)

1. What do the various relationships shown in Pride and Prejudice tell us about love, marriage and society?

2. Austen shows that even those of the best moral character can be blinded by their pride and prejudice . To what extent do you agree?

3. Elizabeth Bennet holds a radical view of marriage for her time . What impact does this attitude have on the other characters' lives and relationships ? Discuss.

For more sample essay topics, head over to our Pride and Prejudice Study Guid e to practice writing essays using the analysis you've learnt in this blog!

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. This essay topic breakdown will focus on the THINK part of the strategy. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response because it’ll dramatically enhance how much you can take away from the following essays and more importantly, to then be able to apply these in your own writing.

Step 3: C reate a Plan  

Character-based Prompt: Elizabeth Bennet holds a radical view of marriage for her time. What impact could this attitude have on the other characters' lives and relationships? Discuss. 

The following comes essay topic breakdown comes from our Pride and Prejudice Study Guide:

Step 1: Analyse 

Elizabeth Bennet holds a radical view of marriage for her time . What impact could this attitude have on the other characters' lives and relationships ? Discuss.

A character based essay prompt is pretty self-explanatory as the prompt will have a specific focus on one character or a group of characters. While they may look relatively simple and straightforward, a lot of students struggle with character based questions as they find it is hard to discuss ideas in a lot of depth. With that in mind, it's important that we strive for what the author is saying; what is the author trying to convey through this specific character? What do they represent? Do they advocate for specific ideas or does the author use this character to condemn a certain idea and action?  

This question is looking at the attitude Elizabeth Bennet has in regard to the expectation and institution of marriage and how her view could impact the lives of the people around her. As always, we want to make sure that we not only identify our key words but define them. I started by first defining/ exploring the attitude Elizabeth holds towards the institution of marriage ; as marriage was not only an expectation in the times of regency England but a means to secure future financial security , Elizabeth’s outlook that an individual should marry only for the purpose of happiness and love was not only radical but dangerous . Her outlook, while noble, could and did put her family at jeopardy of being cast out from their estate as without a union between one of the Bennet daughters and Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins would have every right to do so as the only male inherent. I also looked at the wider implications Elizabeth’s outlook could have on the lives of the other characters such as Charlotte , Darcy and Bingley .

Step 3: Plan

Contention : Your contention relates to your interpretation of the essay prompt and the stance you’re going to take – i.e. are you in agreement, disagreement, or both to an extent.

While radical for her time, Elizabeth's progressive view of marriage can be seen to advocate for the rights of women and love and happiness but also, can jeopardise the livelihoods of those around her as Elizabeth is guided by selfish motives. 

P1: The radical view of marriage Elizabeth holds can be viewed as selfish and guided by her own self interest which is shown to negatively impact the lives of her family. 

P2: As Elizabeth diverts from the traditional approach to marriage, she encourages her friends and loved ones to follow their own hearts and morals rather than society's expectations. 

P3: Because Elizabeth is depicted as a bold and beautiful woman, she is unable to recognise that her radical view is a luxury that not all characters have access to. 

If you'd like to see an A+ essay on the essay topic above, complete with annotations on HOW and WHY the essays achieved A+ so you can emulate this same success, then you'll definitely want to check out our Pride and Prejudice Study Guide: A Killer Text Guide! In it, we also cover themes, characters, views and values, metalanguage and have 4 other sample A+ essays completely annotated so you can kill your next SAC or exam! Check it out here ."

Stories We Tell is a different beast to anything many of you will have encountered previously in your English studies. This blog is a continuation of the above Stories We Tell YouTube video so make sure you watch it first!

With interviews, archival footage, extradiegetic film and sound elements alongside recreated scenes, the documentary can seem very overbearing and convoluted upon first viewing. However, once you have a holistic understanding of the text a plethora of opportunity for high-level analysis and discussion presents itself. Stories We Tell is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

To begin, watch our introduction covering background and themes below:

Stories We Tell centres around director Sarah Polley attempting to piece together her family history. While she endeavours to understand who her mother Diane was and finally learn the identity of her biological father, Director Polley also poses a number of questions to viewers surrounding the nature of the truth and the importance of stories in our lives. The film is comprised of interviews with Diane’s loved ones, home movies from the Polley family, extra-diegetic newspaper clippings, recreated Super 8 footage and excerpts from other productions - all of which contribute to Sarah’s inquisition into the notion of truth, and demonstration that how a story is told can shape how it is received.

NB: I have used ‘Sarah’ when discussing Sarah Polley as a character, and ‘Polley’ when describing her as the director.

The idea of the truth, and what comprises it is a constant question being answered through the documentary. Before exploring Polley’s depiction of the truth, it’s important that we fully understand what the truth is. One definition characterises it as the burden of confirming with fact or reality, and with this in mind it becomes easier to appreciate and analyse the intricacies of Stories We Tell . Polley creates a distinction between universal truths - which are accepted by all as fact, and subjective truths which can vary on individual interpretations. For example, Michael conflicts with the rest of the family while discussing his relationship with Sarah after Diane’s passing. Mark details Michael’s obsession with “playing solitaire” , Susy depicts the house as one of “complete and utter disuse” , while Joanna observed him “smoking all day” and perceived Sarah as “just a little kid who nobody was looking after.” Michael, however, has fond memories of his time spent with Sarah - he believed he was “lucky to have her to look after as well as himself” , called their time together a “great period” - eventuating in him feeling “closer to [Sarah] than any of the other children.” ‍

Individual recollections of Michael’s actions and demeanor during this period belong to each storyteller, and form the basis for what they consider to be the ‘truth’ regarding Michael and Sarah’s relationship. By presenting contrasting accounts of the same event, Polley reveals her stance on the idea of truth - being that it is entirely subjective and open to interpretation, centred around the perceptions of each individual at any moment in time. It is entirely possible that Michael did “smoke all day” and feel a sense of increased “close[ness]” with Sarah, but due to the variability of the human memory, this is impossible to state with any certainty - illustrating the fallible nature of universal truths. ‍

Storytelling

Stories and how they are told are a constant factor during the documentary - beginning with the title, ‘ Stories We Tell’ and concluding with Geoff’s admission that he and Diane did sleep together during their days acting in Montreal. For example, Polley’s use of the inclusive ‘we’ signifies her interest in storytelling on a grand scale; not merely the stories she unravels onscreen. As a result, one can argue that her purpose for the documentary extends far beyond the action captured onscreen and in fact involves Polley encouraging others to share their own stories - enabling them to “create shape out of mess” as she has done through the presentation of her own family story.

By placing Geoff’s confession at the conclusion of the documentary (and casting doubt on all of the discoveries she has made throughout Stories We Tell) Polley emphasises how storytelling allows a “clearer picture” of the past to develop - as he had previously denied any sexual history with Diane, labelling them just friends. As such his admission of a relationship with her symbolises the manner in which the truth can be “refracted” over time, leading to many “shifts and fictions” while clouding “what really happened.” Therefore, Polley reveals how storytelling can provide some semblance of closure to us, in a world where the truth is “ephemeral” and “difficult to pin down.”

While Polley undoubtedly utilises Stories We Tell to express her views on truth and storytelling, fundamentally it remains a story of the Polley family, and what holds it together. The narrative begins with the ‘storytellers’ providing loving, yet somewhat conflicting recollections of Diane as Polley seeks to understand who she was. Family members buoyantly describe her as “infectious” and “enthusiastic” , while friends paint a more mysterious picture of Diane as a “woman of secrets” , alluding to her alleged infidelity. The closeness of the Polley family is evident throughout their discussion of Diane’s first marriage, universally criticising the outcome of the court case in which she was labeled “ unrepentant ” for “ allow[ing] her desire for a career to overtop her “domestic duties” - resulting in Diane losing custody of John and Susy, which proved to be a major strain on Diane and the family.

Despite this closeness, Mark expresses his disappointment in Diane following the confirmation of Harry being Sarah’s father - detailing the she “broke the rules” and “broke a kind of taboo” when she had the affair. This is the only real example of any member of the family disapproving of Diane’s past - indicating Polley’s desire to demonstrate that families are not perfect, and bring their own faults and shortcomings. In spite of this, however, their care the family shows for one another is clearly demonstrated through their interviews with Polley, highlighting to the audience that by staying close, families can better cope with the trauma of losing a loved one and in time, be able to honour their memory by sharing their stories.

Putting it all together

While analysing the themes in isolation can provide a good foundation for success studying Stories We Tell , looking at how they interact and interrelate enables students to demonstrate their higher-order skills. Truth, storytelling and family are intrinsically linked - for example: Polley’s presentation of conflicting accounts and recollections of Diane demonstrates the complexity of her family, while showcasing her stance on the inability of individuals to find universal truths. As a result of this, the importance of storytelling is highlighted as a means to provide some understanding of our past - and how it affects us in the present and shapes who we are. Including different interpretations of the text and the context in which Polley grew up and created the text can also help to improve your writing to A+ standard - and this will be covered in the blog post that acts as a continuation of this video! *end video*

Following on from the video, the content below is an expansion upon Stories We Tell .

Author views and values

One of the golden rules of A+ essay writing is to understand that everything contained within the text is seen to be a deliberate choice by the author. With this in mind, we can start considering how Polley’s choice to include certain snippets or position footage in a particular way highlights her views.

The truth is ephemeral - can it ever be known?

Throughout Stories We Tell , Polley continually emphasises the impossibility of knowing a truth with absolute certainty. Her stance is shaped by the clouded nature of her paternity and family history, exemplified within the text by the varying accounts of Diane’s personality. Portraying her as “infectious” and “enthusiastic”, Polley captures Diane dancing - cleverly lighting up her face, thus symbolising her warm nature. However, juxtaposing this is Deidre’s assertion that Diane was a “woman of secrets” - bolstered by Polley’s recreation of a covert phone call in which Diane ponders the identity of Sarah’s biological father. Through her presentation of contrasting recollections of her mother, Director Polley showcases the relativity of truth within her own family, inviting the audience to question the meaning of truth in their own lives, highlighting that “you can never get to an answer.” As a result, Stories We Tell predominantly displays the impossibility of one knowing a singular truth.

Subjective truths can be found

Continuing the theme of ambiguity within her synthetic documentary, Sarah Polley demonstrates that individuals can develop their own interpretations of the truth, in spite of her stance on the validity of singular truths. Within Stories We Tell, Polley illustrates this by depicting the contrasting recollections of Michael’s relationship with Sarah as a child. Supporting Joanna’s assertion that Sarah was “just a little kid that nobody was looking after”, Polley ironically captures a full shot of Michael in the middle of the couch, portraying him as a distinctive presence in the scene in spite of Joanna’s belief that Michael isn’t present in Sarah’s life. Conversely, Michael recalls his time with Sarah as “a great period in [his] life” - a claim reinforced by Polley, via recreated Super 8 footage of the pair assembling a snowman, symbolising their construction of a new beginning following Diane’s death. Through this interaction, Polley portrays Michael as a compassionate and loving father - juxtaposing this with Joanna’s description, revealing to her audience the ability of individuals to find subjective truths - encouraging them to do so in their own lives in spite of searching for universal truths.

The importance of stories

Building on her depiction of the truth as fallible, Polley thus emphasises our need to tell stories, illustrating how they allow one to better understand themselves, their families and the world around them. Within Stories We Tell, unearthing the ‘story’ of Diane takes centre stage for a majority of the production, and Polley hints towards this goal via her inclusion of Bon Iver’s folk ballad Skinny Love. The line “pour a little salt, we were never here” plays on the use of salt to heal wounds - implying that the storytellers aim to ‘heal’ their pain felt from Diane’s death via telling “the whole story” they have developed from their memories of her. Moreover, the phrase “who the hell was I” addresses Polley’s attempt to “form [Diane]” by piecing together the various second hand accounts and layers of connected stories from her loved ones - allowing her to ascertain a clearer understanding of her family history. Polley utilises stories to “[clear] up...the smoke” in her past,” praising the idea that such tales shed a light on areas of confusion and uncertainty - while also allowing one to “[cope]” and make sense of their heritage. Through her demonstration that stories enable individuals to move past the “small and large details that vary”, Polley prompts the audience to seek more information about their own families, and relay their own family stories.

Throughout the documentary, Polley demonstrates, both explicitly and implicitly, a number of her inherent values. Drawing upon these, referring to them in your essays and (most importantly!) connecting them to your analysis of the text is a great way to get ahead of the pack and maximise your marks both in your sac and the exam.

NB: Much of the excerpts contained here are analysing specific scenes/motifs, and then linking such thinking to the theories listed below. I found this to be a coherent and structured way of including this deeper level of thinking in the publication of my own essays!

Feminist lens on the social values of 1960’s Canada

By depicting extradiegetic footage of Diane singing Ain’t Misbehavin, Director Polley provides a feminist commentary on the dominant social values of 1960’s Canada; the lyrics “I walk the streets to balance the sheets” and “what is an honest girl to do” metaphorically representing the perception of Diane by the court and wider society - denied “custody” of her children due to her “adultery.”

By inserting a newspaper clipping criticising Diane’s choice to let her “desire for a career” to supercede her “domestic duties”, Polley illustrates the difficulties faced by aspirational women in such a restrictive society - condemning the treatment of her mother while calling on female viewers to continually campaign for equality of opportunity in their societies.

Outlining the fact that Diane was not considered “ladylike”, Polley sardonically ridicules the “controlling” nature of such rigid gender stereotypes and their effect on Diane losing her children - exhibiting her desire to empower her female audience to “save [themselves]” from similar situations and “ma[ke] a choice to live.”

Postmodernist interpretation of the truth

As I’ve discussed at length in this blog post, Polley continually reminds us as an audience that the truth is not set in stone and is in fact a flexible, relative concept. Such a line of thinking directly correlates to the postmodernism literary theory - notable for being hostile to absolutes such as truth, and not creating a text in isolation. ‍

Polley continually blurs the line between fact and fiction within Stories We Tell - an ode to the postmodernist school of thought she is following. Depicting recreated Super-8 footage capturing herself directing the actress Rebecca Jenkins who ‘plays’ the ‘role’ of the younger Diane, Polley seeks to somewhat deceive her audience as to what is real and what is derivative - prompting the audience to “consider what was real and what wasn’t… in their own minds.” As a result, she seeks to promote the validity of the postmodernist critical theory, prompting philosophical discussions between individuals about the variability of memory and whether any absolute truths can ever be truly known.

Intertextuality

Another feature of postmodernism in literature is the relationship between one text to another. In her creation of Stories We Tell , Sarah Polley exacerbates this relationship, including a number of extradiegetic elements such as newspaper clippings, emails, songs and segments from other productions in order to add greater meaning to the documentary. For example, Polley presents her email exchange with Harry, illustrating her desire for the story to include “everyone’s point of view”, as it is only then that the “whole picture” can be established. While reciting the email aloud, Polley delicately pauses when articulating that the story must include “[her] experience, [Harry’s] experience” and her “family’s [experience]”, emphasising her desire to give “equal weight” to all versions of the story.

Different Interpretations

In my experience studying the text, this documentary can be interpreted two ways:

1. as a self-reflective memoir following the journey of Sarah finding her father and gaining a more mature understanding of her mother, or;

2. A philosophical and, at-times political commentary on the way stories are told and the nature of truth. Both interpretations (and others you find or develop through your own viewing) are great to use in your writing, just ensure that they are relevant to the specific prompt/idea you are discussing!

Let's dive into each a little further:

1. Stories We Tell is a commentary on how stories are told - specifically, how the way a story is told can shape how it is received and the meaning one can draw from it

Upon first glance this point may seem rather convoluted, and several viewings of the text are necessary to fully engage with this line of thinking. Essentially, this centres around the idea that the different forms, mediums and extradiegetic elements present in the documentary can significantly influence how we as an audience react to the story that is being told.

The best way to explain this is to acknowledge the level of credibility and the associations attached to each individual medium used to tell the story.

For example, what impact does the newspaper clipping (detailing her custody battle and fight for equality in a restrictive society) have on our sympathy for Diane? Does the sense of credibility and validity drawn from an upstanding publication such as a newspaper elicit a greater sense of trust and acceptance of fact from viewers - therefore making us as an audience more inclined to view her in a positive light? Conversely, are viewers more accepting of Diane’s affair with Harry following testimony from those who witnessed her unhappiness with Michael first hand - her friends and family?

Moreover, in spite of her declaration that “equal weight” will be given to all experiences, does Polley’s use of Michael as narrator and his constant presence in the formal setting of a recording studio provide his version greater significance than Harry’s - who notwithstanding his involvement in the story as Sarah’s biological father, is resigned to providing his interview somewhat informally in a home setting, in the same vein as the rest of the storytellers?

Feel free to apply this line of thinking to other aspects of the text - such a deeper engagement with the philosophical ideas of the text are far more likely to score highly, as opposed to shallow pieces that merely discuss the storytellers in isolation - and not what they represent.

2. Stories We Tell is a commentary on the ephemeral nature of truth

The notion of truth seems to be just as much of a theme through this blog as it is in the documentary!

This is for good reason, however, as I found this to be the primary theme running through Stories We Tell , through the journey to discover Sarah’s paternity, the affair and conflict over whose story it is to tell. Truth affects a number of other ideas within the texts, such as storytelling, intertextuality, the variability of memory, production and identity - thus, using the ephemeral nature of the truth to explain why certain ambiguities exist in Harry’s “faulty” recollections, for example is an excellent way to show a greater depth of understanding of the interrelationships in the documentary.

Essay Topic from the 2018 VCAA Exam:

“To save all hurt, why not leave things as they are?”

Why does Sarah not “leave things as they are?”

Initial thoughts:

This prompt does not ask you to discuss a specific theme or character - instead it guides you toward providing an analysis on Sarah Polley’s purpose for creating Stories We Tell. While authorial intent should always be included in any text response essay, it is essential that the purpose is central in response to this type of prompt - essentially, providing points of discussion as to why Sarah is unable to “leave things as they are.”

Essay Plan:

1. Unable to leave things as they are - wanted to question the concept of traditional family structures, by contrasting the influence of biological connections and emotional relationships on her development.

I discussed the effect of both Harry and Michael on Sarah’s development - concluding that while both of them had a significant role to play in her becoming the woman she is today, Michael’s influence was significantly stronger. Polley implies this by giving him a greater voice in the documentary through his role as the narrator.

2. Unable to leave things as they are - wanted to comment on the ephemeral nature of the truth in our lives.

Central to this paragraph is Polley’s use of recreated Super-8 footage. Using three prime examples (the opening scene with Diane and Michael crossing the bridge, Polley directing the actress that ‘plays the role’ of Diane in recreated footage, and the staging of Diane’s funeral) I aim to display Polley’s postmodern perspective on the truth and how this is conveyed through her deliberate creation of Stories We Tell.

3. Unable to leave things as they are - Emphasise the importance of storytelling in our lives to gain some understanding of the past.

Due to her depiction of the truth as a “mystery of nothingness”, Polley highlights the role that stories play in our lives. Within Stories We Tell, Polley attempts to understand herself by recreating Diane’s story on screen - allowing her to create “shape out of mess” and form a clearer picture of how she became who she is. Moreover, Polley also reveals how stories enable individuals to maneuver through the “wreckage” of the truth and “recreate the past.”

For a step-by-step explanation of everything you need to know to ace your SAC or exam, check out our How To Write A Killer Language Analysis ebook.

For many students, Language Analysis is their downfall. Here is the main reason why: Lots of students don’t think about  how language is used to persuade , instead they rely on lists of language techniques to tell them the answer. These sheets are usually distributed by teachers when you first start language analysis – see below.

Whether or not you’ve seen that particular document before, you’ve probably got something similar. You’ve also probably thought, ‘this sheet is absolutely amazing – it has everything I need  and  it tells me how language persuades!’ – I know I did. Unfortunately, this mindset is wrong. Don’t fall into the trap like so many other students have over the years. For a detailed guide on Language Analysis including how to prepare for your SAC and exam, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Language Analysis .

The following comes from VCAA 2009 English Assessment Report:

…some students presented a simple summary [when analysing]…with little development. These responses did not score well as they did not fulfil the task as required.

The ‘simple summary’ refers to students who rely on those technique sheets to paraphrase the explanations regarding how language persuades. There is ‘little development’ because copying the explanations provided on these sheets doesn’t demonstrate enough insight into the article you’re analysing. Let’s have a look at the VCAA English Practice Exam published in 2009, ‘Chickens Range Free’ so that we can demonstrate this point. We will look at two students, both analysing the same technique. Compare the two and determine who you believe provides the better analysis.

Student 1:  Emotive language such as “abominably cruel” and “dire plight” is intended to stimulate strong emotional reactions that manipulate readers’ responses.

Student 2:  The use of emotive language such as “abominably cruel” and “dire plight” intends to appeal to people’s instinctive compassion for the chickens by describing their dreadful treatment, hence causing readers to agree with Smith that urgent action is required to save these animals.

It should be clear that Student 2’s example is best. Let’s see why.

Student 1 has determined the correct language technique and found suitable evidence from the article. This is a good start. However, Student 1 goes on to merely reiterate the explanations provided by language technique sheets and as a result, their analysis is too broad and non-specific to the article.

Student 2 conversely, understands that this last step – the analysing part – is the most important and vital component that will distinguish themselves from others. Instead of merely quoting that the article ‘manipulates the reader response’ like student 1, they provide an in-depth analysis of  how   and why  reader feelings are manipulated because of this technique. Student 2 was able to use the information to illustrate the author’s contention that we should feel sorry for these caged chickens – and we do because of our ‘instinctive compassion.’ They explain that the sympathy expressed from readers encourages them to agree that some action needs to be taken to help the chickens. As you can see, Student 2 has gone beyond identifying that ‘strong emotional reactions’ will be displayed by readers, to  establishing  what emotions are involved, and the consequences of those emotions.

This is why it’s best to avoid paraphrasing language technique sheets. By all means, don’t totally disregard them altogether. They’re definitely great for learning new language techniques – just be mindful of the explanations given. The part regarding  how the author persuades  is the downfall of many students because even though teachers tell you to analyse more, they often don’t show you the difference between what you’re doing wrong and what you should be doing right.

Updated on 25/12/2020

Being one of the few texts that was added to the text list this year, Euripides’ play Women of Troy is definitely a daunting task for English and EAL students to tackle due to the lack of resources and essay prompts available. In fact, the only materials that can be found on the internet are those analysing the older translation of the play (titled The Trojan Women ). That is why we are here to help you as much as we can by offering you a mini-guide for Women of Tro y, in the hope that you can get a head start with this play.

Women of Troy is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

• LSG-Curated Essay Topics
• A+ Essay Topic Breakdown
• Extra Resources

Women of Troy is a tragedy which takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Trojan war, critiquing the atrocities committed by the Greeks to both people of Melos and Troy. By constructing a play in which women are able to dominate the stage and exude their genuine despair in response to their impending enslavement, Euripides shifts the perspectives from epic tales of Greek and Trojan male heroes to the conversely affected women who suffered at the hands of the heroes, while simultaneously providing both the contemporary and modern audience with a unique insight into the true cost of war. This is especially significant because the society was pervaded by patriarchal values, where women were subordinated to their male counterparts. Euripides’ proto-feminist works were not well received by his peers at the time of writing as women’s personal thoughts and pain were not commonly discussed in the Hellenic repertoire.

2. Historical Context

The Trojan war occurred as a result of the conflict between Greece and Troy and was said to last for over 10 years. According to a tale, during a festival on the Olympus, Athena, Aphrodite and Hera were fighting over a golden apple. They chose a random mortal, which was Paris who would then be the Prince of Troy, to decide who the most beautiful goddess of the three was. As a reward for picking her, Aphrodite promised Paris that he would be married to the most beautiful woman in the world, which was Helen – wife of Menelaus, the Spartan prince. Aphrodite had her son Eros (a cupid) enchant Helen and Paris so that they would fall endlessly in love with each other. Helen then escaped from Menelaus’ palace to be with Paris, starting the war between Greece and Troy. Menelaus was enraged and he convinced his brother Agamemnon to lead an expedition to retrieve Helen. The Greek army was commanded to attack the Trojans. The siege lasted for more than 10 years until the Greeks came up with a strategy to abduct Helen from the palace. The Greek soldiers build a giant wooden horse and hid in there to get in the citadel of Troy, attacking them in the middle of the night and winning the war. After the war, the Greek heroes slowly made their way home, however, the journey home was not easy. Odysseus took 10 years to make the arduous journey home to Ithaca because Poseidon agreed to punish the Greeks for the atrocities committed before and after their victory.

Love and Lust

Euripides’ works often warn the audience of the detrimental effects brought on by excessive passion, asserting that it is best to moderate emotions and exhibit sophrosyne (the power of self-control over one’s emotions) . He often criticises the goddess of love, Aphrodite, for enchanting mortals and leading them into a life governed by love and lust. In this play, he purports that it is inherently Aphrodite’s fault that the Trojans are fighting against the Greeks, as it is Aphrodite who makes Paris and Helen endlessly fall in love with each other.

Potential Textual Evidence:

In Women of Troy , Euripides presents a particularly acerbic critique on Menelaus’ 'uncontrollable lust' in 'sen[ding] a hunting party to track down Helen' as he juxtaposes the cost of the Trojan war being and the prize that they receive.

• 'tens of thousands dead'  
• 'giving up the pleasure of his family and children'
• 'these Greeks [beginning] to die'

→ All that in exchange for one woman - Helen

His chastisement is further bolstered by Cassandra’s rhetorical question asking 'they kept on dying, for what reason'. This manoeuvres the audience into acknowledging the pointlessness of the Trojan war as it is not worth risking so many lives over Helen or any minor military conflict. In doing so, Euripides once again lambastes the actions of those vindictive and bloodthirsty Greeks.

Cost of War

The play primarily focuses on the loss and pain of the Trojan civilians that survived the war, are sieged in the city after the war and are eventually either killed or enslaved after the fall of Troy. While the Trojan war is the setting of many famous classical works being examined by various different angles, not many focus on the consequences suffered by women. This enables Euripides to raise the question of whether or not such victory is worth fighting for while simultaneously inviting the audience to emulate the playwright’s disapprobation of such a violent and brutal resolution of conflict.

You can also use the evidence from the above to justify your arguments on the cost of war. They all aim to magnify the extent to which the Trojan people, as well as the Greeks, have to suffer as result of this pointless war.

We can also discuss how wars affect beliefs and their people’s faith. In the Hellenic society, gods have always been a significant part of their life as it is believed that mortals’ lives are always under the influence of divine intervention. This is evidenced through the ways in which Hellenic people build temples and make sacrifices to the gods, thanking the gods for allowing them to live prosperous lives and begging for their forgiveness whenever they wrong others. This is why it is significant when Hecuba referred to the gods as 'betrayers' in her lamentation, implying that there is a change in attitude in time of tragedy. Events such as this make people question their fate and belief, galvanising them to wonder 'what good [gods] were to [them].

Integrity and Sense of Duty

Some characters in Women of Troy are also fundamentally driven by their sense of duty and integrity, and act according to their moral code regardless of what the circumstances may be. Hecuba, for instance, sympathises with the Chorus of Troy and acts as a leader even when she loses her title and her home. She is held responsible for her actions but is still governed by her honesty and integrity as Helen makes her plea. Talthybius is also governed by both his sense of duty and integrity. Despite his understanding of Hecuba’s circumstances, he still follows his order and ensures that the Trojan women are allocated to their Greek households. However, he does not disregard her sense of morality and treats Hecuba with understanding and sensitivity.

Helen, on the other hand, does not demonstrate the same degree of moral uprightness. In time of tragedy, she chooses to lie and shift the blame to others to escape her execution. She prioritises her own benefits over everyone else’s and allows thousands of others to suffer from the impacts of her treachery in eloping with Paris.

The prologue of the play opens with a conversation between Poseidon and Athena, foreshadowing their divine retribution against the Greeks. Witnessing the immediate aftermath of the Trojan war, they curse the war which they ironically themselves initiated, thus condemning the horrific injustice of the conflict and the actions of its vengeful and blood thirsty so-called heroes. This is evidenced through the ways in which they punished Odysseus by creating obstacles on his journey home.

However, it can also be argued that the gods in Women of Troy themselves act as a symbol of injustice in a way. From the feminist view, the fall of Troy and the enslavement of Trojan women demonstrate the gods’ lack of care as they disregard the monstrosities that occur to women after the Greeks’ victory. The divine intervention which is promised in the beginning casts the following injustices cursed upon the women of Troy in a different light as it can be argued that the gods caused the war. While their retribution against the Greeks can be seen as a means to punish the heroes, it is evident that that they are more concerned about the sacrilege committed and the disrespect they receive after the Trojan war than the injustices suffered by women. This thereby humanises the gods and fortifies the notion that they also have personal flaws and are governed by their ego and hubris.

The idea that there are forces beyond human control is enhanced, and Poseidon and Athena’s pride proves that humans are just innocent bystanders at the mercy of the gods. It can be argued that the chain of unfortunate events are unpredictable as they are determined by gods, whose emotions and prejudices still control the way they act. On the other hand, the characters in the play do at times make choices that would lead to their downfall and tragic consequences. For instance, it is Menelaus who decided to go after the Trojans just because of one woman and he was not enchanted or under any influence of divine intervention.

Gender Roles

Euripides centres his play on Trojan women, enabling the discussion on the cause and effect of war. Given that females' points of view were not commonly expressed in plays or any forms of art works, Euripides’ decision to have his play focus on women allows the Athenian audience, comprised of mainly male Athenians, to observe a part of the military conflict that was not seen before.

The protagonist Hecuba, for example, is portrayed as the archetypal mother. While this image is presented during the aftermath of the Trojan war, Euripides also uses Hecuba as a representative of contemporary Hellenic women as this archetype is universal for all circumstances. It is evident that Euripides’ play mainly focuses on Hecuba’s grief, with her lamentation dominating the prologue. This implies that the protagonist, in this instance, also acts as a diatribe against the patriarchal society which allows women to suffer greatly as a result of war and military conflict. However, this play differs from other plays written by Euripides in that he also explores a woman’s burden and responsibility as a leader, allowing the audience to understand the difficulties of being a woman of power in time of crisis.

4. Characters

Mother of troy.

• In employing the simile comparing herself to 'a mother bird at her plundered nest', Hecuba reminds the audience of her endless love for the city of Troy, implying that the devastation of her own home also further deepens her pain. In this scene, Hecuba is portrayed as a female leader who rules with her passion and love.  
• The image her (Hecuba) as an empathetic Queen is also exemplified through the ways in which she 'weep[s] for [her] burning home'. As the term 'home' invokes connotations of warmth and affection, Hecuba’s endearment for the city she governs is established, accentuating the portrayal of Hecuba as a leader with a passion for her duties.
• This in turn propels the audience to be more inclined to feel commiseration for her when she is held responsible for her city’s destruction. As the representative of Troy’s leadership that enables such brutality to occur leading to the wars, Hecuba bears the guilt and responsibility for '[giving] birth to all the trouble by giving birth to Paris' and consequently, for the cataclysmic consequences that ramified from Paris’ involvement with Helen (although she is simply an innocent bystander) → Social accountability for war

Mother of Her Children

• From the outset of the play, the former queen of Troy is portrayed as a miserable mother suffering from the loss of her own children and 'howl[ing] for her children dead' (echoed by the Chorus, referred to as 'howl of agony'). By employing animalistic language in describing Hecuba’s act of mourning over Hector’s death, Euripides intensifies the magnitude of her emotional turmoil as it is likened to a loud and doleful cry usually uttered by animals → It is almost not humanly possible to endure so much pain.
• This notion is bolstered by the image of Hecuba drowning in 'her threnody of tears' as it engages the pathos of the audience, establishing her as a victim of war and emphasising the poignant story that is to be unveiled.
• The simile comparing herself to a woman 'dragged as a slave' in her lamentation further fortifies Hecuba’s portrayal as a victim of a play. Here, the juxtaposition between her former title 'by birth [as] Troy’s...Queen' and her current state magnifies the drastic change in life and the loss she suffered, compelling the audience to better sympathise with Hecuba. → Powers can be ephemeral in times of crisis.

Talthybius is sympathetic towards women, establishing himself as a complicated figure with a strong sense of integrity. This is epitomised through the ways in which he employs euphemistic language when announcing the dreadful news to Hecuba. He tries his best to be sensitive and mitigate the impacts of Hecuba’s daughter death to her, announcing that Polyxena 'is to serve Achilles at his tomb' and that 'her fate is settled', 'all her troubles are over'. He was being sensitive and subtle instead of abruptly delivering the news. While he represents an enemy state, he shows that men can also be compassionate, contradicting the Phallocentric belief that men should only be governed by cool logic.

Chorus of Trojan Women

It can be argued that Hecuba acts as the paradigm of the Trojan women as her pain (i.e. the deaths of her children, slavery, the devastation of her city), in a way, represents the suffering of the majority of Hellenic women in times of war, which enhances Euripides’ condemnation of a society where military conflicts can easily be facilitated. The Chorus of the play often echoes her deepest pain, establishing a sense of camaraderie between female characters of the play.

In this play, the Chorus acts as the voice of the 'wretched women of Troy', representing the views of the unspoken who are objectified and mistreated by their male counterparts. After Troy lost the war, women were seen as conquests and were traded as slaves, exposing the unfair ethos of a society that was seen as the cradle of civilisation. By allowing the Trojan women to express their indignation and enmity as a response to their impending slavery, Euripides is able to present a critique on the ways in which women were oppressed in Ancient Greece.

5. Literary Devices

• Simile (e.g. dragged as a slave)
• Euphemism (e.g. serve Achilles at his tomb – euphemism for death)
• Symbolism (e.g. Hector’s shield or Troy’s citadel)
• Animal imagery (e.g. howl of agony)
• Rhetorical question (e.g. for what reason)

Why are these important? Watch how we integrated literary devices as pieces of evidence in this essay topic breakdown:

[Modified Video Transcription]

TIP: See section ' 7. A+ Essay Topic Breakdown' (below) for an explanation of our ABC approach so that you understand how we've actually tackled this essay prompt.

Staged in a patriarchal society, Women of Troy was set during the immediate aftermath of the Trojan war – a war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Hecuba is the former queen of Troy, who suffered so much loss as the mother of her children as well as the mother of Troy. She lost her son Hector and her husband in the Trojan war, her daughter Polyxena also died and Cassandra was raped. After the Greeks won, women were allocated to Greek households and forced into slavery, including the queen of Troy.  She was also the mother of Paris, the prince of Troy. It was purported that Paris and Helen were responsible for initiating the war as Helen was governed by her lust for Paris and left Menelaus, the Spartan prince, for this young prince of Troy. Consequently, Menelaus was enraged by this elopement and declared that he wanted Helen dead as a punishment for her disloyalty. Helen defended herself and lied that it was against her will, crying that she was kidnapped and blamed Hecuba for the fall of Troy and for the conflict between the two sides. However, Menelaus did not believe what Helen had to say and decided to bring her back to her home on a separate ship.

The play ended with the Greek ships leaving Troy, which was then on fire. The Trojan were singing a sad song together as they left to prepare for their new lives as slaves living in Greek households.

The play’s main focus is on the suffering of women, as exemplified by the way Euripides chose to portray Hecuba’s loss and Cassandra’s helplessness.

So, our essay prompt for today is

'How does Euripides use the structure of the play to explore the role of women and their suffering in time of war? '

This is indeed one of the more challenging prompts that VCAA wouldn’t probably give, the reason being that it is a language/structure-based prompt. It requires you to have a much more profound knowledge of the text, and it is not always easy to spot language features, especially in a poetic sounding play like Women of Troy . There is just so much going on in the text! While it is not super likely that you will get this prompt for the exam, I have seen a lot of schools give language/structure-based prompts to students for SACs as it gives them an opportunity to challenge themselves and look for textual evidence that will distinguish them from their peers. These types of evidence are definitely worth looking for because they can also be used as evidence to back up your arguments for theme-based or character-based prompts (learn more about the different types of prompts in How To Write A Killer Text Response ).

Now let’s get started.

The first thing I always do is to look for keywords. The key words in this prompt are 'structure, 'role of women' and 'suffering'.

With the structure of the play, we can potentially talk about:

• Character-related evidence (e.g. strong female character base)
• Language-related features (metalanguage/literacy devices)
• Plot-related features (order of events) – irony, foreshadowing

In a male-dominated, patriarchal society, women are oftentimes oppressed and seen as inferior. Their roles in the society were limited, they were only seen as domestic housewives and mothers. It is important to look for evidence that either supports or contradicts this statement. Ask yourself:

• Is Euripides trying to support the statement and agree that women are simply creatures of emotions who should only stick with domestic duties?
• Or is he trying to criticise this belief by showing that women are so much more than just those being governed by their emotions?

Since this play primarily focuses on the cost of war and how women, as innocent bystanders, have to suffer as a result of the Trojan war, it should not be difficult finding evidence related to women’s suffering. It might include:

• Hecuba’s loss (she lost her home and children)
• Hecuba’s pain (being blamed for Troy’s ruin)
• Cassandra’s helplessness despite knowing her fate, surrendering and accepting her future
• Andromache’s 'bitter' fate having to give up her child
• The Chorus voicing their opinion – slavery

Once a prompt is carefully broken down, it is no longer that scary because all we have to do now is organise our thoughts and write our topic sentences.

P1: Euripides constructs a strong female character base to contradict the prevailing views of the period that women are inferior to their male counterparts.

It is significant that Euripides chose to have a strong female protagonist, as the character herself acts as a diatribe against the patriarchal society, contradicting any engrained beliefs that pervaded the society at the time. An example of evidence that can support this statement is the way in which Hecuba dominates the stage while giving her opening lamentation. The lengthy nature of the monologue itself enables Euripides to present his proto-feminist ideas and go against the Hellenic gendered prejudice.

We can also talk about Hecuba’s leadership and her interaction with the Chorus of Trojan women. She refers to them as 'my children' and employs the simile 'a mother at her plundered nest'. The way the Greek playwright constructs the relationship between characters is worth mentioning as Hecuba in this play is portrayed as a compassionate and empathetic leader, showing that women are also capable of leading others in a way that engenders a sense of camaraderie between them.

Another good thinking point is to talk about how Helen acts as a paradigm of a group of women who had to turn to deception and go against their integrity to survive in time of tragedy.

P2: Euripides’ selective use of language and literacy devices in portraying women’s pain and suffering further enables him to portray the ways in which women, as innocent bystanders, are oppressed in time of war.

An example of a metalanguage used in this play is the animal imagery the Chorus used to depict Hecuba’s pain. By referring to her pain as a 'howl of agony', they intensify the magnitude of Hecuba’s pain as the term 'howl' is usually used to describe a loud cry usually uttered by animals like wolves. This implies that Hecuba, who acts as representative of Hellenic women, has to suffer from an emotional turmoil that is far beyond bearable, which in turn further fortifies the audience’s sympathy for her, as well as the Trojan women.

Another piece of evidence that I would talk about is the simile 'dragged as a slave'. It was used to describe Hecuba, the former queen of Troy. By likening someone who used to be at a position of power to 'a slave', Euripides underscores the drastic change in circumstances that occurred as a result of the Trojan war, magnifying the tremendous amount of loss Hecuba experienced. Furthermore, the image of the protagonist’s devastated physical state enhances the dramatist’s condemnation of war as it allows him to elucidate the detrimental impacts such violence and dreadfulness impose on innocent bystanders.

There is, of course, plenty of other evidence out there such as the way in which Cassandra is portrayed as a 'poor mad child', her helplessness in surrendering to her 'wretched' fate with Agamemnon who wanted her for himself. We can also talk about the inclusive language positing, 'our misery', 'our home', used by the Chorus in echoing Hecuba’s pain, etc.

The use of symbolism can also be discussed. For instance, the citadel in the city of Troy in the epilogue acts as a metonym for Hecuba’s resistance before entering slavery. The image of it crumbling exemplifies women’s helplessness and enhances the notion that they are still in positions of explicit subjugation.

P3: While Euripides primarily focuses on portraying women’s pain and suffering, he does not completely vilify men or victimise women, maintaining an unbiased view so as to underscore the importance of integrity through his characterisation of both male and female character.

The last body paragraph of our essays is often the one used to challenge the prompt, showing the assessors our wealth of ideas and depth of knowledge. Basically, what we are saying is 'while our playwright is obviously pro-women, he definitely does not condone everything women do and criticise everything men do'.  In this way, we have the opportunity to explore the ways characters are constructed and the ways they are used in the play to convey its meaning.

If I were to write an essay on this, I would talk about Talthybius and Helen, mainly because they are both complex characters that the audience cannot fully love or hate.

Talthybius is surprisingly sympathetic towards women, establishing himself as a complicated figure. This is epitomised by the ways in which he employs euphemistic language when announcing the dreadful news to Hecuba. He tries his best to be sensitive and mitigate the impacts of Hecuba’s daughter's death to her, announcing that Polyxena 'is to serve Achilles at his tomb', that 'her fate is settled' and 'all her troubles are over'. He was being sensitive and subtle instead of abruptly delivering the news. While he represents an enemy state, he shows that men can also be compassionate, contradicting the Phallocentric belief that men should only be governed by cool logic.

Similar to Talthybius, Helen is also a complicated figure as she is both a victim of fate and a selfish character. It is possible for the audience to sympathise with her as she is merely a victim of fortune in that she was bewitched by Aphrodite and governed by her love for Paris, the prince of Troy. However, the ways in which she shifts the blame to Hecuba and makes her pleas preclude the audience from completely sympathising with her they, in a way, render her as a self-absorbed and repugnant character. This notion is further fortified by the fact that she cared so little for the 'tens of thousands' lives taken on her behalf as the phrase quantifies and magnifies the cataclysmic consequences of her lust for Paris.

6. LSG-Curated Women of Troy Essay Topics

• Euripides’ play Women of Troy mainly focuses on the true cost of war. To what extent do you agree with the statement?
• Women of Troy demonstrates that there is no real winner in war. Discuss.
• In the Trojan wars, the Trojans suffered great losses while the Greeks did not suffer. Do you agree?
• How does Euripides use language to portray the loss and suffering of Hellenic women in Women of Troy ?
• Characters in Women of Troy are all driven and motivated by their sense of duty and obligation. To what extent do you agree with the statement?
• Hecuba’s greatest pain stems from the deaths of her children. Discuss the statement.
• While Helen’s selfishness should be condemned, the audience can still condone her actions due to the circumstances she is in. To what extent do you agree with the statement?
• Women of Troy is a tragedy, rather than a war-play. Do you agree?
• Euripides argues that fate and fortunes are not preordained, and tragedies do not incriminate. To what extent do you agree with the statement?
• It is impossible to sympathise with Helen because she is the most mischievous character of the play. Do you agree?
• Women of Troy explores the ways in which a character’s true self might emerge in times of tragedy. Discuss.
• In Women of Troy , The Chorus’ only role is to act as the representative of Hellenic women. Do you agree?
• In the end, the gods are not responsible for the tragedies caused by the Trojan war as it happened as a result of poor choices. Do you agree?
• Hecuba is the victim of fate. Discuss.
• Love is a dangerous passion that can lead to tragic consequences. Does Women of Troy support this statement?
• Hecuba is a tragic hero. Discuss.
• How is the structure of Women of Troy used to convey its meaning?
• It is possible for the audience to sympathise with Helen because of her love for Paris. Do you agree?
• There is no villain in Women of Troy because everyone in the play suffers. Do you agree with the statement?
• Discuss the role of dishonesty in Euripides’ Women of Troy .

If you'd like to see A+ essays based off some of the essay topics above (written by Mark Yin - our LSG content guru and 50 English study score achiever), complete with annotations on HOW and WHY the essays achieved A+ so that you can emulate this same success, then you'll definitely want to check out our A Killer Text Guide: Women of Troy ebook. In it, we also cover themes, characters, views and values, metalanguage and have 5 sample A+ essays completely annotated so that you can smash your next SAC or exam!

Quote-Based Prompt:

'Who can forget these sufferings? Time will bring no relief.' There is no villain in Women of Troy because everyone in the play suffers. Do you agree with the statement?

The following comes essay topic breakdown comes from our A Killer Text Guide: Women of Troy ebook:

The quote mentions long-lasting sufferings , and the prompt seems to ask who suffers, and who is responsible. If you’ve been reading this guide in order, a lot of similar ideas from the last four essays might jump out here - I think that’s okay, because ideally you do get to a point where you can ‘recycle’ some of your quotes and ideas between essays (and the examiner won’t have to read all your practice essays anyway!).

While I’ll be doing a little bit of recycling here, I want the main take-away point from this essay to be around framing. Even if you’re using similar ideas that you’ve already seen, the trick is to explain and frame your analysis in a way that answers every prompt specifically. This is best done through how you thread your arguments together, and how you make those links. We’ll get into this as we plan.

For now, let’s recap these ideas of suffering and responsibility. Hecuba and the Trojan women suffer, and they argue Helen is responsible - but Helen also suffers, and she argues that the gods are responsible. The gods, as we know, are insulated from suffering because of their divine and superhuman status. So, are they the villains?

This is a similar progression of ideas that we have seen before, but I want to ground them in this cycle of suffering-responsibility.

P1: The eponymous women of Troy certainly suffer, and in many of their eyes, Helen is a villain.

P2: However, Helen does not see herself that way - and she is not incorrect. She too seems to suffer, and she sees the gods as the main villains who are responsible.

P3: Euripides may see the gods as careless and negligent beings, but he doesn’t necessarily depict them as cruel; rather, the excessively passionate war itself is depicted as the true enemy, and villains are those who revel in its cruelty.

As you might notice, parts of this plan are recognisable: we’ve started a few of these essays with a first paragraph about the Trojan women’s suffering, developed that in paragraph two by contrasting with Helen, and ending our analysis with the gods. But when reusing some of those ideas, it’s important to make sure they answer the specific question by modifying and adding new ideas as needed - this way, you don’t rewrite essays for new prompts and risk losing relevance, but you do reuse ideas and tailor them to new prompts every time.

The contention for this one will be: the Trojan War undoubtedly has its winners and losers, and few of these characters agree on who the responsible villains are, with some blaming Helen (P1) while she herself blames the gods (P2). However, the gods only form a part of the picture - rather, Euripides depicts war itself as the villain, lambasting those who take pride in inflicting cruelty in the midst of war (P3).

If you'd like to see an A+ essay on the essay topic above check out our A Killer Text Guide: Women of Troy ebook.

8. Extra Resources

How To Write A Killer Text Response (ebook)

5 Tips for a Mic-Drop Worthy Essay Conclusion

‍ With contributions from Mark Yin - 50 study score achiever, and author of our A Killer Text Guide: Women of Troy ebook.

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