Tan effectively uses tone and perspective in her book to demonstrate how over parenting affect the children and their emotions. Tan sets the tone and perspective in her book with writing in a first-person point of view. She sets up the story by appealing to the reader with her feelings and emotions upon her mother’s actions to her. This is especially evident on Line 21, when she says “…after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes, and failed expectations.” Note that Tan here says “I” and “me,” effectively making this connect to the reader in a first-person point of view. Tan wants the direct personal connection to appeal to the reader’s emotions in order for them to understand her perspective. Tan here also uses emotions to her advantage; expressing her hatred, sadness, and most of all the point that she failed her mother, to demonstrate the extent she claimed to be pushed by her mom to be a “genius” at everything. On the other hand, Honore’s tone and perspective is drastically different to Tan’s. Thrale’s purpose is to teach readers about parenting methods; hence he describes is a case study and how it applies to parenting. Thus, we can see from the text that Honore has a detached, neutral tone to his writing. He makes many knowledge claims; one being “We have to cherish children for who they are instead of for what we want them to be.” It is evident from both of the quotes that even though Tan and Honore have very different tones within their speech; they both carry the same theme; that over-parenting causes trauma to the children; and that children should be appreciated for who they are currently, and not their potential performance later In life.
The narration and structure within both of the texts vary; from Tan’s personal viewpoint to Honore’s third person viewpoint. Tan places herself within the protagonist of that girl who always attempts to make her mother happy. We can note from the passage that the family is not moneyed; Tan notes within her passage, “And since she cleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment” that the mother is working many hours by being a house-cleaner to boost the finances. We later see the girl’s repeated attempts to please her mother; for example, when her mom quizzed her on the world’s capitals, the girl guessed “Nairobi! ... saying the most foreign word I could think of.” When her mom was disappointed with the turnout, the girl effectively started to cry and lose confidence in herself and her mom’s expectations. The passage’s structure demonstrates Tan’s attempt to demonstrate parenting shortcomings. Honore on the other hand talks in a “professional, scholarly” tone demonstrate his authority and knowledge over the issue of children. He backs up his claim, “…Thrale’s failure of making her daughter a prodigy is a reminder of how futile and ruinous this quest can be – in any century,” with his short story of Thrale and her daughters.
It is evident that Tan decided in her structure to do a short story narrative with an emotional style of argument, while Honore decided to go about it with a short story backed up with support. Even though their structures of argument within the extract are different, the reader can infer that they both allude to the same theme; aggressive parenting causes problems with the children’s development.
Tan’s story includes conglomerations of imagery for the reader to immerse in; so does Honore, yet to a very different effect. The girl’s vivid portrayal of her surroundings is in stark contrast to Honore’s use of imagery portraying the various things Queeney knew at a young age. In Tan’s book, the reader is introduced in the very first stanza to the “Fornica table, and dozens of other magazines heaped in the bathroom.” This already paints a picture of a household in that time in the eyes of a young child. Tan goes on with lexicon with her mom’s numerous questions of interesting things; for example. The protagonist guesses that “Nairobi” is the “most foreign word” she can think of, while her mom hopes and hopes that “Nairobi” could be an alternative way of pronouncing “Helsinki.” On the other hand, Honore in her description of her tribulations with Queeny describes many different places and items in an attempt to give an illustration to the reader of the various things she did. Honore commented in her text that “she could name the nations, seas, capitals, the solar system, compass, signs of the zodiac,…recite numerous religious texts…Latin grammar. (Paraphrased) Honore decides to write various things Queeney can do to paint pictures in the reader’s mind of the most various items, such as the seas, solar system, and religious text. The reader should note that even though both authors use their words and images to different effects within the story, the general message shines through clearly that parents use their children too much to achieve what the parent wants, not what the child wants.
Tan and Honore both had the same purpose; merely their approach to it was very different. Tan used imagery, tone, and personal feelings to her advantage; she wanted to appeal to the reader using what the girl in the story felt. Honore decided in his approach to start with a true story, present the findings, and dissect the results and discuss about it. He presented his work in a factual, straight-about method; and decided to appeal to the audience with supported evidence regarding parenting. In these aspects Tan and Honore differed. Honore wanted his argument to pose as a warning to parents on how they raise their children; Tan merely wanted with this text to showcase in an personal, first person fashion what her childhood was like. Yet, the clear thematic message shines through; they both in their texts attempted to demonstrate examples that the children were being rather “exploited” to their parent’s wishes and dreams instead of their own interests and beliefs, and how the children reacted to such treatment.
