Introduction
As a writer, there are various resources that can be used as references. There are also experiences that a writer usually reflects at. In addition, the influence of culture can also affects the outcome of the writer’s novels. A good reader can understand the story by viewing the kind of culture or experience that a writer possesses. However, the personality of a writer cannot be easily understood through reading because all of the writers are personifying the characters in the novels to make it more appealing to the readers. The empathic ability to the writers is the only unique characteristic that can be gained through birth of experiences.
Selected Novels
In this paper there are two selected novels written by the American Women. First is the novel of Gloria Naylor entitled Mama Day (1988) and second is Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989). Both features the issues and concerns of women regarding the various aspects in the society and somehow, shows the influence of the culture in their novels.
Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
The writer explores the issues as well as the importance of the person’s cultural heritage. The past is very important because of the influence that it may create in the lives of the people living in Willow Springs, an island which is the location of the novel. There are mystery and legend that inhabits the Willow Springs. The beliefs the nestled in the island represent the view of the world that emphasizes the boundaries between the secular and sacred and living and dead. The people believe that ancestral spirits act as guardians of the living. This is originally an African beliefs and values that has been brought in America and then preserves in Willow Springs. Naylor, the writer chooses to develop a concrete presence manifested in the character. The novel also represents the sinister definition of conjurer, as an agent of vengeance and practitioner of witchcraft or voodoo. Because of the choice of the people to keep their tradition alive, the past lives in the island.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Amy Tan is an American-born child of recent immigrant parents, and she added as a statement in an interview that she often feels that she had been born in a wrong family. Because of this reason, she became more curious on her heritage and give rise to the interest in bicultural Americans. The novel, however, is about the interwoven stories of the Chinese-born mothers and their American-born daughters. The novel explores the relationship of the Chinese and American and the communication barrier between the mothers and their daughters. The conflict arise in the event wherein the daughter are caught in between the Chinese and Chinese-American culture and the mothers struggles against the fate assuming that their daughters should have the best of both cultures.
Multicultural American Women Writers
The literature taught by the two novels is centered in the identity and the obstacles that they should overcome throughout the change in time. The works of multicultural women writers can guide the students and the readers to understand the range of the culture and the effective ways to appreciate them. At present, the search for an identity and the struggle of minority women writers to overcome the obstacles that society puts in their way is a theme that touches the lives of every teenager. Both men and women struggles everyday by viewing their specific roles in the society. The culture, however, that explored by the novels are the representations of the situations wherein the multicultural women writers are facing. The issues that lay on the novels are therefore needs to overcome.
The unique characteristics of the novels are also struggling to find their place in the world. Through the creation of the multicultural authors, the society can mirror the cultural heritage of each person and discover their inner self of whom they are and whom they want to be. The challenges that reflected in the novel are the scope of the relationships, desires, environment, success and adversities, and many others that are part in the present society.
Conclusion
The novels of the multicultural women bring not only the joy of reading but also learning and understanding the traditions, cultures, and personality of the characters. There is no need for a person to change his/her culture just to understand the others, reading the novels of different culture can be enough to appreciate the others.
Work Cited:
Jones, V.K., (2003) “Overcoming Obstacles and the Search for Identity: Literature of Multicultural Women Writers”, Accessed 28 July 2010, from http://hti.math.uh.edu/curriculum/units/2003/04/03.04.06.pdf
