"Unpolished Gem" is a coming-of-age novel written by Alice Pung, published in 2006. It tells the story of a young girl named Merle, who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants living in Melbourne, Australia.
The novel begins with Merle's parents, John and Mary, running a successful fruit and vegetable store in a predominantly white neighborhood. Despite their success, they face discrimination and cultural barriers as they try to assimilate into Australian society. As a result, they are strict and traditional with their children, including Merle, who is expected to excel academically and behave in a manner that reflects well on the family.
Merle struggles with the pressure to be perfect and fit in, as well as with her own identity as a Chinese-Australian. She is torn between her parents' expectations and her own desires, and often feels like an outsider in both the Chinese and white communities.
As she navigates the challenges of growing up, Merle learns to embrace her heritage and find her own voice. She forms close relationships with her extended family, including her grandmother and her Auntie Kim, who provide her with love and support as she grapples with issues of identity and belonging.
Through the struggles and joys of growing up, Merle learns to embrace who she is and find her place in the world. "Unpolished Gem" is a poignant and heartwarming portrayal of the immigrant experience and the universal struggles of growing up.
Unpolished Gem Summary
One of the rare truly talented ones. Huyen Thai constantly spends time with the child, and even though Kien knows that it is better for Alice to have many people who love her, she resents not being able to spend more time with her daughter. Before Kuan asked Kien to marry him, he knew that he must have something to offer her. The tangible effects of Australia having this incredible multi-cultural society are obvious. This book is actually part of my English assignment and I am supposed to do an expository essay out of this. At nine years old, Alice spends most of her time caring for her baby sister, Alison. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung
Pung currently lives with her husband, Nick, in Melbourne, Australia, where she is the Artist in Residence in Janet Clark Hall at the University of Melbourne. Kuan is optimistic that his child will be fully accepted in Australian society. Written by some of the best English students in the country, these books do the hard work for you: condensing all of the important details in your text, and providing you with sophisticated analysis you can use in your own essays. Subsequently, Alice leads a happy life. Okay, so she probably chose to be a lawyer and this is an autobiography but it just adds to that whole stereotyping of Asians only being interested in pursuing careers in law, medicine and accounting. The next week, when she comes to collect, their shops are boarded up and they are gone.
Unpolished Gem Part 1 Summary & Analysis
Pung, a lawyer, recounts the journey her family made over the decades from China, her grandparents' birthplace, to Cambodia, where her parents are born, through Vietnam and Thailand to Australia where, one month after their arrival, Pung is born. Suburban Melbourne western instead of eastern suburbs, but same diff. That twist of focus reveals how more alike than different the experience is. This just made me feel a stronger connection to her as I read this book, knowing she has seen the same places and encountered the same types of people as me. The demise of her grandma makes her get into depression.
Unpolished Gem Study Guide
The environments and experiences were so vivid I forgot I am not really a Chinese migrant. How much I remember how confused I was the first time I went to my friend Jean's house and being handed a pair of slippers at the door! Her grandmother had given her four solid chocolate eggs. Kien continues to have difficulties learning English, and she frequently cries and yells that everyone is going to leave her. When Kien wakes in the hospital, she notices how clean it looks and smells. A solid round of editing would be beneficial to ensure any issues of capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure are resolved before submitting your work.
Unpolished Gem Epilogue Summary & Analysis
The Importance Of Communication In The Joy Luck Club 1225 Words 5 Pages Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating thissection. For example, they are given power over women, they had better jobs than women and men and typically the men have a better education for more of them went to college. Alina lays down on the grass next to her sister. What does her refusal to retire reveal about her emotional and psychological state at this point in her life? The purpose of a geisha is to please and serve men, and this is very much how Alice feels.
Review of "Unpolished Gem" By Alice Pung Essay Example
I Alice Pung is just a terrific writer! Awkwardly, Alice fails to take medicines as instructed by the doctor. I end up in unusual and unexpected places — but somehow in retrospect, they seem exactly where the writing should take me. Just as Alice thinks that her grandmother has fallen asleep, Huyen Thai begins to tell a story. I would have been much more resilient if not for the person who wrote the blurb, who really does need to go back to Blurb School. The assumption that all Asians arrive on boats implies that Asians are less advanced and civilized than those living in the Western societies they immigrate to. Living between two different cultures can enforce changes within their lives. The little Green Man was an eternal symbol of government existing to serve and protect.
