A Step from Heaven

  The perception of America as a land of hope and opportunity motivates Ju's family to pick up their lives and move across the sea. Though, there is more to the story than this. There are lives involved, the young and the old. The perception of an American girl is pressed upon young Ju. Her mother perms her hair so that she can better fit into the physical idenity of a "Mi Gook" girl. This may make Ju be confused about her identity. Her new enviroment will also need for her to learn a new language. One that her family does not know, though if she does not learn it, no one will. This must be an aweful feeling and very stressful for her. And on thop of this she has to lean the curreculum in school.
It seems that just as soon as she learns the American culture, her parents are afraid she has forgotten her past. Young doesn't want her new American friends to see how "weird" her parents are or the poverty in which they live,

Waiting for Heaven: "Mi Gook is only for young people to have a new start" (21).
It seems that Ju, though she is young, is starting to feel the pressure of what is expected of her.


My Future: "I do not like the word future. Everything is in the future" (28).
I think hope plays a role in this kind of thought. Hope for a better future for their children, and hope that they can break the cycle of their life. There is also much pressure placed on Ju's future in her new enviroment.

Park Joon Ho: "He laughs. You are a girl, Young Ju...Leave her to dream. Do not be so harsh" (38).
Ju also has to deal with the sterotype of a girl in America.

There is also a motif of the Sea. What does this mean?
Uncle Tim is holding champaign with "foam from the sea" spilling out.
The Sea they fly over.
Sky Blue Dress at the ceromony.
Amamda birthday is at the beach
As the Sea Threatens to Drown my heart (112). Because she has experanced a life that she likes with the Doyals, in compairson she does not like her home life with her familiy.
When her father hits her she imagines that she is drounding. Death by something that once promiced so much hope.

There is more to a person than just the surface. It is easy to assume that there are no inner troubles when there the person does not vocalize them, but I think it is then that they want to have a voice even more.

Disappearing Bubbles:"I nodded and said yes, even though I did not know what cider was" (54).
This reminds me of the text that we read last class. Communication breakdown. This made Ju feel very self concious, enough to where she did not want to speak up and confess that she did not know.

She then confesses that she often tried to look up words in the dictinary though they did not always make sense. I remember being in Spanish class and doing the exact same thing. It is a feeling of loss and confusion.

"I do not know why I have to speak Korean at home so I will not forget where I come from" (55).
Her two worlds are being kept seperate. This must take a tole on her identity.

Making Sure: It has to be odd being depending on so much at such a young age. Apa seems to have his own issues. He wants to play the male role, but can not due to his lack of english.

Reaching: "If I catch a cloud I'll make it to heaven." Her perseption of heaven has changed. Again, a hope for a better place. Ju seems so old, the way she acts, the way she thinks.

My Best is not Enough: Strangling me with your hopes. 96.

They are all living on hope. What does anyone live on?

"We are Korean do not forget" 104

"What good is God going to do"

Didn't they initally want Ju to become an American girl, I wonder what changed their viewpoints on American girls. TV? Newspapers? Maybe they are worried because they do not know.

What influences a person most?

Ju seems to have a confliction of role in her life. She acts like a adult in her household, though her father provides conflicting feedback on this. She is responsible for her brother becasuse she is the one that speaks English and can answer phones.

What does she really have to go back to. Even if she does go back it will be another foreign envoriment for her. Her culture is a mixture of both.

So, in TESOL should the parents be helped through the process of adjusting to their enviroment as well as the children. This would, or might, take stress off the children