Mothers have always held such symbolic weight in determining a person's worth. Your mother tongue, your motherland, your mother's values - these things can qualify or disqualify you from attaining myriad American dreams: love, fluency, citizenship, legitimacy, acceptance, success, freedom.
Interpretation
Mothers significantly influence our identity and the opportunities we have in life.
This quote emphasizes the profound impact that mothers have on shaping our identities and the value we place on ourselves. It highlights how aspects such as language, cultural background, and maternal values can determine our chances of achieving dreams, acceptance, and success in society, particularly in the context of the American experience.
In practice
In a speech about cultural identity, one could reference this quote to highlight the role of motherhood in shaping personal values.
As I got older, I realised that people saw me as other things - sometimes Korean, sometimes Japanese, sometimes just Asian. When my family moved to a more affluent white neighbourhood, I started to see myself as 'other', this amorphous category. I didn't even know what 'not other' was, but I knew I wasn't it; I wasn't what was normal.
My father always wanted to be 'Col-bear.' He lived in the same town as his father, and his father didn't like the idea of the name with the French pronunciation. So my father said to us, 'Do what you want. You're not going to offend anybody.' And he was dead long before I made my decision.
This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage.
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
Since I was sent to an orphanage, and I saw very little of my mother, I can counsel mothers that you shouldn't abandon your children. Before you bring a child into the world, think deeply about things, so that they lack absolutely nothing, least of all love.
It's not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It's inappropriate.
I'm most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren. If you don't have that, you really don't have very much.
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