Critical Review of Articles on Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Critical Review of Articles on Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Introduction

Tao of Tough love is basically an outstanding review article by the Gish Jen who is a correspondent at Boston Globe. It was published in Boston Globe on January 16, 2011. The article sharply lays down the strengths and weaknesses of Amy Chua's bestseller “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” published in January 2011. Amy Chua is professor at Yale University and she has talked about her struggle to raise her two daughters the Chinese way. Gish Jen mainly condemns the outrageous and extreme parenting way advocated by Chua.

Another article named “Tough Love, From a Chinese Mother” with the key note “A memoir of a woman's take-no-prisoners parenting style hits a nerve” is written by Lisa Miller that was published in Newsweek on January 16, 2011. This article is again a grave overview of the strict parenting shared by Amy Chua in her book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. But this article mainly emphasizes on the movement creates by Chua's book in the literary circles and parental communities.

Summaries of Articles

Gish Jen starts her article with enticing line “Riveting tale of mother's drive to raise high-achieving children by embracing harsh 'Chinese way' proves a bit thin in the end” which best reveals the theme of her article. In the opening of article she quotes few excerpts from Chua's book to give the reader an idea about the book to be discussed in the article. First she tells about the things Chua had forbidden her daughters to do and magical techniques Chua uses to make her daughters amazing at violin and piano. Then Jen, analyzing the book, says that there is no specific connection between being an Asian mama and an Asian Music Mama. Jen refers to the Chua's fears and concerns at a Julliard audition and connects them with her wild Asian drive to succeed. Jen points out the importance of the issues included in the battle hymn as they reflect the Asian success threatening the American imagination. Jen ends her article with the fascinating feelings she had when she started Chua's book but which got transformed into tears by the end of book.

On the contrary, Miller's review starts with the overwhelming feedback received by Chua for her book on daily basis. Then she presents the Chinese way of parenting perceived by Chua that includes bulk of rules and expectations that can lead to brutal attitude toward the child. Miller talks about the punishments undergone by the Chua's daughters for not meeting the settled standards. In rest of the article she talks about hue and cry raised on Chua's article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” that is an online prepublication of Chua's book and was published in Wall Street Journal. Miller ended her article with the admonished reaction of Chua's younger daughter who could not comply with the so called Chinese parenting of her ...