The novella Hunger, written by Lan Samantha Chang, tells the story of two young people's marriage after immigrating to the United States in the 1960s. The main narrator Min, who came from Taiwan to New York for a better life, marries Tian, a young man who came to the United States for his dream to become a violinist. Until their second child was born, Min did not experience the happiness she wanted. However Tian, who didn't succeed as a violinist, started forcing his daughters to succeed for him, especially Ruth. Under Tian's coercion, Ruth practiced violin so hard that she didn't get what she should have gotten at her age - love. This led to her wanting to get married as soon as possible when she became an adult, and didn't care whether the other party really loved her or not. Tian’s desire for success destroys Ruth, and her life after marriage may not be happy.

Tian begins to impose his desire for success on Ruth after learning that he could not succeed as a violinist. Tian's dean comes to his office and tells him that “he had outlived his usefulness in his current position. The department had an obligation to let younger graduates teach at this level. After spring semester he would no longer have a place” (Chang 48). Like Min said, those are just excuses; the fact is Tian does not have a good foundation in English and isn't good enough. at music to be able to teach it. His dean wants fresh graduates to teach this class because they feel that their basics may be a little more solid than Tian who has been out of school for a long time. He could no longer teach at the music school, which means that his subsequent work is no longer related to music. This is different from his dream, so he begins letting his two daughters learn the violin. Tian makes Anna start playing the violin, and let her practice the second part of a double concerto by Bach. His hope is that “Ruth and Anna would someday be able to play this together” (55). Tian also wants Ruth to start learning the violin, because for him, if both of his daughters learned the violin, there would be a better chance for one of them to succeed. He starts to pass on his dream of becoming a successful violinist to his two daughters. Ruth also starts learning the violin soon after. But her practice is not voluntary like Anna’s, but forced by Tian.

Tian sees Ruth's talent on playing the violin, so he treats Ruth harder than Anna, keeps asking her to practice the violin and doesn't allow her to stop. Ruth has some problems while playing, and Tian lets her start practicing the part again and again. After many repetitions, Ruth couldn’t take it anymore: “ ‘Baba, let me stop!’ ‘You go ahead and cry!’ ”(59). Tian doesn’t want her to stop, but wants her to continue practicing until she is very proficient. But when Anna asks to stop on page 54, Tian does so. Is this just because Tian spoils Ruth too much, so he wants her to suffer a little? No. Tian should have seen from Ruth that she has a talent for playing the violin, so in order for her to play a tune better and better, he keeps asking her to practice, over and over again, ignoring her feelings. Gradually, Tian stops treating Ruth as a 14-year-old girl: “He treated her as cruelly as he did himself - with complete disregard for her age and temperament” (62). At this time, Tian has completely imposed his unfulfilled dream - to become a violinist - on Ruth. Tian spends many hours every day helping Ruth practice the violin, and Ruth has improved a lot and won many awards, but she doesn't get what she deserves for her age. The boring practice of being locked in the house day after day, and Tian's strictness with Ruth, eventually led to Ruth running away from home later. 

Tian frantically letting her practice the violin also affected her life, which caused her not to get enough love from her father, and it affected her later marriage, and her whole life.  Ruth's spirit seems to be out of order because of the non-stop practice: “She did, in fact, sleep badly- … ‘Well, next time, stay in bed!’ (63). Once she got out of bed and walked around making noises and woke Tian up. Tian reprimanded her loudly the next day, and told her to stop getting out of bed and walking around. Living in the spotlight of her father’s fierce attention, Ruth feels lots of pressure, but doesn't feel any love from him. Before the school dance, Ruth quarrels with Tian again, and this time she couldn't take it anymore and choses to run away from home. It is a few years later when Ruth returns to her old home again, after Tian’s death. She tells Min that she’s going to marry, but when Min asks, “ ‘Are you in love with him?’ ” Ruth replies “ ‘I don’t know what you mean by love’ ” (101). When she was a child, Ruth was not loved and didn't understand what love was, and she still doesn't understand what love is and how to love others after she grows up. She just thought the person she was going to marry was nice, and the marriage between them is going to be stable, which is more important to her than love. She also didn't think carefully about what would happen to her and this person in the future. Ruth won’t live happily after her marriage, since she still does not understand what love is. She might treat her children the way Tian treats her. The way Tian forced her to practice and didn't care about her feelings destroyed her life.

Born and raised in a family lacking love, the rest of Ruth's life will also be lacking in love. Just because of Tian's obsession with the violin, Ruth’s life is ruined. If Tian can let her relax a little bit, then maybe it won't lead to more serious consequences later, such as Ruth not coming back to see Tian, even once, before he died. If parents treat their children like this, even if it's for their children’s own good, the relationship between parents and children will get worse and worse. If possible, parents could pay more attention to the children's thoughts and give them the love they need.