Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds Essay -- Two Kinds, A

Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman. "Two Kinds" is a powerful example of differing personalities causing struggles between parent and child. In every parent-child relationship, there are occurrences in which the parent places expectations on the child. Some children fall victim to a parent trying too hard or placing expectations too high, or, in the case of "Two Kinds," a parent trying to live her life through that of her child. However, the mother is also a victim in that she succumbs to her own foolish dream that "you could be anything you wanted to be in America." Knowing that her own time has passed, she wants her daughter to succeed by any means necessary, but she never stops to think of what her daughter might want. She strictly adheres to her plan, and her overbearing parenting only leaves the daughter with feelings of disapproval and questions of self-worth. The mother does not realize the controversy that she creates, and she cannot understand that her actions could be wrong. She also does not realize tha t she is hurting not only her daughter, but also the relationship that should bind the two of them ... ...by the wrong person. Only after the death of her mother can she let her guilt override her pride. Only after the death of her mother, when she can act on her own accord and not please her mother, does she truly play the piano. Their conflict has gone unsolved, and the mother has died believing that she was a failure as a parent. Throughout the daughter's childhood, both are trapped in their own selfish illusions. Their personalities clash, and neither is willing to compromise. It is unfortunate that neither can realize the extent to which they have damaged themselves individually and jointly. They are fundamentally the same, but, blinded by tenacity, neither realizes that "they are two halves of the same song." Works Cited Tan, Amy. "Two Kinds". Literature, Reading Reacting,Writing. 5th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Heinle, 2004.

Ah, Woe Is Me

In the beginning of this short story we are introduced to Sarah, an aging black servant living in South Africa. She works hard for an upper-class white family and spends all of her money on education for her three children who are sent to a boarding school. They come home once a year at Christmas, and the first time the narrator meets the children, she is surprised at their well-mannered behaviour. She finds, however, that Sarah is a bit harsh towards them, and she comments on this. Sarah tells her that it is better to learn the lesson now and grow to accept ones fate later. In the course of the following year, Sarah must give up her job because of her legs, and one day her daughter comes to the house. Slowly she tells her story to the narrator. How the younger brother is working now, and how she is taking care of Sarah. The narrator offers her some clothes and some money and invites her inside for a cup of tea. When she is about to leave, she starts crying and can only mutter that her mother is very ill. Unsure of what to do, the narrator hands her a handkerchief. The setting in this story is South Africa in the 1950s. Apartheid and segregation are words that describe the conditions under which the blacks (the native Africans) live perfectly. The blacks nearly have no rights and must accept being oppressed by the whites. Sarah is only one of many poor blacks who only just manages to earn a living by working as a servant for a rich white family (the narrator). Slavery does not exist anymore, but it can be difficult to distuingish the life of a slave from that of a native African in the 50s except from the fact that they do after all get paid for their work. Sarah is very concerned about her children getting a good education. She probably wants them to have a better life than she has had so far, and while that is a very noble thought, the facts speak against it. Her children do not at this time have a very good (if any) chance of getting a good solid education because it is very expensive, and their mother does not make that much money. Even if she did make enough money, her legs are bad, and at the end of the story, she has to give up her job (and thus take her children out of the boarding school) because she cannot afford to pay for the school. This is what could look like the final blow to her childrens future success in life. No education means no chances of getting a better life in South Africa (and just about everywhere else, too). But what if she did have enough money to give her children a proper education – would that guarantee the children a good future life I gravely doubt it. As I said before, the blacks live almost like slaves, and as such, they do not have the opportunity to climb the social ladder. All in all, Sarahs hopes and dreams for her children are all very noble, but, unfortunately, at that time and place, very unrealistic. The narrator does not treat Sarah any better than most other white people in South Africa at this time. While she allows Sarahs children to stay in her house during Christmas, I think the only reason she does it is because she tries to escape her own bad conscience. It is Christmas after all. Throughout the rest of the year, she does not even think about helping Sarahs children financially so they can stay in school. Even though she presumably has more money than Sarah will ever see, the thought of helping her servant out does not strike her at any point in the story. Her servant is her servant, and servants children are not someone she thinks about. This point is also very clear to see when one reads the description of the narrators thoughts about Sarahs children. She is surprised at how well they behave, how good their manners are; as if she was expecting a horde of wild animals instead of normal human beings. She is undoubtedly not the only one to think this way about the blacks, they were considered animals by many white people at that time. However, the narrator seems to excuse her treatment and behaviour towards Sarah and her family with ignorance (see lines 99-103). I find it hard to believe that this ignorance really existed, but it is possible that it did, because the whites and the blacks were so distinctly segregated by the apartheid system. Yet I find it hard to believe that the narrator was completely unaware of Sarahs almost inhuman standard of living. Surely, even though apartheid almost divided the whites and the blacks into two separate worlds, she must have known something about the conditions under which Sarah and her children lived, and that it was getting worse as the days went by (because of the mothers bad legs). When Janet, one of Sarahs two daughters, comes to visit the narrator in the end of the story, the narrator once again displays her ignorance about the blacks, but this time she openly admits it. Janet is, of course, in an unpleasant situation when she stands in the back yard of her mothers former employer. Everyone has some pride in themselves, and standing in the back yard, asking for alms is, of course, very degrading to a proud person, no matter who that person is. Janet has probably tried being in a similar situation before, but now that her mother is unable to provide for the disintegrating family (her father has lost his job and her sister has married and moved away), the life and death of her family depends solely on her and her brother who are the only ones working. Janet is of course very depressed and sad, but she cannot give up now. Her last hope is that the narrator will help her out, and, fortunately, she does. The handkerchief is actually the first thing the narrator has ever done to help Sarahs children. It is not until that point in the story Janet realizes just how bad things are with Sarah and her family. Of course, one could again be tempted to think that it was only her bad conscience that made her give Janet the clothes, but there is no way to be sure. I am, however, inclined to believe that the narrator has finally realized how immense the difference between the â€Å"black world† and the â€Å"white world† really is. However, the things she gives Janet (some money and the handkerchief) will not last long, and what will Janet do then Come back for more, of course. I am not saying that the narrator is doing something bad, but I do not think she realizes that Janet will probably come back again. It is like giving a stray cat some food; it will always come back for more. The question is if the narrator would give Janet more money if she came back, and if it would be any help at all. The first question is easy: Yes, she would give her more money if she came back – her conscience forbids her to do otherwise. The second question is a bit more difficult to answer. Of course the money is an instant help to Janet and her family, but only a very insufficient one. The few dollars (or whatever currency they use in South Africa) she gives Janet will only provide the family with a meal or two, and after that they will be back to where they started, and would have to beg for more money. Now, I am not saying charity does not help, but I do not think it helps as much as many people would like to think it does. In many cases, it only puts off the sufferings. The apartheid system has officially been abolished in South Africa today, but I think old habits die hard, so to speak. I am sure there are still blacks like Sarah and her family who have to subordinate to the richer white population even though – officially – apartheid does not exist there anymore. Societies do not change overnight, especially not when one group has to give up its right and privileges and share them with others (whom they dislike). Sarahs story is undoubtedly not the worst example one could find, but no one knows what happened after the scene in the narrators back yard.

Kate Chopin s The Story Of An Hour - 1309 Words

In the past many decades the definition of what a marriage means changed dramatically in some areas. For the author of both stories, Kate Chopin, she wanted the reader to get something out of the story. She likes to explore all types of themes in her stories such as, racism, the roles of women, and adultery. With these themes and messages she struggled to have most of her stories published. In many of her stories she passed along these messages through the manner of a marriage. In her short stories â€Å"The Story of an Hour† and â€Å"Desiree s Baby† she showed just how different marriages could be as well as how similar they can be. Chopin portrays the lives of the main characters, Louise Mallard from â€Å"The Story of An Hour† and Desiree Aubigny†¦show more content†¦These two were soon wed and had started to grow as a family. Once Desiree had birthed a son for Armand he cherished her even more as she had given him a legacy. As this child began to gr ow into his toddler years Armand regretted his decision to marry Desiree – ultimately leading to her and her child’s assumed death. In the time period that this story was written, a person’s background meant something as a name was a sense of wealth and worth. Since Desiree was adopted, her background was unknown and when Armand decided to marry Desiree he didn’t care because he would give her his name as all he cared about was his affection for her. For a little while all was well in the household. Desiree and Armand were happier than ever, and Armand treated his slaves better. This soon took a drastic turn as everyone noticed that their son had begun to show qualities of a Negro. Once these features were noticed, Armand’s attitude towards his wife and his slaves changed for the worst. In Armand’s eyes Desiree was at fault for giving the child those features since her history was unknown. Even after Desiree gives her husband evidence that s he may not be a carrier, she and her child are still banished from the home and sent on their way. Desiree knew her outcome either way if the word spread, that Armand could either turn her and her child into a slave since he technically owned her or he could have her killed. She then makes the decision to wander into the