The White Umbrella

The narrator of The White Umbrella, a girl who seems to not like the way her family goes about things. She seems like she has not found herself yet. She does not like her mom having to work. She wants to fit in with all the other people her age instead of just showing herself. She thinks that she needs extra things like the other kids to let her self show. After showing her insecurity, something happens for her to realize that she does not need extra things in life for her to show herself. She then realizes just how important of a role her mom plays in her life.

In the story The White Umbrella, the narrator, a young girl Chinese girl that goes to school with Americans, and has seemed that she has not completely found herself yet. Her mother and father both work. She shows her embarrassment of her mother working. After school, her sister and her take piano lessons at Miss Crossman’s house. While she sat and waited on her turn she spotted the white umbrella. She thought that she needed to hold it to fit in with others. Her mother has told her that they can not afford extra things for them to have. She wants to have things like others instead of just showing herself and accepting that she can not have all the extra things like other kids. When her turn came to play the piano she tries’s her best to try and impress Miss Crossman.

The narrator shows her insecurity by not accepted Miss Crossman’s ride, instead of walking in the rain. After piano lessons they waited outside in the rain. She offered them to come inside and she refused to do it. Mona, the narrator’s sister finally decides to go inside. Miss Crossman goes outside and talks to the narrator. The narrator lies to Miss Crossman and tells her that her family drives a Convertible, and that her mother, a concert pianist, will come to pick them up anytime. Miss Crossman gives the white umbrella to her. She tells Miss Crossman that she wishes that she would have been her mother.

The narrator begins to feel