Two Kinds vs. Yellow Wallpaper
Two Kinds vs. The Yellow Wallpaper
Literature 210
After reading two very different pieces of literature one could come to the conclusion that there are many similarities and many differences between them. By comparing and contrasting the two short stories Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmans we can better see how they are similar and different. Both authors of these short stories seemed to have created their stories a bit from their own lives, and through that made some very interesting characters. The authors also seemed to have thought very well about their characters personas.
The first story is Amy Tan’s Two Kinds starts out with a girl explaining her mother, and what her mother’s dreams were for the girl when she was little. The narrator tells us that her mother moved from China because she “believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (pg. 383). Not only did the mother believe this she also wanted her daughter to become a Chinese Shirley Temple. Everything the narrator tells us about her mother leads us to believe that her mother had very high expectations for the little girl and that the mother wanted the little girl to do everything she could to succeed. A good example of this would be the authors mother would always use the phrase “Ni kan” (you watch) when Shirley Temple would come on television. As the little girls mom pushes ballerina lessons and everything else needed to become a “Chinese Shirley Temple” the little girl also starts seeing herself as this. She sees herself being “perfect” so that her mother and father would admire her. Eventually the mom becomes very desperate to get her kid out there are starts testing the little girl who then becomes bored and angry because she felt as those she was always disappointing her mother. The little girl ends up in piano lessons with a deaf instructor. Because her instructor is deaf the narrator stops hitting the right notes
Literature 210
After reading two very different pieces of literature one could come to the conclusion that there are many similarities and many differences between them. By comparing and contrasting the two short stories Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmans we can better see how they are similar and different. Both authors of these short stories seemed to have created their stories a bit from their own lives, and through that made some very interesting characters. The authors also seemed to have thought very well about their characters personas.
The first story is Amy Tan’s Two Kinds starts out with a girl explaining her mother, and what her mother’s dreams were for the girl when she was little. The narrator tells us that her mother moved from China because she “believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (pg. 383). Not only did the mother believe this she also wanted her daughter to become a Chinese Shirley Temple. Everything the narrator tells us about her mother leads us to believe that her mother had very high expectations for the little girl and that the mother wanted the little girl to do everything she could to succeed. A good example of this would be the authors mother would always use the phrase “Ni kan” (you watch) when Shirley Temple would come on television. As the little girls mom pushes ballerina lessons and everything else needed to become a “Chinese Shirley Temple” the little girl also starts seeing herself as this. She sees herself being “perfect” so that her mother and father would admire her. Eventually the mom becomes very desperate to get her kid out there are starts testing the little girl who then becomes bored and angry because she felt as those she was always disappointing her mother. The little girl ends up in piano lessons with a deaf instructor. Because her instructor is deaf the narrator stops hitting the right notes
Cited: Gilman, C. P. (2007). The Yellow Wallpaper. In R. Abcarian, & M. Klotz, Literature: The Human Experience (pp. 729-741). USA: Bedford/ St Martins. Tan, A. (2007). Two Kinds. In R. Abcarian, & M. Klotz, Literature: The Human Experience (pp. 383-393). USA: Bedford/St. Martins. Unknown. (2005, April 25). Acadamy of Achievement. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.achievement.org Unknown. (2000-2008). Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Biography and Works. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from The Literature Network: http://www.online-literature.com