Growing up is a hard time, and for the three most important characters in the short stories, “Two Kinds,” “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” and “Fish Cheeks” it certainly is no different. It makes them feel unacknowledged when all they want is just independence and acceptance of the ones that they find to be important to them. Acceptance is something every person wants to gain from everyone, it just is not something focused on commonly. For Jing-Mei in the story “Two Kinds” acceptance is not something often found in their family. Jing-Mei has this mother who lost her husband and twins back in China and is now trying very hard to get a fresh and better start on her new life with her child. Now this could mean many different things to different people, but …show more content…
In this story, “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” this boy is willing to give up his entire reputation and passion for being a fisherman just because the pretty faced, inconsiderate, selfless girl thinks fishing is boring and not exciting. When the boy finally gets the courage to ask Sheila out of this concert thing with his boat through the river to be alone with her, he puts out a fishing line out of habit and picks the girl up, and she does not see the rod and just starts talking on and on about herself. Meanwhile, this boy has accidentally hooked the supposed biggest bass ever, and the girl does not realize because she is just too busy talking. Eventually, the boy cut the fishing line, and when they get to the actual concert, he realizes they have nothing in common. When the girl gets a ride home from another one of her friends, the boy goes back not only to a broken heart, but also he has seemed to have lost his ego and reputation just by trying to gain this cute faced neighbor's
If you were stuck on the canoe who would you pick, the Bass or Sheila? First, he could always pick Sheila because he has been in love with her forever. He thinks that she is quite beautiful and cares for her greatly. He also adores her because of her long tan legs and enjoys watching her tan during the summer. He thinks her white dress shows off her figure more than her normal bathing suit.
I am currently reading “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W. D. Wetherell, and have reached page 5. So far this book has introduced us to a 14 year old boy who loves to fish and is infatuated by a 17 year old girl named Sheila Mant. One day, he finally musters up the courage to ask her to go to a concert with him. During their outing, he comes upon a decision; what passion should he choose? His love of fishing or Sheila Mant?
With the mother pushing her this much it makes her very strict. She doesn’t really give Jing a choice. This also made Jing feel like her mother didn’t like her the way she was. “’Why don’t you like me the way I am?’ I cried.
In the short story ‘The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant’, the character Sheila has proven herself to be rude, narcissistic, and self absorbed. On the very first page of the story, the narrator visits Sheila while she is playing a game of softball with her family. Sheila “didn’t seem to see [him] at all,” even though he is right in front of her (The Bass). This just goes to show that she couldn’t care less about anyone but herself, since she wouldn’t pay even an ounce of attention to someone trying to talk to her. Further, when Sheila and the narrator were in the canoe together, she candorly states “I think
In the short story, “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant.”, the narrator changes his fate, unfortunately it is not the fate he thinks. He goes on a date with his crush next door, taking her on a boat ride down a river. While on the river Sheila tells him about how much she hates fishing, while it’s the narrator's favorite hobby. A fish suddenly hooks on to his fishing pole line in the water and he wants to try to reel it in but he is afraid of what Sheila will think.
”(Wetherell 2) The narrator confronts internal conflict when Sheila said that she thinks fishing is dumb since the narrator enjoys fishing and likes Sheila so much. From the
At first Jing-Mei grew in her dreams and desirers to be perfect for her family; “In all of my imaginings
In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, we are introduced to Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei “June” Woo. As with any relationship, there is conflict between Suyuan Woo and her daughter, as it seems that Jing-Mei doesn’t understand her mother’s Chinese culture and ambitions. In the Chinese culture, women are seen as inferior and often lack basic rights such as the right to marriage or financial holdings, thus deprived of their potential. This is why the rights in the U.S. are seen as privileges to Chinese women, among other minorities, and why Suyuan endeavored for her daughter to become a prodigy and excel in anything and everything. Yet as Jing-Mei was forced into this ideal, and the more her mother tried to enforce this idea, the further she begun to despise her mother for attempting to turn her into a “fraud”.
Wetherell’s story “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant”. The 14-year old narrator is facing a huge predicament. The boy is on a date with the girl of his dreams. The boy and girl are canoeing up a river in Vermont. The young girl, Sheila, has informed the narrator of her disgust of fishing.
This disagreement quickly became a source of resentment and anger for both of them, but Jing-Mei and her mother were unable to resolve this conflict because of their different backgrounds and experiences. The story showcases how relationships between mothers and daughters can be strained because of differences in culture and a lack of communication. One of the difficulties between Jing-Mei and her mother is their different cultural backgrounds, which is supported by two points from the story. Firstly, Jing-Mei and her mother both disagreed on the opportunities that existed in America. According to Singer, Amy Tan uses “two entirely
The problem between mama and Jing-Mei is, mama is pushing her to do stuff and Jing-Mei is not liking it. In the beginning, JIng-Mei has happy to do what mama wants but every time they did that Jing-Mei would disappoint mama. “But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything .” By Jing-Mei saying that she feel sad that she keeps disappointing mama. “Maybe she's not the best, but she's trying hard.
“After losing everything in China…She never looked back with regret. ”(Chunk 1 ¶3). Jing-Mei’s mother is a Chinese immigrant with the typical ‘everything is better in America’ mindset. Jing-Mei, being raised in America, had more of an American mindset. “You want me to be someone i’m not…I’ll never be the daughter you want me to be!”
In the words of Jing-Mei in the last line of the story, “Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish” (Tan 159). Throughout her life, Suyuan, their mother, held onto the hope that she would see her daughters again. In this hope, she named Jing-Mei in connection to her sisters, keeping the “long-cherished wish” that someday her daughters would reconcile and complete their family circle. The occasion that
Both her and her mom want her to be a prodigy of Beyonce. Both of their parents want them to become a prodigy of somebody. Jing-Mei’s mom wants her to be a prodigy of Shirley Temple. One other allusion in “Two Kinds” and modern day society is Peter Pan. Peter Pan never wants to grow up and neither does Jing-Mei.
However, this determination sometimes appears to be obsessive to the point of running her daughter’s life for her. Regardless, she is only trying to help, as she encourages Jing Mei by asserting “‘You can be best anything.’” (1). Because of this, it suggests that although she is very harsh on her daughter at times, it is only to make sure that Jing Mei can use her full potential and not end up losing everything like her