Tourette's Character Analysis

At first glace you believe Bennett identifies as a person with Tourette’s, since it is a huge part of his life, but that is not the case. Carl identifies as a brilliant surgeon, pilot, and loving father and husband. Comparably, Waverly is believed to be a closed off, rude, and stubborn individual. But as you dig deeper and get to know the characters you realized these are not their identities but just a top layer to who they really are. Both Bennett and Waverly don’t know where they are really from. Bennett opens up to (NAME OF GUY) and tells him that his tics stated around the age of seven and that he was adopted as a child. He also didn’t know if anyone in his family had Tourette’s and he doesn’t really have a sense of family identity. As a kid Bennett grew up in Toronto and was a loner in school, he didn’t have any friends and would spend his days going for long hikes alone. But having to grow up and spending time alone really helped strengthened him Bennett and made him more independed. He also discovered his

Growing up in America she took on American customs that her very Chinese mother disapproved of. Waverly lives a very Americanized lifestyle. “When you go to China, I told her, you don’t even need to open your mouth. They already know you are an outsider.”(Tan288) Waverly lives with her white fiancé Rich, gets her hair done at a salon frequently, and spoke very little Chinese. In Asian customs it is considered inappropriate to live with a man before being married and getting your hair done at a salon was wasteful when you could do it yourself at home. Lindo didn’t approve with Waverly’s lifestyle and criticized it; since she tried her best teach Waverly about Chinese character. Whenever her mother tried to teach her, she said it was to old fashioned and never took an interest in her culture. Waverly identifies and an American, even though she has a strong Chinese