Short Stories About Identity

An author, Margott, once wrote a quote, “Don’t let someone change who you are, to become what they need.” The characters in all of the stories have struggled with their inner identities or capsized, when someone else influences them or makes them change themselves ,they do something that they understand now and have their realization in the end, when that person was not worth it or helping them in anyway. So they all reflect back to that quote and relate to those exact words. In the short stories “Fish Cheeks,” by Amy Tan, “Two Kinds,” by Amy Tan, “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” by W.D. Wetherell, the characters learn about their identities through significant moments. To begin, in the story “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan realizes about …show more content…
For instance, the narrator has a crush on a girl , Sheila Mant, and always tries to impress her with his laps. Finally he is going to a concert with her in his canoe. She is talking about how she hates fishing and while they are sitting the canoe one catches on the line, the biggest one yet, for the boy. He cuts it fast, so Sheila won’t see, after it pulls the canoe backwards. At the concert Sheila says she is going home Eric Casswell's corvette. “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secret hidden, tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again.”(5) This quote shows how the boy realizes that Sheila Mant is using him and that he should’ve caught the bass instead. The boy knows now that he doesn’t have to impress Sheila Mant or any other girl anymore, he just has to be himself, and go with his gut feeling to catch that fish out of that water. The boy understands now that he was so caught up in Sheila Mant and that he should’ve never betrayed himself and who he is. Therefore, people make mistakes, like him and they regret it, but later you realize or understand it, and and it taught him something, which is that he was capsized by a girl, and is to never discard his …show more content…
Wetherell, all the characters reveal their true inner selves through important events. To begin, Amy wants to be American, but is taught by her mother that she must always be Chinese on the inside. Then, Jing Mei stands up to her mother’s wishes for her to be a genius, in order to be herself. Finally, the boy changes the himself and does something he wishes he didn’t do, to impress a girl who doesn’t like him, and ends up regretting it all. All of these characters, capsized in one moment with their identities, but they all found them in the end and never regretted what they did except for the boy who accepted it later, they understood their mistakes. If people give up and change themselves to be or hangout with someone else, and don’t stay true to themselves, they may just