Essay about Richard Russo's "Dog" and Amy Tan's "Two Kinds"

“Belief in the truth of someone or something.” Trust is probably the most valued thing in human interaction and when Christopher’s father confessed to lying to him, Christopher feels like he cannot trust his father anymore. Although, Christopher, the main character of the novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time written by Mark Haddon, has autism and thinks very differently than I do, I can relate to him because a little over two years ago I lost all my friends and was diagnosed with depression making it hard to trust people. To me, parents and friends are supposed to be the people you trust and hope that they will never hurt you, and when Christopher felt betrayed by his father I instantly recollected when I felt that way towards

The central struggle in Amy Tan 's story "Two Kinds" is a battle of wills between the narrator, a young Chinese American girl, and her mother, a Chinese immigrant. "Two Kinds" is a coming-of-age story, in which the narrator, Jing-mei, struggles to forge her own sense of identity in the face of her strong-willed mother 's dream that she become a "prodigy." Jing-mei is caught between her Chinese mother 's traditional ideas about how to raise a daughter, and her own development as a Chinese American girl straddling two cultures.

In the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, Ed Boone is the father of a brilliant boy, Christopher, who has signs of autism or a similar disorder which makes him very particular, and have extremely rigid standards. Ed constantly overworks himself to please Christopher, and make his son feel as comfortable as possible even though Christopher never thanks him. A similar idea is expressed in “Those Winter Sundays”, by Robert Hayden, where a boy reflects on all his father has done for him even though he and his family never acknowledged all of the effort and labor his father put into making them happy, healthy, and free from these labors. Both the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and “Those Winter Sundays” suggest that a parent will go to great lengths for their children's prosperity and comfort even if their children never say thank you.

“Two kinds” is a story, a Chinese girl whose life is influenced by her mother. Her mother came to America after losing everything in China. Jing-Mei’s mother was immigrated early to America from China who has “American dream”. Her mother had high expectations on her daughter and did not care how it could affect her. It made Jing-Mei become a stubborn and rebellious person. “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, … for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me. (104) She expressed her anger by going against her mother's expectations in ‘who I am’, it inferred that such tendency come from her childhood experiences. Jing-Mei was frustrated because she could not satisfy her mother.

Moreover, another event from the movie that shows his (CD) is his attempt to kill his mother. After running away from her in the woods and hiding, he tries to push his mother of a cliff. This plan was once again stopped by Mark. This ultimately led to Henrys death. This shows just how maladaptive or out of touch with the world Henry was. As I pointed out earlier, Henry was a very intelligent and manipulative child. He convinced his parents and other elders around him to believe that he was the perfect child and tried turning them against his cousin Mark. He even had Mark’s doctor believing that Mark had a problem. According to (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12/10/09) both of these events are characteristics of (CD).

After the Vietnam War, Henry was crazy and unstable. For instance, when Henry was watching television and he bit through his lip with blood pouring everywhere (977). The blood was getting on his bread every time he took a bite, but because of his lost ability to think straight Henry doesn’t even flinch as blood pours everywhere. Also, at the end of the story Henry snaps on his brother Lyman. He punches Lyman, which leads to a fight ended by the laughing of Henry (980). During the fight with Lyman, the extent of Henry’s mental changed, to turn on a family member and physically strike him. Henry illustrates how crazy he is when he jumps in to the river all of the sudden to “cool off”(981). This action by Henry ends his craziness and his life.

Shears. Christopher had not wanted to talk to father because he had lost trust for him. He had lost this trust because his father had said that his mother was dead, and that he had not killed the dog. While at his father’s house, he would push his bed up against his door so his father would not enter. In chapter 233, father made a deal with Christopher,”Let's call it. . . let's call it a project. A project we have to do together. You have to spend more time with me. And I. . . I have to show you that you can trust me. And it will be difficult at first because. . . because it's a difficult project. But it will get better. I promise.” At this time, father had bought a golden retriever for Christopher as a symbol of trust. With this puppy, he is showing Christopher that he wants his

After the war, Henry remained cold to everything around him. “He sat in front of it, watching it, and that was the only time he was completely still. But it was the kind of stillness that you see in a rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt. He was not easy. He sat in his chair gripping the armrests with all his might.” By comparing Henry to a rabbit frozen in fear, it really shows how immense his anguish is. “I looked over, and he’d bitten through his lip… So we went and sat down. There was still blood going down Henry’s chin, but he didn’t notice it and no one said anything even though every time he took a bite of his bread his blood fell onto it until he was eating his own blood mixed in with the food.” This quote uniquely shows how closed off he is emotionally. He has experienced so much pain from the war that he ignores his own suffering. It is clear that Henry had some extent of PTSD from the war. He was drowning in pain so much that he ignored his own purpose and value, so much so that he ended up taking his

parents were drunk— which was all the time—up into the kitchen.”(Paulsen 24). When he had dogs, he forgot what his parents were like. Dogs changed everything.

Henry is the type of character that we know in many of the books we read. Constantly he is thinking that he is

He described that he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to. Through this analogy, the reader can see that Henry is reducing the soldiers to unthinking, unfeeling machines, performing their duty without taking into account the threat of injury or death. As he looks around at the faces of the rest of the soldiers in his regiment, he notices their focused commitment to the firing of their rifles. He wonders if he is the only one faced with questions of morality. While the regiment began to advance, Henry was shocked to receive a packet of letters from Wilson, who feared he would die in battle. After the battle, he is glad that he made it through the first day. He begins to lose the romantic vision of war by seeing the realities, but he starts lying to himself about who is really is.

In Stephen Crane’s short story of “A Dark Brown Dog”, he writes about a young boy who finds, neglects, and befriends a ragged puppy, with a rope dragging the ground, when they meet. The boy takes fun in abusing the puppy, but when he tires of this he makes his way home. The puppy, even though the boy was not nice, starts to follows the boy home. When arriving home the boy defends the puppy to claiming him as his own. The boy’s father agrees to allow the boy to keep the puppy. The boy and the puppy grow very fond of each other. The puppy was abused but always showing his love even after his abuse. Then the story takes a very sad, gruesome turn for the young dog.

experiences a realization about life when there is an incident with a dog. The narrator then expresses his

Some common emotions the narrator has with the scotch terrier and poodle is that he was embarrassed and upset with both of them. Evidence of this is shown in paragraph one when it says, “... my moment of keenest embarrassment was the time a scotch terrier…” When the scotch Terrier had puppies and then again in paragraph one when it says, “...I will always remember, with sickening distress, the look of incredulity mixed with hatred that came over the face of the particular hardened garage man…” Though it may not say it the reader can infer that he was embarrassed about what he had just done. Him being upset about it is also shown on paragraph 1 when it says, “...who had just had six puppies in the clothes closet…” It is also shown that he was

In "A Farewell to Arms", when Henry is conversing with Catherine in the garden he confidently pushes for what he desires. He explains, "We looked at each other in the dark. I thought she was very beautiful and I took her hand. She let me take it and I held it and put my arm around her arm. 'No,' she said. I kept my arm where it was. 'Why not?' 'No.' 'Yes,' I said. 'Please.' I leaned forward in the dark to kiss her and there was a sharp stinging flash. She had slapped my face hard. Her hand had hit my nose and eyes, and tears came in my eyes from the reflex. 'I'm so sorry,' she said. I felt I had a certain advantage. 'You were quite right.' 'I'm dreadfully sorry,' she said. 'I just couldn't stand the nurses-evening-off aspect of it. I didn't