By Another Name Character Analysis

In “A Work in Progress” by Aimee Mullins the main character is Aimee. As an infant she had both legs amputated below her knee, and at age five had a major surgery to correct the growth of her tibia. After the surgery, she was first put into a wheelchair, and her teacher called her a distraction and that she shouldn’t attend school anymore. She had struggled as a child with being in a wheelchair, but gets prosthetics when she gets older and decides she wants to become an Athlete. She becomes comfortable prosthetic legs and becomes the athlete she always dreamed she could be.
In “By Another Name” by Santha Rama Rau, two Indian sisters attend an English school in India. The girls attend their new and unfamiliar school and are given new

English names. The new names of the sisters are Cynthia and Pamela. All the Indian children, at the mainly English school, sit together in the back of the class. Pamela, the older of the two sisters, is given her first test in her class and is accused of cheating. Pamela is extremely offended by the false accusation and goes to get Cynthia. They both go home and explain to their mother about what happened at school that day. The main characters in both stories struggle with trying to fit in. Aimee has trouble fitting in with the kids at her school, and she is also pressured to fit in when her dad insists she changes her clothes because people would be able to see her prosthetic legs. In “By Another Name” the two sisters feel the urge to fit in with the English children of their school one way this is shown is by the sisters having to change their names.Both main characters in the stories felt as if they had to fit in with their surroundings because of outside pressure. They also both in the end refuse to fit in.
The main characters of the stories have many similarities. The overcoming of an obstacle is a similarity where Aimee is consubstantial with Santha. The real obstacle of Santha is the school she goes to itself, and the many miniscule and grand challenges faced their. The main challenge she faced at the school was racism. The effect of the racism was that she was forced to try and fit in with the other English children at the school. You can see this in the story in the beginning when the principle forced her to get a new “English” name. As the headmistress phrased it referring to the sisters Indian names that were quite simple “Oh my dears, those are much too hard for me” (1) It is shown she refuses to on the last page where she says that everything at the school happened to a girl named Cynthia and it didn’t matter to her considering she was Santha.
The obstacle that is faced by Aimee is similar because her obstacle is also school related, but the other obstacle she faces is a real world issue.

At her school she was called “inappropriate” (313) by her own teacher. Aimee finally gets prosthetics that she wanted, but soon faces another challenge when her father tells her she must change what she is wearing because people would be able to see her fake legs. When she got to college she began to run track and field and had a successful career of running. She faced yet another challenge when she was asked to go back to her school to speak, but after she explains to him all that she has done he says that the only reason she was respected was because she was vulnerable and she ended up not speaking there.
In life you will be faced with the challenge of fitting in many times, but you should not let the people around you define who you are. At school there are lots of trends and I see it here at collegiate where people wear certain clothes or shoes because it’s a fad. In third and fourth grade the largest fad by far was “Silly Bandz” and everyone had them and everyone wanted to have them. It may seem to be an unsophisticated example, but it is very relevant to the topic. Everyone should be individual and not just what other people are pressuring them to be, but truly themselves. Be a leader not a

follower.