Redefining Oneself Human beings often experience difficulty learning how to navigate life, switching between multiple identities. In Lisa Ko’s The Leavers, Deming and Kay have to manage different personal ambitions. Deming and Kay, mother and son, learn to live life as different obstacles move towards them. Deming is forced to change who he is and must fight to live the life he wants. Kay, a new mother, has to leave her past behind so she can be the best version of herself and be a supportive mother to her son. Having to adjust to change while lacking control leads characters to reinvent themselves by accepting their pasts, resulting in feeling at peace with their identities. Characters have to adjust to change despite having little control …show more content…
Deming takes, “.a second to realize they were talking to him. When school started, they said, it would be easier with an American name” (49). Deming is forced to change his name to a more American one. Even though this is not what Deming wants, he does not have a choice. After being adopted he struggled to adapt and now he also has to change a personal part of him. He is trying to adjust to major changes in his life, but he is not given much control over how to go about managing these changes. Kay is also trying to adjust to the changes in her life–becoming a parent–and, like Deming, she also feels like she was not given a choice. Kay and Peter talk about Deming late one night. Kay thinks it would’ve been better to adopt a younger child, but Peter thinks that Deming is great the way he is. Kay says, “I know,” he says. But I can’t figure out how to act around him sometimes” (55). Even though she wants a child and is putting forth a great deal of effort, Kay feels no connection with Deming. She feels this disconnect even more due to the fact that she constantly struggles with Deming. Kay wants the best for Deming, but doesn’t know how to relate to …show more content…
Characters must face their past to help reinvent themselves. By confronting the way Peter and Kay treated him in the past, Deming is finally free to be who he is. Deming talks to his parents about his time in Fuzhou. Kay thinks that many women don’t have a good education. Deming thinks oppositely and says, “She wasn’t listening to him”. He recalled how she and Peter had insisted on English, his new name, the right education. How better and more hinged on their ideas of success, their plans” (332). Deming feels misunderstood by his parents. They see him as someone who needs saving. He comes to terms with the fact that maybe his parents still see him as this little kid. He is grown up now and wants to move on. Kay must also learn to see herself in a new way. On the morning of Father’s Day, Deming is making Peter’s card and Kay brings up how these types of holidays might be uncomfortable for him. Referring to Mother’s Day, Kay says, “.when you were younger I thought I didn't deserve to celebrate the holiday, that it was, I don’t know, inauthentic for me to do so as an adoptive mother.You needed a mother, and if I wasn’t a mother, than who
One’s sense of identity is shaped by the conception of how one faces challenges in the world. In Octavia Butler’s science fiction novel, Kindred, Butler explores the idea of maintaining one’s identity within an oppressive society. Dana’s experiences in the antebellum South push her to draw from within and around her to persevere through not only the past, but the present too. As Dana completes a journey which is unexpected and complex, it allows her to realize how strong she is because of her ability to preserve her understanding of herself despite any alienation in the past.
In Stevie Cameron’s essay “Our Daughters, Ourselves,” she proclaims “ We tell our bright, shining girls that they can be anything: firefighters, doctors, policewoman, lawyers, scientists, soldiers, athletes, artists. What we don't tell them, yet, is how hard it will be. Maybe, we say to ourselves, by the time they’re older it will be easier for them than it was for us.” My parents raised my sisters and I very congruous with this view. They would always tell us that we could do or be anything we wanted when we got older. However, contrary to Cameron’s apprehension on the matter, my parents always told us how difficult it would be straight from the beginning. They told us how financially strenuous becoming a doctor would be. They told us how
A man named Bilal Nasir Khan once said, “The most painful goodbyes are the ones never said and never explained”. In the poem “Changes” by D. Ginette Clarke, the speaker is eager to understand the reasoning behind the end of his friendship with someone who he seems to have been very close with. As one reads through the poem, the strong connection that the persona feels between him and his friend becomes quite obvious. Granting the persona’s endeavour to express his feelings towards his failed friendship in a calm manner, he essentially comes off as a curious, eager, and desperate man. Clarke represents these specific characteristics of the speaker through the use of repetition, word choice, and punctuation.
People change everyday, whether it is from good to bad or for the better. People often say to themselves, maybe, if I didn't do “blank” this wouldn't have happened. However, the reality is, it happened, and there is no way to change that. Why go around throwing maybe’s around if you cannot change it? Authors purposefully make readers ask those questions. Authors love to create complex characters, characters that go through change. In Ellen Hopkins’ book, Crank, is the perfect example. Ellen Hopkins writes from her own daughter's perspective, Kristina, on how “the monster” changed her own life and her family's life.
The Changeable nature of life affects us all somehow. Whether it be moving to a new city, having children, or losing people that we love, it can affect people in many different ways. For example, in the novel, the main character Taylor Greer changes her name from Marietta and moves...
People can change their ways overtime in a positive way. Everyone has experienced change once in their life. Some people have acknowledged change over the course of life in a positive way or a negative way. Throughout the novel “The First Stone” by Don Aker, the main character Reef alters his ways a lot positively. Reef is a teenager who changes his lifestyle and makes a huge impact in his life after he meets Leeza. This novel develops the fact that people can change in a beneficial way, no matter what situation they are in.
Everyday people are put into several situations in which they have to conduct themselves accordingly. This may mean that they need to reinvent themselves. In many pieces of literature, characters are thrown into circumstances that require them to change who they are and how they act. In the novel The Art Of Racing In The Rain the author Garth Stein illustrates many situations where one or more characters are forced to change who they are and how they live. Yann Martel wrote, “It is circumstance that enables is to reinvent ourselves and the world around us.” Denny is put in certain circumstances in which he is forced to change his life. Buying Enzo, Eve dying and his court battle with the Twins made him reinvent himself constantly.
Family became an important aspect in Mah’s life. In the Chinese culture family is typically a vital part of the way of life. Mah may have been ashamed the way her first marriage ended and did not want the same with this man she met named Leon. Leon is a Chinese immigrant and family is his priority. Mah and Leon marry and have two girls, Ona and Nina. They form a family like connection more than ever before. Leon was a fairly stable man and loved his family. Mah and Leon were b...
There are different types of parent and child relationships. There are relationships based on structure, rules, and family hierarchy. While others are based on understanding, communication, trust, and support. Both may be full of love and good intentions but, it is unmistakable to see the impact each distinct relationship plays in the transformation of a person. In Chang’s story, “The Unforgetting”, and Lagerkvist’s story, “Father and I”, two different father and son relationships are portrayed. “The Unforgetting” interprets Ming and Charles Hwangs’ exchange as very apathetic, detached, and a disinterested. In contrast, the relationship illustrated in the “Father and I” is one of trust, guidance, and security. In comparing and contrasting the two stories, there are distinct differences as well as similarities of their portrayal of a father and son relationship in addition to a tie that influences a child’s rebellion or path in life.
Her father works out of town and does not seem to be involved in his daughters lives as much. Her older sister, who works at the school, is nothing but plain Jane. Connie’s mother, who did nothing nag at her, to Connie, her mother’s words were nothing but jealousy from the beauty she had once had. The only thing Connie seems to enjoy is going out with her best friend to the mall, at times even sneaking into a drive-in restaurant across the road. Connie has two sides to herself, a version her family sees and a version everyone else sees.
Taylor Greer, the main character of the book, faces several occurrences where evolving her personality is the only way to cope and carry on. From a young age, she knew what she wanted and would stop at nothing to accomplish her goal. Her first name change came when “[she] was three..[she] stamped her foot and told [her] mother to call her Miss Marietta” (2). Taylor’s hard-edged personality sought more than the “abundance of potato bugs and gossip” that the small town of Pittman provided (13). However, once renamed and on the road, a child was placed in her car for Taylor to take care of. Taylor originally had no plans of having a baby. If so, she “would have stayed in Kentucky” (18).
life is like a road where there’s all these signs and ruts, but there are all these turns to take you to a new place but few ever have the right car or enough gas to get there, but most never put the effort. Thus, making change rare and valuable to the point where certain things are the usually the only cause of transformation.These being a personal conflict between the characters and themselves or family where their emotions are battling it out, to the point where they resource to a new way or basic change. Then there’s also change where you feel helpless of what you're doing and can’t control it so you make an alternation of the rut you're stuck in to assure you that you are in control. finally, there's probably the most common one a visit
...tionship has completely evolved and the narrator somewhat comes into her own a natural and inevitable process.
June-May fulfills her mother’s name and life goal, her long-cherished wish. She finally meets her twin sisters and in an essence fulfills and reunites her mother with her daughter through her. For when they are all together they are one; they are their mother. It is here that June-May fulfills the family portion of her Chinese culture of family. In addition, she fully embraces herself as Chinese. She realizes that family is made out of love and that family is the key to being Chinese. “And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.” (Tan 159). Finally, her mother’s life burden is lifted and June-May’s doubts of being Chinese are set aside or as she says “After all these years, it can finally be let go,” (Tan 159).