The author William Saroyan, wrote a story titled “The Parsley Garden,” which took place in Fresno, California. In the story, the main character, Al Condraj did not have enough money to buy a hammer so instead he tried to steal it. He got caught and was sent to the manager’s office where he felt humiliated for what had happen. In “The Parsley Garden,” William Saroyan creates a fictional character in Fresno whose pride got in the way causing him to hate the wrong people. Nonetheless, Al Condraj matured and learned that in order to get his pride back, he would have to work hard to earn it. In the story “The Parsley Garden,” the main character Al Condraj did wrong not accepting the job offered to him from the same store he tried to steal the …show more content…
hammer from. The author illustrates the main character Al Condraj, as a prideful young man whose hate was directed to the wrong people. This image is created when the author wrote, “Because I hate the both of them,” the boy said. “I would never work for people like that. I just looked at them and picked up my hammer and walked out. I came home and I made this bench.” Even though Al Condraj was lucky to be offered a job and taken so easy after he was caught stealing, he still had hate towards them. Before reading “The Parsley Garden,” I read a similar story titled “Fish Cheeks,” by Amy Tan.
In this story, the main character Amy is chinese and seems to hate everything about her culture because she feels it humiliates her. Both main characters in these stories feel humiliation and hate towards the wrong things. In addition, both these characters show that they matured. In “Fish Cheeks,” the author shows that Amy matured when she wrote, “And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening's was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu.” In “The dinner. It wasn't until many year later – long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert – that I Parsley Garden,” William Saroyan shows Al Condraj matured when he wrote, “I worked all day,” Al said. “Mr. Clemmer gave me the hammer after I’d worked for one hour, but I went right on working. The fellow who caught me yesterday and showed me what to do, and we worked together. We didn’t talk, but at the end of the day he took me to Mr. Clemmer’s office and he told Mr. Clemmer that I’d worked hard all day ought to be paid at least a dollar.” Both these characters had similar problems and then similar growth and maturity towards the end of their
story. After reading “The Parsley Garden,” Al Condraj matured and managed to work hard to earn his pride along with the hammer he tried to steal. Even though, he knew he was lucky to not be in trouble after he got caught, and still had hate towards. Nonetheless, he did right working for that hammer and earning his pride back.
“Romero’s shirt,” is a story about a man –the protagonist, who takes pride in his work and the possessions he has acquired through his hard work. Romero is confined by his hard work and the need to provide for his family. While washing his car, Romero is approached by a man of distinct character, such as Romero before he came to El Paso. Thrown by the man’s personality, Romero lets his guard down and gives the man a small odd job. When the job is done Romero takes a nap and quickly realizes he left his favorite shirt outside. Unable to find his shirt, Romero automatically assumes that the old man has taken advantage of him by taking his food, money and his shirt. This in return leaves Romero feeling disappointed and taken advantage of.
The transition from childhood to adulthood can be challenging. There are many things to learn and let go. Sometime teenagers can dramatize certain events to make themselves seem defenseless. Amy Tan, Chinese-American author, makes her Chinese Christmas seem insufferable. In Tan’s passage “Fish Cheeks”, Tan uses diction and details to exemplify the indignity caused by her Chinese culture.
William Harwood Peden (1964). The American Short Story. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 70. OCLC 270220.
Dagoberto Gilb was born in Los Angeles in 1950. A mix of gritty humor, mundane terror, and economic misfortune distinguishes his short stories. His life has been neither easy nor subdued, and these influences are reflected in his writing style and choice of subject matter. The short story entitled “Love in L.A.,” by Dagoberto Gilb, shows how one can see many reasons in seeing irony and even satire by the story’s title and how all is stories combine in someway.
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
Lust makes people do crazy things. John Updike’s short story “A&P” provides a perfect example of how lust made a boy quit his job. In this short story, a boy, named Sammy, catches a glimpse of three under-dressed, attractive girls as they enter his workplace. The manager asks the three girls to leave. As a result, Sammy is outraged by the mistreatment of the girls and quits his job in protest. Sammy’s stand against the mistreatment of the girls makes him feel like a hero. Updike’s use of descriptive words and dramatic irony in “A&P” leads the reader to believe that Sammy’s heroic acts were not actions with rebellious intentions, but actions due to his lust for the three under-dressed girls.
John Grisham’s book, ‘A Painted House’ places the reader within the walls of a simple home on the cotton fields of rural Arkansas. Within the first few pages, the author’s description of the setting quickly paints a picture of a hard working family and creates a shared concern with the reader about the family’s struggle to meet the basic needs of life. The description of the dusty roads, the unpainted board-sided house, the daily chore requirements and their lack of excess cause the reader a reaction of empathy for the family. Although the story takes place in a dusty setting very unfamiliar to most readers, the storyline is timeless and universal. Most everyone has a desire to meet the basic needs of life, embrace their family ties, and make others and ourselves proud. The crux of this book is that it does an excellent job in showing the reader through other’s examples and hardships to persevere and never give up.
Thirdly, the setting of the story is set in Salinas, California. Ironically, the author was born in Salinas. It is the time of the Great Depression and middle-class has been hit hard. The story begins in Weed, a California mining town.
In the story, "Fish Cheeks" it talks about how Amy Tan's Chinese family invites an American boy's family over for dinner. Amy Tan wants to impress him and thinks that he wont like the food her mother made even though it is her favorite food. She can tell that he doesn't like the food and she is embarased. So, Amy wants to fit in.
In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman.
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
Working for a dollar a day as a water boy, Richard always wants to be a writer and writes short story called “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre” while in eighth grade. Stubborn Richard refuses a speech that principal wrote for him to give at graduation. Instead, he gives his own and feels support by some people. Working at the clothing store, he witnesses whites beating on a black woman for not paying her bills. Being called “nigger” he tries to understand how to act and get out of white people’s way. He could not show his hate towards white people because he was afraid they would kill him. Whites have him quit another job and then he decides to get out of South. Richard constantly switches jobs because of racism or where he does not get paid enough for him to move north; he starts stealing. In November of 1925, Richard moves to Memphis and every day he wants independence more than ever. He finds an interesting book that opens his life to a whole new life and
In American Born Chinese, three separate stories are told by author Gene Luen Yang. Each story uses different plot elements to connect with the reader’s emotions. In Jim Wang’s story of a school boy trying to fit in, foreshadowing is used. In Danny’s story of a popular teenage boy whose Chinese cousin embarrasses him, conflict is present. Finally, in the Monkey King’s story about a god trying to earn his place in the heavens inciting incidents are used. Overall, Yang succeeds in telling all three stories with these plot elements.
The economic status of the main characters is poor, without hope of improving their condition, and at the mercy of a quasi-feudal system in North America during the late 1800's. Being a sharecropper, Ab and his family had to share half or two-thirds of the harvest with the landowner and out of their share pay for the necessities of life. As a result of this status, Ab and his family know from the start what the future will hold -- hard work for their landlord and mere survival for them.
There comes a time at a young age, where everyone has done mistakes and some learn from it and some don’t. In the short story The Parsley Garden, by William Saroyan suggests that working hard for what you want gives you more respect rather than stealing. He shows this by chronicling the life of Al Condraj, demonstrating that him and his mom were impecunious living in fresno but Al Condraj decides to make up his mistakes and works hard for his hammer he wanted. Which he mentioned it wasn't something he needed that was important because his mom was giving him money to get the hammer instead of stealing. Al Condraj inspired himself to work for little things that are not important and not to steal and to also not get everything handed out easily.