MEMORANDUM
To: Instructor
From: Sheryl Townsend
Re: English – Assignment 1
Round characterization is one way in which authors of short stories develop their main characters. Round characters are well-developed, dynamic and experience change over the course of a story. Authors develop round characters with extensive description. Two short stories with well-developed round characters are “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. The authors in these two stories help the audience get to know the main characters by using similar techniques of first person narration, identifying personality traits, amplifying their reactions to situations or to other characters and by providing specific expository information. The
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The author introduces June as a round character who, as an adult, recalls a rocky relationship between her and her mother, Suyuan Woo.
Tan uses June’s physical appearance to familiarize readers with her struggle to find her identity. Her mother, had unsuccessfully tried to make her look like Shirley Temple. She was happy with the short hair-cut that made her look like a boy. And she described an occasion when she looked at herself in the mirror and saw a sad and ugly girl, "I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink and when I saw only my face staring back and that it would always be this ordinary face I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl!" (Kirszner and Mandell 473).
June had a very low self-esteem and her struggle with trying to find her own identity while at the same time trying to be who her mother wanted her to be, caused a constant conflict. June’s frustrations towards her mother and belief that she should be able to be who she wanted, was released through the personality trait of
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Both authors reveal the complex personality traits of each protagonist through first person narration. Although each story is told in first person, the authors use different techniques to connect readers with the strong-willed protagonists. The character’s major feelings of loss of self-control and identity, are expressed through the author’s use of the personality traits of anger, jealousy and defiance as continuous themes throughout the