Can people actually forgive someone for not telling them everything or for not reaching their potential? It is possible, and the guides for forgiveness are written in novels. Flight by Sherman Alexie, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls all show characters finding forgiveness. The characters try hard to forgive their mothers, fathers, social workers, and other figures in their lives. To forgive someone means “to grant pardon for or remission of (an offense, debt, etc.); absolve (Dictionary.com). Forgiveness is not always easily found, it may take a while, but once it is found, it is hard to forget.
Forgiveness is a difficult topic to digest. This is shown in Flight by the main character, Zits. In the
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The daughters are upset with the way their mother’s raise them; the Chinese way. For example, Jing-Mei’s mother, Suyuan, competes with Waverly’s mother, Lindo, on whose daughter is more accomplished. Suyuan sees a Chinese girl on playing piano on The Ed Sullivan Show and is inspired for her daughter to be the best a piano. Suyuan forces Jing-Mei to practice her piano piece, with a deaf piano teacher, until it is absolutely perfect, and Jing-Mei loathes her mother for it. Since her teacher is deaf, Jing-Mei does not practice her piece and her teacher does not realize it. After she ruins her piece while playing at a talent show, her mother is mortified and does not let Jing-Mei watch television until her piece is actually perfect. Suyuan says that there are two kinds of daughters, “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (142). Jing-Mei remembers this as a flashback, and once she returns to the present, she has her piano tuned. This can be seen as an act of forgiveness towards her mother and her belief in the American Dream and that daughters could be whatever they wanted to