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Comparing Short Stories 'Fish Cheeks And' My Mother's Garden

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Do you think all mothers are good role models.? In the short stories, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan and “My Mothers Garden” by Kaitlyn Greenidge, the mothers are good role models. In "Fish Cheeks", there is a girl named Amy whose family is Chinese, and they live in America. On Christmas eve they invite their neighbors over for dinner. There was a boy named Robert who Amy really liked and she was very embarrassed to have him over because she didn't want to be judged on her kind of food. So she started describing her food as disgusting stuff. In the other short story “My Mothers Garden,'' there is a girl named Kaitlyn and her parents got a divorce so Kaitlyn, her Mother, and her little sister had to move into the projects. Kaitlyn’s mom started to …show more content…

It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” This shows how Mrs. Tan is a good role model because she says you want to be the same as American girls on the outside but you must always be Chinese on the inside. …show more content…

“Is the lady home? Is she going to work in the garden? Tell us when she gets home, O.K.? We want to work in the garden.” This shows how she is a role model and how much the kids look up to her, and they wait for her to get home every day from work so they can help her work in the garden.

"All this time, the children of the projects had watched her weed and water and seed with interest. And now they were here to join her.

That spring, my mother got up at 5 every morning to work in the garden before she drove to her full-time job and then to class. When she finally came home, in the dusk, she worked in the garden again before coming inside to make my sister and me dinner and then staying up to study and write papers." This shows how committed Kaitlyn's Mom is to her work, school, and garden she is a great role model to her kids and the kids that live in the projects.

"On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu." Some people might not think she is a role model here because her daughter thinks that she is serving gross food to her guests, But it is actually Amy’s favorite food. This shows that her mom is cooking her favorite food because she loves her and wants her to be happy and proud of her

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She looks at the point of view nobody bothers to look about because either the parent has, quote from the essay, “Vacationing their children in front of the television, lock the door, and go to work for the best, calling home on the hour.” Or they don’t have the money to provide the food for the children. “A group of big-city mayors released a study showing that in 2000, request for food assistance from families increased almost 20 percent, more than at any time in the last decade.” Some families really have to struggle to get the help that they need for their children to

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