Growing up is a hard time, and for the three most important characters in the short stories, “Two Kinds,” “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” and “Fish Cheeks” it certainly is no different. It makes them feel unacknowledged when all they want is just independence and acceptance of the ones that they find to be important to them. Acceptance is something every person wants to gain from everyone, it just is not something focused on commonly. For Jing-Mei in the story “Two Kinds” acceptance is not something often found in their family. Jing-Mei has this mother who lost her husband and twins back in China and is now trying very hard to get a fresh and better start on her new life with her child. Now this could mean many different things to different people, but …show more content…
In this story, “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” this boy is willing to give up his entire reputation and passion for being a fisherman just because the pretty faced, inconsiderate, selfless girl thinks fishing is boring and not exciting. When the boy finally gets the courage to ask Sheila out of this concert thing with his boat through the river to be alone with her, he puts out a fishing line out of habit and picks the girl up, and she does not see the rod and just starts talking on and on about herself. Meanwhile, this boy has accidentally hooked the supposed biggest bass ever, and the girl does not realize because she is just too busy talking. Eventually, the boy cut the fishing line, and when they get to the actual concert, he realizes they have nothing in common. When the girl gets a ride home from another one of her friends, the boy goes back not only to a broken heart, but also he has seemed to have lost his ego and reputation just by trying to gain this cute faced neighbor's