Analytcal Essay

Analytical Essay

This Essay will discuss the similarities and differences in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and Amy Tan's "Two Kinds." It will show the dreams that the mothers of each of these stores had and how they went about fulfilling them.

Both of these short stories are very interesting to read. They both deal with the mother’s dreams of wanting better for her family and on how she goes about obtaining those dreams to come true.

In the one story, “Two Kinds,” Amy Tan writes how a mother dreams that her daughter, Jing-Mei will become a prodigy. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, just wants a normal life.

Jing-mei’s mother had lost everything when she moved from China to America in 1949. The only family she had left was Jing-Mei. She wanted and dreamed only the best for Jing-Mei for that reason.

Amy Tan writes this story in a way that it seems that she is telling the readers the story of her life with her mother. It makes the reader’s minds want to imagine more of what is happening and picturing what he or she is reading about. Jing-Mei’s mother believed that she could accomplish anything she wanted. “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America.”  (Abcarian & Klotz, 2007, p 383 first paragraph).

In the second story “A Raisin in the Sun” Lorraine Hansberry writes about life with the Youngers. They are an African American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. The Youngers are about to receive an insurance check of $10,000. This money comes from the life insurance policy of Mama’s husband. Each of the adult family members knows what he or she wants to do with the money. The matriarch of the family, Mama, wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with her husband before he had died. Walter Lee, Mama’s son would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. He thinks that this will solve the family’s financial problems forever. Walter’s wife, Ruth, agrees with Mama,...