Two Kinds By Amy Tan And The Pedestrian, By Alexandre Dumas

People are often left to wonder how much control they have over the events and circumstances in their own lives. The extent to which they can control their lives is massively varied from situation to situation. The short story, ”Two Kinds,” by Amy Tan, the book, The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, and the short story,”The Pedestrian,” by Ray Bradbury, all demonstrate different instances in which the lives of their characters have varying amounts of control over their lives. The sources, “Two Kinds” and “The Pedestrian” are antithesis from one another in that in “Two Kinds” the protagonist that has complete control over her life and in “The Pedestrian” the main character loses all control over his life. The Count of Monte Cristo presents both sides of the spectrum, because the protagonist loses their control but then takes it back. Authors often showcase how the characters in their stories have varying degrees of ability to control their lives. In many cases, the character’s life will be threatened by other interfering forces beyond their control.
Amy Tan introduces the protagonist, Jing-mei, in her short story “Two Kinds.” Jing-mei’s mother,the antagonist, pushes her to become a prodigy, something …show more content…
Mead had been on his nightly stroll in would sometimes “walk for hours and miles.”(Bradbury) The only problem was that in this dystopian future no one did this kind of thing anymore. This means that when he was stopped by a robotic cop there was definitely something wrong. After a brief discussion the robot concludes that Mead is not to be trusted and arrests him. He was told to get into the back of the cop car which was “a little black jail with bars,”(Bradbury) that only enforced his loss of control over the situation. Bradbury has demonstrated how people sometimes have their power over their lives taken from