Comparing An-Mei And Rose

An-Mei and Rose both have an overall negative view in all four vignettes but their point of view still has many differences. The main cause of An-Mei’s negative emotions were caused by her own mother. When she was younger her “Popo scared [her]”(Tan 42). An-Mei was told that her mother was a disgrace and should never be mentioned. To ensure this, her grandmother, or Popo, told her horror stories relating to her mother in some way. When An-Mei was nine her mother came back and took her to her new home. An-Mei’s mother was treated as disposable and was favored the least out of five wives. This combined with the second wife claiming An-Mei’s baby brother as her own caused An-Mei’s mother to be depressed which reflected onto her daughters tone. …show more content…
When An-Mei moved in with her mother she realized that her mother was given no respect. She had a nice room, nice clothes, and a personal maid Wu Tsing didn’t love or respect her and neither did the other wives. The second wife was given anything she wanted which included An-Mei’s little brother. An-Mei’s mother was forced to give up her child right after birth because the second wife wanted to raise the baby as her own. Because of her current and past home situation she committed suicide. The same theme applies for a part of Rose’s situation. When she calls Ted over to tell him that she decided the divorce was only happening if she could keep the house it was revealed that Ted “wanted the house. He wanted to whole thing to be over as soon as possible. Because he wanted to get married again, to someone else”(Tan 194). The day Ted came home saying he wanted a divorce wasn’t because of their lack of communication but because he had been cheating on her. Neither Rose or her grandmother were living in a home where they were loved and respected. Rose also has the theme, don’t ignore obvious signs and let the problem develop. Readers can see the theme in Rose’s childhood and adulthood. After telling her An-Mei about the divorce she thinks about “Bing, how [she] knew he was in danger… about [her] marriage, how [she] had seen the signs”(Tan 130). Rose reacted after the problem rose even though there were obvious signs leading up to the conflict. A four year old was running along slippery rocks next to the water and her marriage turned into a series of arguments. Neither of the problems were completely her fault but they could have been avoided. The two themes developed early on stayed with the characters throughout their