The values that are learned from our parents are passed down and help us grasp a sense of individualism and connection to our past. Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets", shows us how she had no idea of the significance of her Chinese past. She shows her transition progressively when she arrives in China shortly after her mother's death. Her mother's death was her connection to her past,"And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.... Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish."
"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros described how first generation Americans define the "American Dream." The American Dream, according to Cisneros, consisted of owning a house that she and her family could be proud of. Cisneros had moved from place to place never ending up in a place where she could ultimately call home. She described, "A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporarily, says Papa. But I know how those things go." Cisneros ultimately knew that she and her family would unlikely find that place where they could truly call home.
When you refer to Tan and Cisneros, you mean their narrators, right? The narrators are females whose lives share the traits that the authors' lives have concerning culture and family, even though the works are fiction.
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