The Voice From The Wall By: Amy Tan

1. �The Voice From The Wall�By: Amy Tan Presented by Alen Alic

2. Summary This story is about a little girl who describes a portion of her childhood by depicting certain events that occur regarding her mother, the next door neighbors, and the way she always anticipates the worst of things due to her mother. The girl is faced with many crazy stories that her mother tells her which lead to her developing a big imagination. The narrator struggles with her mom�s weird ways, especially after the new born baby dies right after birth. Her mother goes into a deep depression where she remains in bed leaving the girl to listen to the neighbors on the other side of the wall and compare who has it worst.

3. Characters The narrator - a half Chinese, half English-Irish decent girl who lives with her parents and recalls the struggles she faced and how she developed through childhood. Betty St. Clair - the Chinese born mother of the narrator that seems to be very complex. She has a very big impact on what the narrator feels and how she develops. Teresa - a girl that stays on the other side of the wall in a different apartment that fights with her mother all the time and helps the narrator realize the �worst thing.� Mr. Clair - narrator�s father who is very loving and understanding.

4. Title The title is very significant because it represents three meanings of the story. The first meaning the title implies is the voices the narrator hears from Teresa and her mom from the other side of the wall. The second meaning may be found when the characters realize �the worst� and get pulled through the wall for the truth as the narrator�s great-grandfather did and the mother at the end of the story. The third interpretation may be that the narrator�s mother is putting forth a wall that keeps her family from being able to help her with her grief.

5. Narration This story is told in a observer narration although it closely resembles an autobiography. It is told by a young girl in a first-person point of view with a very descriptive tone. The narrator is not reliable since her imagination is very big and drifts off from reality very often.

6. Focus The narrator opens and ends the story on the same subject. At the beginning the narrator is analyzing the �worst possible thing� through the story of her great- grandfather and the beggar which lead her to come up with a new way of looking at things and not concentrating on the worst.

7. Character Transformation The narrator transforms through the story in the manner that she overcomes fearing the worst out of situations. For example, hearing the neighbors fight, the narrator assumes that Teresa is being killed, but at the end of the story she learns and accepts the fact that that is just the way she communicates with her mother and expresses her love.

8. Theme The theme of the story is that one should never focus on the worst possible outcomes of things, but they should try and take care of the things they have. For example, the narrator�s mother was so focused on something bad happening that she did not concentrate on taking care of herself while being pregnant, but instead she went around bumping into things, which most likely led to the death of the newborn baby.

9. Symbols Sword � used to show the thing that triggers emotional outbreak and helps a person release the pain they feel. Realization. Wall � represents the barrier between communicational and cultural differences.

10. Purpose The purpose of this story was to show the reader the kind of life the narrator lived through and the type of mother she had. She wants the reader to never expect the worst of things and always keep a reasonable sense as she later learns to do with the arguments she hears coming from the neighbors. Also, the pain a person goes through at a certain point is going to go away and that many other people may be much worse of than you.

11. My Reaction I think that the narrator�s mother has gone through a very tuff past that has altered her mind and way of thinking that lead her to influence her daughter in a very negative way. She basically makes her daughter paranoid and frightened of the world. She puts crazy images in her daughters mind that haunt and disturb her.