Our Parents Affect Us - Essay Example

His aunt who was a devout Christian raised Hughes; she encouraged him to attend church proceedings so that he could be saved. Hughes narrates how his aunt told him that extraordinary things would occur in his life after he gets saved. He attends the revival church service where his aunt Reed worshipped so that he could experience the unusual feeling. Prior to the service, his aunt had advised him that he would experience “something on the inside and he would see the light” Hughes was anxious about experiencing the everlasting light of Jesus Christ (Yagelski, Amy & Robert 224).

He attended the church service with the expectation of seeing the light physically. However, this does not take place because he was waiting for Jesus to appear and encourage him to join the rest of the children on the altar. He is forced to join the rest of the children on the altar out of peer pressure. Deep down he thought salvation was something physical not an inside feeling. He pretends to have experienced salvation to please his aunt. The impact of the words of our parents can be massive.

Parents are the adults children look up to. Therefore, anything they tell their children is assumed to be true. Even when the words or stories told present some gaps the children perceive the words of the adults as something not to be questioned. Hughes believed the words of his aunt and when the anticipated feeling did not occur he was afraid to question his aunt and opted to lie. Hughes experience in “salvation” is similar to many other experiences of children. Children tend to comprehend the words told by our parents plainly.

They believe that something will happen for real and not through imagination. Parents do not know the children fathom things that way; therefore, they keep on telling them fantasy stories that they understand as being true. Most of the time, the words of our parents influence our decision-making. Even though children do not comprehend all that their parents say when they are young. They pretend to understand so that they may not disappoint their parents. This is why Hughes pretended to be saved - he wanted to make his aunt happy.

Maxine Hong Kingston is another victim of the impact of parents in “No Name Woman”. The stories told by our parents are meant to nurture our growth and ensure we behave properly (Yagelski, Amy & Robert 87). Parents fail to understand the fantasy developed by children because of the story or narration. For instance, Kingston is a young Chinese woman approaching adolescence; the mother is afraid of the impact of adolescence that may befall Kingston. Kingston’s mother tells her a story to frighten her and ensure she respects traditional morals and ethics, but many things go through the daughter’s mind; she tries to imagine the possible ways that her aunt’s misfortune happened.

Kingston develops an imagination of what might have happened to her aunt. She kept on wondering what led to the suicidal decision of her aunt. Children have the tendency of developing similar fantasies from the stories told by parents. They tend to fill the gaps not answered by parents. The imaginations are developed because the stories told by parents are not fully imaginative; therefore, the children develop their own fantasy world to fill the gaps. The imaginations can go as far as Kingston’s imaginations.

She keeps on wondering if her aunt was miserable because of the