Half & Half

Rose and An-Mei have both had their fair share of dark, awful experiences that have severely damaged many facets of their everyday thinking. I believe both of them share an immense guilt for the death of Bing and will never forgive themselves for what happened. An-Mei in a sense lost her mother as if she had died. She only saw her a few times in her life and knew hardly anything about her. Although her family bad-mouthed her, she still found love in her heart for her mother and felt no remorse towards her. At a similar age as her mother, Rose lost her youngest brother to what she thinks is her “inattention”. There are symbols and elements that repeat themselves in the story, including water and death. I think Rose has an unfair disadvantage seeing as her mother was raised to keep her mouth shut and not have an opinion, and she definitely passed on those traits to her daughter. Rose seems like a nice person who tries to do her best, but lacks the strength to stand up for herself or make decisions, which is one of the main factors that lead to her divorce with Ted.