# data[].attributes.body
the main message in this story is that forgiveness is important. this is exemplified in a quote from one of the main character's friends when they say, "To forgive, for us, is the highest satisfaction."

# data[].attributes.body
In the story "Going to Japan" there are several characters, not all of them being main characters but all of them providing an influence on the Narrator. Other characters include, Aunt Zelda, apology airline employee, and the Japanese friend - "To forgive, for us, is the highest satisfaction."(Kingsolver 58-59) The Japanese friend helps develop her mentality that it isn't so bad being such a clumsy foreigner because you can make people happy by apologizing a lot.

# data[].attributes.body
In "Going to Japan" by Kingsolver, our protagonist is exposed to place in juxtaposition to what she had imagined. She pictured an older place than where she was from, but was met with "electric streetcars there, and space-age gas stations with uniformed attendants who rush to help you from all directions at

once. There are also golden pagodas

on shimmering lakes, and Shinto shrines"(Kingsolver 17-19), this jars our main character and their foreign way in the new environment.

# data[].attributes.body
As she was leaving, the narrator realized what it really meant to have the greatest pleasure in forgiving people, "'I took the startled gentleman by the hands and practically kissed him. You have no idea, I told him, how thoroughly I forgive you'"(Kingsolver 90) This line represents how the narrator learned that apologies are very important and she was acting culturally appropriate

# data[].attributes.body
In "Going to Japan" by Barbra Kingsolver, the character learns a valuable lesson on forgiveness. When her flight got canceled, the flight attendant came around telling everyone "terrible, terrible sumimasen," or in other words, we are terribly sorry. Our protagonist responds to this with "You have no idea...How thoroughly I forgive you"(87-91). This shows how our character developed through the story, from going to not caring too much about others, to forgiving them.

# data[].attributes.body
In "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, the story takes place in the 1800's. This is significant because our main character and all those in her relationship are black. One person of importance is "Mrs. Bertha Flowers... [who] was our side's answer to a rich white aristocrat"(4-9). This shows how they weren't allowed the same privileges as white people, and they only had one person even close to matching the wealth of the white women. Because of this, Maya was probably backed into a corner and couldn't get help.

# data[].attributes.body
In "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, Maya learns to fear everything because of her cruel childhood. In the story, our speaker says how that if she didn't return Ms. Flower's book, "Death would be too kind and brief" (132). This messed-up thought conveyed through diction is most likely a by-product of Maya's past abuses.

# data[].attributes.body
the main theme in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the strength of character, and the main character's love for reading and learning can overcome the racism and trauma that engulfs her. A quote that exemplifies this is, "I had to speak. I said, "Yes ma'am" It was the least I could do but also the most. (Angelou, 180) after her teacher, Mrs Flowers, reads her her favorite story, the main character talks for the first time in years to someone other than her brother.

# data[].attributes.body
In the story "I know why the caged bird sings" there are several characters featured throughout the story, these are the main ones: Mrs. Bertha flowers, Mrs. Henderson, Mother, Marguerite. The one that influenced Marguerite the most is Mrs. Bertha flowers, her teacher and close friend: "I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy"(Angelou 161-162) This was one of the many "lessons in living that Mrs. Flowers gave her after she finally got her to talk after being abused and silent for many years, and she developed her character through these by teaching her to be kinder and more open to society again.

# data[].attributes.body
The most important reflection that Marguerite had at the end of the book was that she mattered and that she wasn't all alone in the world: "All I cared about was that she made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book. It was enough to prove that she liked me."(Angelou 197-198) After having unspeakable trauma happen to her, Marguerite really just needed someone besides her mother to care for her, and that someone was Mrs. Flowers.

# data[].attributes.body
In "Pretty Beyond belief" by Amy Tan, beauty was a curse seen as a blessing. Because the story was set in 1900s China, where women expected to be beautiful. This expectation however was a curse for everybody that had been blessed with, as "When she was nineteen, she married. She was innocent, she said, and her husband was a bad man"(Tan 6). This explicates how her beauty seen as good luck in China, attracted bad people. It had cursed her life.

# data[].attributes.body
In the story "Pretty Beyond belief" the story is oriented over the mother, and the daughter. Therefore the mother was the only one giving her life lessons, for instance her mom thought beauty was a curse: "My mother... had been born a natural beauty...her husband had her jailed for running away... City girls admired her front page photos."(Tan 4-6) The mothers husband was a bad man and he chose her and she couldn't escape the life that he subjected her to because she was so well known.

# data[].attributes.body
As the narrators mother aged and got dementia she admitted to her daughter that "'You look like me' ... My psyche had molded itself into my mothers"(Tan 10) This was a wholesome reflection because her whole life the daughter was told that her mother was a beauty and her daughter was not, so this made her the girl feel complete when her mother died.

# data[].attributes.body
In the Story "How we fight for our lives" the author Saeed jones talks about his life around the time that he finally came out to his mother. They were the only two main characters so his mother was the one to develop his characteristic of always loving his relatives no matter what "' I forgot to say that I love you' she said, almost frantically" In this part of the story she remembered that no matter his identity he was still her son and she still loved him, gay or not.

# data[].attributes.body
In "How We Fight For Our Lives" by Saeed Jones, the imagery plays an important part in creating suspense. Before he was about to face his fear, he "stared at the mimosa trees"(96). This was the calm before the storm; the moment of suspense. This was the moment before the climax of the story, where the suspense was the greatest.

# data[].attributes.body
In "How We Fight For Our Lives" by Saeed Jones, the setting plays an important role in the story's intensity because he feels bad for "blurting [himself] out to her rather than finding a more proper setting for the conversation"(97). The awkward phone call he had to undergo instead of the nice and proper setting made everything more intense as it wasn't nearly ideal. It made the embarrassing process of coming out even more uncomfortable.

# data[].attributes.body
After finally telling his mother about his identity, Saeed realizes that it wasn't all about revealing him being gay, "Being gay was never actually the burden. There was so much that I would probably never tell her"(Jones 98) He also understands that life won't be as simple because he couldn't tell his mother everything about his life and he wouldn't ever do something to her because he loved her.

# data[].attributes.body
In the short story "The Caged bird" the tone is self isolation, it's built upon the fact that Marguerite Johnson was abused so much that she withdrew from the world afraid of everyone, but then Mrs. Flowers with a little pushing from Marguerites mother decided to talk to her, and finally gave her a sense of love and respect from Mrs. Flowers "I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for just being Marguerite Johnson."(Angelou 192) Mrs. Flowers was a teacher for her giving a hopeful tone at the end of the story because she got Marguerite to open up.

# data[].attributes.body
In "Pretty Beyond Belief" by Amy Tan, imagery plays a role in explicating The beauty of the Chinese woman. Amy describes her grandmother as "exquisite, like a fairy" and the result of that was the man "force[ing] the [grandmother] to become his concubine"(Tan 7) Her blessing of beauty subjects her to a life in hell.

# data[].attributes.body
The theme of Pretty Beyond Belief is that beauty isn't always a good thing. this is because the main character wants to be beautiful; however, the main character's mother, who is considered beautiful, tells her that being attractive has major downsides she mentions this when she says, "Pretty can be bad luck, not just good" (Tan, 4)

# data[].attributes.body
The main tone in this story is awkwardness. This is because the main character in the story is not accustomed to the culture of Japan and has to apologize to those she inadvertently disrespects an example of this is when she touches a wall of a palace and security is alerted, she shouts, "Moshi wake gozaimasen, Officer! Wish I were dead!"(kingsolver, 48)

# data[].attributes.body
the tone in the story pretty beyond belief is yearning. this is because the main character, the daughter, yearns to be beautiful, and she is not considered so by her mother when this happens, she says, "I was unable to hide my hurt and disappointment." further proving that she yearns to be beautiful.

# data[].attributes.body
the theme or main message in how we fight for our lives is facing your fears. this is because the main event of the short story is the main character Saeed facing his fear of his mom not loving him due to his sexual identity, so he confronts his mother over a call about it, reinforcing this idea of facing your fears.

# data[].attributes.body
The tone throughout the story is stress. This is because throughout the story until the end, the main character, Saeed is extremely stressed about what his mother will think of him if he comes out to her by telling her that he is gay.