Anger, hurt, betrayal, confusion; human emotions play a pivotal part in our daily lives. They have a way of distorting our experiences, causing us to react in a way that can beget discord or distress. Think of the Sunday Football game. While the game is in play, you watch with excitement, anger, sometimes even fear. Yet, Monday morning, when you relive the game with your co-workers you no longer feel the same intensity of the emotions. With the passing of time, we are able to look back and see the situation logically; we look with our mind rather than our heart. Our emotions cloud our views as we go through the transition from innocence to experience, yet it is only time that can help us look back with clarity.
The story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is a prime example of emotions clouding perceptions while living the events. As a child, Jing-mei perceives her mother as controlling and full of unrealistic expectations. She illustrates the many attempts of her mother to mold her into a prodigy; trying to make her the next Shirley Temple, sitting at the table together night after night studying facts, studying passages in the bible and having to recall them by memory. Perhaps the last straw comes when her mother believes that Jing-mei can become a renowned pianist. "I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of won'ts." (Tan 309). ""You want me to be something I"m not! I sobbed. "I"ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!"" (Tan 314). She is frustrated and distressed by what she perceives her mother's motives to be, and she makes a firm decision to thwart her mother's efforts to mold her into a prodigy.
In "Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe, Okeke"s emotions influence his response to the impending marriage of his son, Nnaemeka, and cause discord between the two. Because of Nnaemeka's decision to marry someone of his own choosing outside of his tribe, feelings of hurt and betrayal surface in Okeke.