The Appointment in Samarra & A Pair of Tickets

1)            “The Appointment in Samarra”, written by W. Somerest Maugham, is a parable about a servant who tries to cheat death. The reason I have chosen to write about this parable is because it speaks of the truth. It explains that no matter what, no man can escape even his own fate. After reading this parable I was able to retell it to my friends because it has such a powerful meaning to it. In my opinion this tale doesn’t have any other meanings, it goes directly to the point. The tale ends with the servant running off to Samarra to save himself, however, death seems to find him there. The twist at the end is what is telling us that no matter how hard we try and no matter what we do we cannot run from our destiny.

2)            Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” is one of the greatest short stories I have ever read. It begins with a young woman named Jing- Mei on a train with her father leaving Hong Kong and traveling to Shenzhen. She is traveling to see her father’s relatives, and also meet her step- sisters for the first time. Jing- Mei’s mother was forced to leave her children behind during a war in China for their safety, however she never saw them again. Although Jing-Mei was Chinese, she never actually felt as though she belonged. She states, “ I could never pass for Chinese. I stand five foot six and my head pokes above the crowd so that I am at eye level only with other tourists” (Amy Tan 125). Living in America her entire life, she only knows what it feels like to be an American girl, but she is about to have the biggest reality check of her life. She cannot really speak the Chinese language, but she can understand a little. Before she meets her step- sister’s, Jing- Mei is faced with a conflict; how is she supposed to tell her step- sister’s that have no actual memory of their mother that she is had passed away. She would imagine what the faces of her sisters would look like when they saw Jing- Mei and her father in the airport terminal without their mother. “Where is mama? They would say, and look around, still smiling, two eager faces”… “I imagined myself starting to say, sisters I am sorry I have come alone. And before I could tell them they could see it in my face… wailing and pulling their hair…as they run away from me” (Amy Tan 124). In my opinion, there is nothing that she could say that would make her sisters feel better.

            Jing-Mei had made the right choice of going to see her sisters with her father. This whole journey she had been terrified about what her sisters would think when she arrived at the airport without their mother. But she had made the correct decision to go. The story ends with all three sisters embracing each other as a family. Holding each other saying, “mama, mama” (Amy Tan 134). She had realized that even though their mother passed away, they were still a family and that is all that mattered to them.