In the short stories by Langston Hughes and Amy Tan, both narrators hunger for acceptance
from an external group or person which causes them to choose between pleasing others, or
pleasing themselves. Hughes says, “So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie,
too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved.” Hughes has a hunger to see Jesus
and be saved but is pressured and chooses to please the church and his aunt, fulfilling his hunger
for acceptance. Here he has a choice to please others, or himself but chooses to please others.
Further in the story Hughes shows regret for his actions showing that fulfilling his hunger to be
accepted was not enough to make him happy. Jing-Mei in Tan’s story has to make a similar
decision. She says, “And then I decided. I didn’t have to do what my mother said anymore. I
wasn’t her slave.” Unlike Hughes, the narrator in this story goes against the pressure her mother
is putting on her and decides to do what is best for herself. Because she does what is best for
herself instead of crumbling beneath unwanted pressure, like Hughes does, she is happier in the
end. They both face an external pressure which in Hughes' story, is his aunt and congregation.
While in Tan’s story, it is her mother. Hughes decides to move in order to please the
congregation, while the narrator in Tan’s story decides to do what she thought what was best for
herself even though her mother still fought against her. They each have a similar situation with a
similar decision to make. Langston Hughes and Amy Tan express hunger for acceptance through
external pressures that cause them to make a decision with consequences they may or may not
like.