1. How do the events of "The White Umbrella" teach the narrator a lesson about shame and acceptance?

At the beginning of the story, the narrator is ashamed of her mother. By the end of the story, when she fears she has lost her forever, she comes to accept her mother.

The narrator is an immigrant girl from China. She is embarrassed by her parents, both of whom work and are different from others. She wants to be like her piano teacher.

When her piano teacher gives her a white umbrella, she tells the teacher she wishes she were her mother. On the way home, they get in a car accident and for a moment she is afraid her mother has been killed. She feels ashamed for wishing she had a different mother. She accepts her mother for who she is and immediately tosses the umbrella in the sewer.