The story of The Unwanted Child Adeline Yen Mah was the author of Chinese Cinderella. She didn’t have the best of life as a young child, she was sent away to many different schools. It was especially hard because her stepmother was always imperiously. Adeline always felt chagrined, because no one really showed that they loved her except for some people. Aunt Baba, Ye Ye, and her cousin Victor were part of the few people who cared about her and who she could be herself around and feel like she belonged. Aunt Baba was like a Mother to her. She could always trust Aunt Baba and she knew that if she needed something Aunt Baba was endorsing and would help her. When Adeline got a reward Aunt Baba was sure to recognize her and congratulate her. “As …show more content…
Ye Ye taught Adeline the importance of being Chinese, and he gave her a reason to try harder each and every day. Adeline knew Ye Ye was going through a lot so she mad e it her mission to do better to please him. “You’ll always be expected to know Chinese, and if you don’t, I’m afraid they will not respect you as much.” Adeline could tell how Ye Ye felt even though he didn’t tell her. She felt as if they sort of felt the same way.” A tired old man with no one to turn to, imprisoned by his love for his only son, my father.” “It’s bound to get better. One day things will be different. Life won’t go on like this forever. I don’t know when, how or what, but I’ll come back and rescue you from this. I promise!” When Ye Ye died Adeline lost one of the people that cared about and looked after …show more content…
He wasn’t rude to his sister either and he stood up for what was right even when the adults of the situation wouldn’t say anything. “Victor did something my brothers would never have done. He took off his life jacket, slipped it on his sister…” Victor could have been selfish and kept the life jacket or he could have gone with the rest of the family but he wanted his sister to feel safe and Adeline to be kept company. “It’s so unfair,” Victor continued. “Why doesn’t she get to go anywhere with us?” “In that case,” Victor replied gallantly, “I think I’ll stay and keep Adeline company.” Adeline wasn’t surrounded by a whole bunch of people who were always kind and compassionate towards her. But the people who were there for her she was indelible to them. She made promises to them and made sure they knew how much she appreciated them. She didn’t have much but she gave Victor her Paper Magic book, she made sure she got good grades to please aunt Baba and Ye Ye and she promised them that it would get better and she would keep up the good work. Adeline may have thought she was an “Unwanted child” But the truth is people actually cared a lot about
By using her optimism she is able to try and see the good in any situation, and her hopefulness encourages her to keep going, that one day things will get better. After Fourth Brother tries to send three heavy books on to Ye Ye’s head, Adeline’s hopefulness is obvious. “It’s bound to get better. One day things will be different. Life won’t go on like this forever. I don’t know when, how or what but I’ll come back and rescue you from this. I promise.” Just by thinking these words Adeline was able to comfort herself, a new feeling of optimism for her and Ye Ye. Adeline’s hopefulness also shows at boarding school in Hong Kong, where she is first in the mail line, waiting and hoping for letters that never come. “Never gets any letters either, although she’s always first in line when the mail gets delivered.” Another example of her optimism and hopefulness is when she and her friends are talking on the balcony at the end of term. “More than anything, I yearn to grow up, get out of here and see the world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the three of us could sail away on one those big boats...?” Adeline shows very clearly that she has a hopeful and optimistic attittude to help get her through the hard
Emelie's childhood had an affect on her sense of happiness. "I had a dear mother who had multiple sclerosis, but that never got me down. I also had three brothers. There were difficulties in my childhood, but I was fortunate to h...
Adeline had been treated like trash all of her life by her parents. “Nothing will ever come to you.”(Yen Mah 103) Niang is a very strict, distasteful, and hated person in the book. This is important because it shows that Niang is cruel. “Girls like you should be sent away.”(Yen Mah 103) This is important because it shows that Niang hates Adeline. All in all, this shows that when Adeline was a child, she was treated like trash by Niang.
The first aspect of Adela’s characteristics is that she is very proud of her family history, but in a negative way. She
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (King James Proverbs 16:18), and fall he did. After the Creature found him and killed his youngest brother and framed his house servant, Justine, for the murder, Victor kept silent. He let Justine die when he could have tried to save her. His thought process was along the lines of, “They will only call me crazy and execute her anyway,” so he did not try. Really, he only did not want to risk his pride by telling of his crime of creating and abandoning a life.
“Nai Nai had fainted and was frothing at the mouth … Nai Nai had died from a massive stroke” (19). Her grandmother’s death is tragic and a significant event Adeline will not cease to forget. Nai Nai’s death is important because she was one of Adeline’s only role models and Adeline had a great bond with Nai Nai. Sadly, later in the text Adeline learns: “Your Father has sent your chauffeur to take you directly to the Buddhist temple. Your grandfather has died” (186). This quote suggests that Ye Ye has died unexpectedly. His death affects Adeline because Ye Ye is the only adult who really protects her, now that Nai Nai is dead and Aunt Baba is not living with Adeline. In summary, in this novel many depressing incidents have occurred to Adeline including the loss of her two dear
Similarly, Wong also grew up in America with a traditional Chinese mother. In contrast, Wong’s upbringing involves her mother forcing her into attending two different schools. After her American school day, Wong continues on with Chinese school to learn both cultures. Her mother felt it was her duty to “[. . .] learn the language of [her] heritage” (Wong 144). This puts a burden on Wong as she starts to despise the Chinese culture.
The setting of the story creates a better grasp on the intelligence of each character. The narrator of the story goes from her belief that there is no way she is Chinese to understanding her heritage and that she is really Chinese. The narrator states that she doesn’t really know what it means to be Chinese (Tan 133). She progressively learns throughout the story what it means to be Chinese. She mentions of Aiyi and her father knowing Mandarin only while the rest of Aiyi’s family only knows Cantonese (Tan 137). This relates to setting due to the time and areas that Mandarin was spoken compared to where Cantonese is spoken now. The narrator was shocked to see the elegance of the hotel they were scheduled to stay in and the pricing (Tan 138). This can be interpreted as her being inexperienced while the rest of her family were either used to this kind of service or had no outstanding opinions upon it. The narrator starts to see her father in a different manner once he and Aiyi start conversing and onc...
The scene is always the same: the three of us sitting in a room together, talking. I see her from the corner of my eye, glancing for only a second or two, but always long enough to notice the look on her face, the expression I’ve become so painfully familiar with over the years. I am forced to turn away; the conversation resumes. She is a few feet from us. She hears everything, and understands nothing except what she can gather from the expressions on our faces, the tone of our voices. She pretends not to be bothered, smiling at us and interjecting random questions or comments in Chinese—a language I was raised to speak, a language I’ve slowly forgotten over the years, a language that is now mine only by blood. It is an earnest but usually futile attempt to break through the invisible barrier that separates her from us, and in spite of all her efforts to hide it, that sad, contem...
Adeline escapes her by writing expressive and emotive stories while Sarah deals with her subjugation by telling stories to Becky and to the other girls in the school. Adeline expresses courage by entering a writing competition when she has been told that she is worthless and her self-esteem is low. Adeline also shows courage when she asks her father if she can go and study in England with her older brothers. Sarah shows courage when she talks back to Miss Minchin and when she crosses the beam to escape the other building and hide from Miss Minchin and the
...as made of different people, so he had different personalities, and therefore could not be expected to act as a normal person. Upon his creation, he was left not receiving the protection and guidance he desperately needed. His feelings were the same as any other humans: grief, and distress, anger. But, instead of calmly diffusing his anger, he chose to destroy that which made his “enemy” happy. There was never a good reason to bring the dead to life, despite all of Victor’s claims. Because of his arrogance, and lack of a functioning human heart, he disregarded everyone’s opinions and advice and sought to do what was right for himself and not even attempting to protect his family, regardless of how he claimed he did. His incompetence cost his entire family’s life, but fortunately, saved that of Walton and his crew mates. So, at least, he did one good.
Lindo Jong provides the reader with a summary of her difficulty in passing along the Chinese culture to her daughter: “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught her how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it's no lasting shame . . . You do not have to sit like a Buddha under a tree letting pigeons drop their dirty business on your head . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. . . . but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character . . . How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best”(Tan 289).
I was surprised that Victor still went off to the university after his mom died. Like, yeah I get that you have to carry on with your life and do what needs to be done, but it says it was only a few weeks later. Like, if I was in that situation, it would take me months if not years to be able to be clear headed enough to be able to focus on my University career. So I feel like Victor doesn’t have that much compassion for others.
Adeline Yen Mah’s literary skills explain comprehensively how Niang’s flawed personality cause great agony for Adeline. However, it is being mistreated by Niang that ultimately fuels her to undertake the seemingly impossible task of trying to succeed in life. Adeline’s great accomplishments in life were the result of her unfaltering determination in the face of injustice. Niang inadvertently helped her achieve that.
Ying-Ying learned everything, all of the lessons and life’s meanings, from her mother. Her mother learned everything that she knew from her own mother, as well as through experiences from her own...