Adeline Yen Mah's Chinese Cinderella

Adeline Yen Mah is a Chinese girl growing in knowledge with a wealthy family. Then, a new threat arrises... Niang! She is the evil stepmother that tries to burden Adeline with as much issues as she can. Adeline tries to conquer these problems with the help of her other loving family members. In the novel, Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah, the author shows that being unwanted can be overcome by consulting family. She proves this by showing the help that Adeline received from her Ye Ye (grandfather) and her Aunt Baba.

Adeline Yen Mah had done an extraordinary job at writing Chinese Cinderella. I believe she has done an even better job at achieving her goal. The author hints multiple reasons for writing this story. Her dedication page was written for the children who weren’t loved by their parents. In Mah’s dedication page, She says that you are not alone and to use her story to encourage yourself. This leads me to infer that she wrote this because she wants to comfort unwanted children. However, I believe Mah had more intentions for writing this story.

In the story chinese cinderella the main character Adeline faces a lot of adversity throughout the book. She faces the most her adversity at home with her parents and siblings being unfairly cruel toward her. She has a lot of courage for going through with all this pain and still staying optimistic about everything.

Lola is twenty-year-old female who is has a bit of difficulty identifying her place in life. She describes her family as a loving doting father she feels warmly for. She sees her Mother as a cool personality but describes her as pretty, and she only acknowledges her sister in passing. She states that as children they moved around a lot and that she was a lonely child. This trend of being lonely continued as she grew up and she finds friendships hard to start and even harder to maintain. There was not a feeling of family togetherness and they did not have many gatherings out outings.

Have you ever felt so alone, you get the impression that you do not belong at a place? Sandra Cisneros describes the unfavorable relationship she faces with her family. Although Sandra is talked down upon, she persuades the readers how the loneliness impacted her life.

Loneliness is usually a common and unharmful feeling, however, when a child is isolated his whole life, loneliness can have a much more morbid effect. This theme, prevalent throughout Ron Rash’s short story, The Ascent, is demonstrated through Jared, a young boy who is neglected by his parents. In the story, Jared escapes his miserable home life to a plane wreck he discovers while roaming the wilderness. Through the use of detached imagery and the emotional characterization of Jared as self-isolating, Rash argues that escaping too far from reality can be very harmful to the stability of one’s emotional being.

“Loneliness is a common emotion when someone feels alone, separated from others or unsupported and distressed” (Kennedy). A common occurrence of many great authors is to make a theme regarding loneliness or isolation for example, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”. “The Fall of the House of Usher”, comparatively speaking, is a very challenging read for most, whereas “The Yellow Wallpaper” is more of a relaxed read. There are many differences between “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, however, there is a common occurrence that links the two, loneliness. Throughout the two short fiction pieces both characters, Roderick Usher from “The Fall of the House of Usher and Jane from “The Yellow Wallpaper”, are isolated from the outside world, both characters have an illness that keeps them in isolation, and both characters in some way turn to a form of literature to pass time . All of these aspects contribute significantly to loneliness.

Nouwen (1975) describes loneliness as a universal experience that affects even the most intimate relationships. He identifies loneliness as one of the universal sources of human suffering. Some of the mental suffering in the

In “The White Umbrella”, author Gish Jen illustrates the life of a Chinese family living in America, where they don’t fit in. The narrator, a girl who is embarrassed by the fact that her mom works, tries hard to keep it a secret and doesn’t realize how much she needs her until she might be dead. This short story teaches the lesson that you should appreciate the things that already make you happy and not get distracted by what you think will make you happy. Throughout the story, the author shows this theme by the character’s actions, repeating important symbolism, and in the turning point of the story.

Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah is a heart-rendering autobiographical novel. Throughout the text, Adeline describes her cruel family and the trauma she was confronted with at school, trying to satisfy her heartless father with educational achievements. Together we relive the childhood life of Adeline through her words and hear, what it feels like to be a rejected and unloved daughter. Furthermore, Adeline owns a special quality that helps her to handle the cruelty of her upbringing and rise above many obstacles. Adeline has been always resilient. She is very strong and tackles everything that comes her way. By being friendless and having a pet duck as a friend, she distracts herself from her coldblooded reality.

The biographical connection that the author “Amy Tan” draws in her short story “Two Kinds” with her main character Jing-mei, crosses in more than one side. First of all, they both are Chinese American whose struggle in their identities with their Chinese immigrant mothers. “Due to a cultural conflict and lack of proper understanding of each other’s perceptions” (Priya 1), and as a big gap developed between the two daughters and their two mothers, in which resulted a complex relationship between them.

Amy Tan is an American Born Chinese, daughter of immigrants, and her family shares many features with the families depicted in her novels. Tan's novels offer some glimpses of life in China while developing the themes of mother-daughter relations, cultural adaptation and "women with a past".  Tan’s novels share many themes and elements, but this paper will focus mainly on two episodes of the novel The Joy Luck Club: "The Joy Luck Club" and "Waiting Between the Trees"; and will make references to The Kitchen's God Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses.

Picture this you are a little girl growing up in the big city of China. BAM! When you were born your mom died giving birth to you. Your life changes right before your eyes, and everyone in your family blames and hates you. You have to learn how to grow-up on your own with the help of your aunt, grandfather, and grandmother, but your grandmother dies when your about five or six. Your parents then decide to send you to a boarding school because you need to be separated from your aunt. This story is called Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah. That's how Adeline felt her whole childhood. She grows up blamed for her mom's death, mixed emotions, and separated from her aunt/family.

Have you ever had that one day where you just feel unwanted by everyone and you just don't feel good about yourself? Well that is what Adeline Yen Mah from Chinese Cinderella's everyday life is like. I find the book Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah a depressing story because Adeline is unwanted by her family, she is constantly being blamed for the death of her mother, and she is unwillingly sent to boarding school. I see Chinese Cinderella as a depressing story because Adeline is unwanted by her family. This is very easy to tell just by glancing on the cover of the book where it says "The true story of an unwanted daughter.

In the autobiography Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, the narrator was influenced in many ways by the people around her. One character which influences the narrator’s life to a vast amount was her step-mother Niang. Her Aunt Baba also played a very big part on how Yen Mah turned out in her later and earlier years as well as everywhere in between. Her grandfather Ye-Ye was a constant support to Adeline Yen Mah.