Adeline Yen Mah's Chinese Cinderella

She overcame this “terror” with different methods. In the beginning of Adeline’s schooldays, Dai Dai (Father) made a joke about Adeline. “Is this medal for leading your class?” (11) he questioned. Adeline nodded in pride. Being little, she remembered this moment and treasured it next to her heart. When Adeline was turned on by Dai Dai and Niang, she tried to remember the one time Father was proud of her excellence in school. This proves Dai Dai was actually following the evil intentions of Niang, not turning on adeline out of the supposed coldness of his heart. When Adeline receives new friends at Sacred Heart boarding school and orphanage, they motivate Adeline with an inspirational pep talk. “We must get away, stand on our own feet and create our own destiny.” (176). Although similar to what Ye Ye said, Adeline takes this advice from the few friends she had and used it against the emotional pain of Niang’s taunts and torture. This proves Adeline has used all of her advice and information to “defeat” Niang and go to college in England. She has broken free from the bonds of torment and restriction, free to go and roam the

One of the ways Adeline courage is although everyone around her is telling her she won’t succeed and that she is worthless, she never lets that affect her academically. On page 113, Adeline’s class comes to surprise her with a celebration of her winning the presidency. When Niang hears this she flies into a rage and starts screeching that Adeline doesn’t appreciate what they have provided her and she acts spoiled adding in “‘No matter what you consider yourself to be, you are nothing without your father! Nothing!

Adel is a character in the story that we get to know quite well by Danny's descriptions of her. Physically Adel was very pretty. "The girls black hair fell to her shoulders, making a frame for her face. She looked tired, but her dace was tanned and her mouth was a warm red. Her cheeks were pink from the wind." And "In spite of her clothing, Adel w as attractive. Her hair was as black as he had remembered it and it hung in loose, natural waves. Here eyes were a dark blue. Underneath the too-large sweater, her breasts were made soft, noticeable mounds." Mentally, Adel is very shy. She rarely talked and when she did it was in a timid voice barely noticeable to hear. She didn't seem very confident with herself either if she was always wearing large, baggy clothing. Not to say that girls who wear baggy clothing are unconfident, but it just showed that she wasn't comfortable with herself. Even when Danny was living with her she was shy from him. It takes her a while to adjust to certain people, it seems. Before she can get comfortable with them.

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.

Adeline comes home from her first week of kindergarten, all smiles because she had been chosen to lead the class and has received a medal and a certificate for her achievement. Her aunt Baba is full of pride and files the certificate and medal in her safe deposit box. She described the certificate as “some precious jewel impossible to replace” (page 2). Adelines academic achievements are how she eventually gains acceptance within an uncaring family. She had a lot of pride over the metal it shows the sadness she is facing everyday, with her siblings hating her achievements and her dad only caring when she receives them. “I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased my siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way to make Father take notice and be proud of me” (page 15). Adeline starts to mature when she starts to realize that her achievements should only matter if it makes her happy, not just her father. Adeline's parents threaten to move her to a far away school. Adeline is elected class president. Everyone is excited, her classmates and more importantly her. Her classmates decide to celebrate at her house and this is when her parents lash out and get

Adeline's life is not only joyless but she always feels isolated because her loved ones were taken from her at a young age. She has no one to comfort her in her times of need and despair. She has to endure this desolate and sadness when she should be enjoying a carefree life.

Adeline is not noticeable to most people. For example “I was the only one left. Nobody had come for me” ( Yen Mah 27). Adeline is invisible to most of her family. Nobody noticing Adeline important because it is an example of showing why she is invisible. Another example is “Where are you?” Father aid in an uneven voice, quite calmly and sudden, with a pang I realized nobody had missed me” (p. 29). Nobody really cared that Adeline was missing. Most people at her house didn’t even notice she wasn’t there. Overall, Adeline is usually not noticed and her parents don’t even know when she was born.

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.

This decision to force Adeline to be the lover of the Marquis is an act of greed for Pierre La Motte. Despite her genuine love for the La Motte family, and her wishes, Adeline becomes prisoner to the Marquis, who promises to allow Pierre La Motte to live without fear of discovery from the authorities as a result of his criminal past. Much like Diana’s dedication towards Dunstan, Adeline lives her life in dedication to the La Motte family. Pierre La Motte’s decision to betray the loving and innocent Adeline shows how Ann Radcliffe feels her female characters do not possess lives of any value, demonstrating the same lack of value Davies shows for his characters. This sexist character creation can also be seen in the frailty and extreme emotional nature of the female characters in the novel. They can all be seen constantly swooning, fainting, and crying excessively throughout the novel, deeming them incapable of defending themselves, and in some cases, even of standing without support. One example of this can be seen when Adeline overhears the mention of her abusive father, leaving her overcome by a

When her father sells her as a sex-slave because no one wants to marry a malfetto, she attempts to run away, but she gets caught by her father. To escape once again, she unleashes illusions of phantoms that kill him. The word gets out about the murder, and the lead Inquisitor captures Adelina and drags her to be hanged in front of a crowd to show the people that malfettos are evil and deserve to be punished. Just as she is about to be hanged, a Young Elite comes to save her and takes her to his training site. This training site is where she meets the rest of the Young Elites, a group of malfettos who have discovered their powers, with whom she trains and learns to control her powers to fight for the malfettos in her country.

Just when readers of the novel thought that Adeline’s abusive past was behind her, she is caught once again being beaten by someone who is supposed to love and care for her. This passage is important in showing how even when Adeline fled to America for a better life, and is a grown adult now she still faces hardships similar to her childhood. This also

In the book Chinese Cinderella it is apparent that Niang has had a positive and also a negative impact on Yen Mah. In the book Chinese Cinderella Niang makes the narrator feel a mixture of negative emotions such as neglect, foreignness, and also a feeling no one should feel, insignificance and humiliation. This is shown when the narrator writes “Niang predicted a hopeless future for me.” (Page 124). This had a very pronounced effect on Yen Mah. Therefore as a result of Niang suppressing her, the narrator was able to aim for something greater and also bring recognition to herself. Niang also affected the narrator’s mental stand point because Yen Mah was treated as a servant when compared to Niang’s own children. In which the way Adeline Yen Mah was treated was very immoral because it gave Yen Mah the feeling of being not as wanted as Niang’s own children. If Niang did not treat the narrator the way she did Adeline Yen Mah may not be the person she is – one that aspires to succeed and also one that sees something beyond her circumstances. In Chinese Cinderella,

One of the many reasons that this story is depressing is that Aunt Reine cares enough to rescue Adeline from the communists, although her own “family” doesn’t (maybe Aunt Baba and Ye Ye do but, they didn’t have

While on the plane, Adeline falls asleep. Suddenly, she is awoken by her Father asking her Chinese name and her birthday. “A pang went through me. I meant so little to him, I was such a nobody, that he didn’t even remember my name!” (pg 124-125)

The plot and structure in this autobiography makes the story of Adeline’s childhood flow better. The orientation started by Niang marrying Adeline’s father. At Adeline’s birth her mother died so Adeline was treated badly and unfairly. In the complication, Adeline was unwanted from the start. She was sent away to an orphanage because she was wanted by no one. In the resolution Adeline decided after winning the playwriting competition that she wanted to be a writer. She studied medicine at Oxford University with Third Brother. The reflection is that no matter what your conditions are you can achieve anything like Adeline did. In the story Adeline read a newspaper article that said “It was announced