Creative Writing: Sacrifice

Throughout the short story “The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy the character of the grandmother is shown through her actions, physical descriptions of her, and from the way family members act with her. The Grandma in this story is a very old fashioned lady, who follows family traditions beliefs and practices, and teaches valuable lessons to her loving family.

The lady suddenly started to break into a run towards us. We all screamed and ran away as fast as we could. The lady who was normal looking at first to me suddenly looked like a witch. I never ran back inside so fast from something so absurd.

A new family has moved into the plantation behind me. There is a much older woman; I assume she is the matriarch of the family. Also, there is a

The narrator starts the story giving background information about the grandmother and her son, Bailey. The narrator explains that the "grandmother didn't want to go to Florida" (320). Although a major conflict could result from her dislike of the family's choice of vacation spots, it does not. When

Just as they were making their way toward the shack out comes the witch. They carefully make their way up to her and not taking their eyes off of her. Not only was she a witch but a beautiful one, like no one they had ever seen. She

While mostly inner dialogue of Granny’s thoughts, she mentions that her child Lydia is strongly independent, yet still values her opinion on raising children as well as her business sense, something Granny is proud to provide. Some of Granny’s inner dialogue is directed at a man named John, who died when he was young. She accomplished a lot without him, and seems slightly bitter that she cannot show him how well she did by herself. At some points in her inner dialogue, she becomes confused as to what she is currently doing or who she is talking to, which also shows in the rambling, stream of consciousness way of narration. In the last paragraph, she speaks to her children in her mind, telling them to make sure none of the fruit they grow is wasted. She tells them it is bitter to lose things, and to not let things go to waste from disuse. This is a comparison to how she feels about her life, all she has lost, and the feelings of regret she has regarding good things she let

As the family is driving along, the grandmother awakens from a nap and recalls “an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (189). This recollection happens while the family is driving through the town of Toomsboro, GA. The grandmother is extremely manipulative and selfish and coaxes the family into visiting the old plantation by lying to them with the possibility of finding hidden treasure. The name of the town is only a slight indication of the terrible tragedy that is yet to come. It is no

Even though she did not want to travel to Florida, the grandmother was the first in the car the next day. The grandmother was prepared as “She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it (O’Connor 853)”. During the trip, the grandmother took a nap, and when she woke up she realized they were outside of Toombsboro. She remembered an old plantation she had visited when she was a young lady. The grandmother knew Bailey would not want to stop and view the old plantation, so she kept talking about it hoping to convince the family. She succeeded as the kids were eager to see the old plantation but Bailey told them no. The kids began to scream and bicker at their father “John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother’s shoulder and whined desperately into her ear that they never had any fun even on their vacation, that they could never do what they wanted to do (O’Connor 857)”.

The grandmother would like the children to see plantations that she saw when she was young in the town of Toombsboro. As they set out on the road in search of plantations, the family meets the misfit.

My throat was dry, and I couldn’t speak well. "...Why do you... say that...?" It seemed a villager heard me since they replied "We heard that you've been recently going deep into the forest Viola. The reason we don't let you go into the woods is because witches live here and she's one of them!" I looked Ellen, contrary to me, she was calm. That couldn't be true right? Ellen couldn't possibly no, isn't a witch beyond a stretch of imagination. 'The villagers were just edgy with all the suspicion going around,' I reasoned. "Ellen isn't a witch," I fiercely retorted, "She's just crippled and sick! What makes you think she is one?" Then my father stepped up from the mob with a solemn look on his face. "Viola this forest is big and easy to get lost even for us. But how does a child know the navigate through the forest so

The grandmother displayed behaviors of being self-centered. In the beginning of the story, the grandmother deliberately stated, “she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” about the family vacation to Florida (O’Connor, 420). It was rude of her as a guest on the trip to try and make it all about herself. If she wanted to see her friends in Tennessee, she should have made her over personal trip to go there. Furthermore, she purposely lied about there being a secret panel to her grandchildren to stir them up, resulting in them going to the plantation. She even expressed, “the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it once again…,” and she even said, “she knew that Bailey would not be willing to spend any time looking at an old house…” (O’Connor, 424). First, it illustrates that the grandmother knew her son would not want to waste time on sight seeing an old home. Secondly, that motivated her to make a story up knowing that it would lead to her grandchildren, making the nervous father relinquish to the children request, which was truly the grandmother’s longing.

We tiptoed past the toad. Then made our way down a long hallway lit only by candles, and lined with gold-framed portraits of fearsome humpbacked goblins. Finally, we found a small door that was partly ajar. I leaned against it and could hear giggling coming from inside. I flung it open. Emma was standing in the center of the room beside a dining table, with a green goblet in her hand. “It’s about time you two showed up,” she said. “What took you so long?

She finally drifted off to sleep. She woke with a startle, then when she opened her eyes there was a bunch of monsters at the door. So she unlocked the door and let them in. They all demanded a room she told them all my rooms were full they started to flake away. She screamed “stop”they all

Their journey was beset by danger because the Witch knew that they were coming. She tried to destroy them with various minions, forty wolves, crows and black bees, but each swarm was