The story "Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger" was intriguing to me. There are many mysteries that occur throughout the story. As I was reading the story I caught myself making predictions of what was going to happen. One thing that caught my attention was when Li Jia fell in love with Du Tenth. Li Jia sells her over to a stranger on the bases of angering his father and a way to please his father. Du tenth gets angry and throws away all the jewels she hid to show her anger toward Li Jia for giving her away. She does this because Li Jia is afraid of his father's opinion on their love, and that money is a better substitute than love. Du tenth feels like she is an object, and angry toward Li Jia for betraying their love which was very hard
In the story “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” by Feng Meng-long, courtesans appeared to be kept imprisoned and generally wanting to escape the life of prostitution. There are several contrasting perceptions of women and their work. Often times prostitution can be viewed as a practice of unclean or even immoral activates but in this story, prostitution displays a much more positive illustration than in most other stories. Men and women such as Li Jia, Sung Fu, and madam portrayed these women as inferior and as seen, Du Tenth had been just another commodity to them. By contrast, the author appears to show an alternate side of courtesans, as women of worthiness opposed to what most people assumed they already knew about the life of courtesans. Feng Meng-long wants to demonstrate that even though courtesans work in a non-respectable occupation doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be respected.
Kakutani started the article by introducing Joan Didion; Kakutani speaks about how abstract Didion’s work was that it was purely fascinating. Kakutani then tells the readers about the incident that happened December 24, 2003 almost two years ago when Kakutani wrote this article. By Kakutani starting the article in such a fashion, makes the readers become more attached to Didion and feel the pain she felt when her daughter became ill and the lost of her husband.
De-hong asks to be a part of the communist movement but she’s found too young. A short time later, she begins distributing Communist literature. The economic situation is so bad that the family has no savings and Dr. Xia, now nearly eighty, is worried about what will happen when he dies. Extortion is rampant, food is scarce, and the money that does exist has almost no value. De-hong becomes friendly with a Kuomintang general. Using his military freedom, they travel outside the walled city occasionally and De-hong leaves messages for her Communist counterparts.. The Communists then start regular bombardment of the city, including one dud shell that crashes into the home of De-hong's family.
At first, she was completely mortified about the da-zi-bao written about her, but as time went by, worse things happened and she began to show
The character of the mother executes the tell-tale signs of counterfeit happiness when she tells the murderous story of the narrator’s father’s brother. “‘Oh honey,’ she said, ‘there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find out’” (36).
In my observation throughout the story Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger, money plays a significant role. In my belief Li Jia has always been careless about money. Even from the start, Li Jia paid money to Du Mei so that she would spend time with him. Du Mei thought that this action was an act of love but, little did she know love cannot buy happiness. She learned this when it became too late.
While outdated traditions obtain the ability to negatively impact the relationships between characters, they are also capable of creating internal conflicts within a character. In both texts, readers witness the effect traditions have on one’s morality, mental mind, and sense of identity. The occurrence of atrocious, old traditions plays a significant role in corrupting one’s morals, inducing conflict with a character’s past values. This is clearly exhibited when “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (51). The ritual itself of hurling stones at another human is a demoralizing act that should not be justified by society, and reveals her iniquitous and immoral traits as she lacks awareness of her dehumanizing actions amidst participating in the ceremony. Mrs. Delacroix picks a colossal stone amongst a variety of possible sizes, demonstrating her loss of morals and redefined focus on the power she obtains from this abhorrent tradition. Moreover, traditions from the past are
As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist. Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be. She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170). However, in a time
The sadness and unhappiness displayed by both of the married women in “A Sorrowful Woman” and “The Story of an Hour” shows that marriage does not always bring the typical ending of most fairy tales. Thus being living happily ever after. It is evident that both of these women feel trapped in their marriages as many people feel today. Growing up with eight sisters I have also seen this feeling of entrapment in the world as well. In both of these stories the women display such a lack of love towards their spouses and in fact in “The Story of an Hour” it seems as though Mrs. Mallard never really loved her spouse and is the happiest for the hour that she thinks her husband is dead. The woman in “A
When she meets Fan Liuyuan, she takes her chances and follows him to Hong Kong. Her decision to leave Shanghai has two implications. Firstly, she wants an escape from her family. After years of following their rules and hearing their complaints about her presence, she finally has a chance to leave it all behind to find her own independence. Secondly, she is strangely attracted to Liuyuan and securing his love and attention is a conquest for her.
Also, their relationship is shaped by the pressure Suyuan puts on her daughter. When Jing-Mei was growing up, her mother had the need for her daughter to be smart, talented, and a respectful Chinese daughter. This pressure put on Jing-Mei resulted in misunderstanding between mother and daughter. Jing-Mei constantly believed, “that she was disappointing her mother,” because she felt as if she failed at everything her mother wanted her to do. She believed she could never be as perfect as her mother was. Therefore she doesn’t think she is worthy enough to take her mother’s place at the Joy Luck Club “They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place” (Tan, 27). Jing-Mei does not understand that her mother wanted the best for her; Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to challenge herself because that is how one builds up character. Suyuan thinks her daughter could do anything she proposed to do but never put enough effort into anything “Lazy to rise to expectations” (Tan 31). Furthermore, Suyuan forced Jing-Mei to learn how to play the piano and then perform at a recital. Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother and refused to learn how to play the piano well. So, at the recital she ends up forgetting the music notes. Jing-Mei blames her embarrassment on her mother and states,
The story continues to reveal a conflict Mrs. Mallard may have had in the relationship with her husband. Though she speaks about him lovingly and knows that he loved her, there is something deeper that is brought to the surface in
In “The Story of an Hour” and “Hills Like White Elephants”, the theme of disillusionment is seen in the conflict, thematic development, and epiphany. The conflict in “The Story of an Hour” is Louise
Lindo had lived a very unpleasant life in China. She had lost her family and the love of her mother at a very young age. At the age of two, a matchmaker came to Lindo’s house to make a match with her and the son of Huang Tai-tai, a one-year-old boy,named Tyan-yu. Lindo’s parents stopped treating her as their own daughter, but as Huang Taitai’s daughter. Lindo often saw the Huang family in festivals and at other places.
For obvious reasons, Du Tenth pursued a relationship with Maser Li but the question is why did she decide to stay with him after he lost all of his wealth? If we look at all the factors, Du Tenth had lots to gain by officially being with Li Jia. Without Li Jia, she was just a courtesan. Master Li’s parents did not approve of their relationship due to this. The first thing that Du Tenth would gain is a better name for herself. Tenth would be with a man that had a good name, which could