The Jade Peony Analysis

Thesis: one’s personal culture and sense of tradition will always be a strong part of the self, regardless of external factors which can have a profound influence on one’s life.

In the book each of the Poh Poh’s are seen as old and wise but as well as have a deep sense of culture they are the heart of the home. Suk-Lung and Jung-Sum both had a relatively good relationship with their grandmother as they were cared for dearly”Suk-Lung and his illness. The concept of grandmother was seen throughout all three stories demonstrating their importance in Chinese culture as well as the characters lives.

Once the novel comes to an end, we notice clearly the way Wang Lung changed. In the beginning of the novel we learned many ancient Chinese traditions by observing Wang Lung as a simple peasant, but as he becomes a wealthy landowner his life collapses. This rapid change of social class makes it difficult for anyone who intends to keep their traditional values until their death. This fantastic novel by Pearl S. Buck reminds us that we can never forget our traditional values, because if that happens your life will collapse just the way Wang Lung unfortunately

“In Jade Peony”, Sek-Lung and Grandma have a strong connection and close relationship. This is situational irony because generally the oldest and youngest oppose each other due to cultural differences and changes.

A strong, intelligent, independent boy is what every traditional Chinese family wants. Unfortunately, Sek-Lung is not such an ideal child. In the novel, The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is a marginal character. He is rejected by the dominant group, first being made to feel insignificant and second to feel uncomfortably visible.

Typical Family Issues In the short story “The Jade peony” Wayson Choy shows how Sek-Lungs grandmother died at the age of 83 and how it affected the family. Throughout the short story, Wayson choy explains the family love between Sek-Lungs and his family. Also Choy explains sibling’s rivalry between Sek-Lungs and his siblings. Choy demonstrates how family love and sibling rivalry is something that commonly takes place in reality.

Jook-Liang’s grandmother doesn’t let her become a movie star, because Poh-Poh thinks that Jook-Liang is a girl and that she is useless, she can’t be a movie star, she can do nothing. Conversely, that is just her opinion without any proof, even though Poh-Poh is also a woman. This kind of gender discrimination and ridiculous opinion makes Jook-Liang hate Grandmother. Thirdly, this traditional Chinese thinking makes her think about herself.

People lived in Vancouver Chinatown were far from the flames of war, but they were so concerned about what was happening in Old China. Not only because they cared about their hometown, but also because they cared about their families, friends, or relatives who were still living in China. From this point, the concern about the war that was showed by people were regarded as strong feeling connection with Old China. Although war did not directly caused pain to people in Chinatown, the suffering it caused in Old China was also brought to Canada. In chapter eight, one of stepmother’s childhood best friends, called Chen Suling, was killed by an explosion of a bomb. In the beginning of this chapter, we can see Sek-Lung’s family was looking forward to the Chen Suling’s visit to Canada, and appreciated her talents of English. All of them, except for Sek-Lung who disliked her because he would be controlled if Chen Suling came, hoped to see her eagerly. But a bomb turned their hope down. Stepmother felt extremely painful for losing her best friend, just like Sek-Lung said in the end of this chapter “I never heard stepmother mention Chen Suling’s name again.”(161). Later, with the war becoming fiercer, the social order in Vancouver also became instable. “Gangs of older, jobless boys roamed back streets hunting for Japanese. Fights broke out. There were knifings on some

In modern society, most traditions are viewed as customs that unify people, strengthening relationships between family, friends, and community. In contrast, Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman blatantly exhibit how outdated traditions in history have severed relations amongst people, acting as divisive forces rather than unifying practices. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Lottery”, old traditions of the societies in the stories incite conflict amongst the characters, negatively influencing relationships between and within characters.

As she recalls back on this time by telling her daughter what she calls her Kweilin story, Suyuan describes her feeling during this horrible time as “And inside I was no longer hungry for the cabbage or the turnips of the hanging rock garden. I could only see the dripping bowels of an ancient hill that might collapse on top of me. Can you imagine how it is, to want to be neither inside nor outside, to want to be nowhere and disappear?” (22) At this point in her life Suyuan was separated from her husband who is in the military and eventually is forced to abandon her two young daughters. This aspect of Suyuan’s life parallels the life of Amy Tan’s mother. Daisy tan was also married to a military man during the Chinese Civil War and like Suyuan was forced to abandon her two daughters in Shanghai. This was an experience that would affect her mother for the rest of her life and a story she would continue to tell and never forget. The life of Amy Tan is also a parallel to the life of Jing-Mei Woo of “June”. As a young girl June was forced to play the piano and practice constantly to become the best like Amy Tan was as a child. Along with playing the piano Suyuan also had high expectations for June as far as her future. She wanted her daughter to be the best in her class and go off to medical school to become a well educated doctor, the same expectation’s Amy Tan’s mother had for her. Both daughters decided to follow their dreams and

Wang Lung’s uncle’s son returns to the house from the war that he went to in the north to become a soldier. Well now he is the head of his unit and they are assigned to live in Wang Lung’s village for days, months, or even years.

All through time, successive generations have rebelled against the values and traditions of their elders. In all countries, including China, new generations have sought to find a different path than that of their past leaders. Traditional values become outdated and are replaced with what the younger society deems as significant. Family concentrates on this very subject. In the novel, three brothers struggle against the outdated Confucian values of their elders. Alike in their dislike of the traditional Confucian system of their grandfather, yet very different in their interactions with him and others, begin to reach beyond the ancient values of Confucianism and strive for a breath of freedom. Their struggles against the old values

I agree with the statement “the history of a family begins when a person leaves home” . when Chang left rural tradition behind to make a new life for themselves in the city. The old rules no longer apply, traditional education and family values have little or relevance, and new arrivals in the city have to learn fast and adapt quickly in order to survive and prosper in this strange and often hostile new environment. I saw so many changes for people migration to city .

The element Romanticism is presented in the story through the setting first, “The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world” (page 1). This sets the tone for some type of sad and cold emotion. Which those emotions comes to play when her strength, happiness, and confidence is crushed after being boosted by the man who had taken a different route and stumbled upon Elisa doing her gardening, they conversed about the chrysanthemums, gardening, pots, and flirting for a generous amount of time. It was crushed because she found the chrysanthemums she had gave him on the side of the rode with the pot not being with it. It was easy to notice the hurt that she felt because she tried

My father's side grandfather, Su Ying-Ming was one of the two of the twelve children in his family went to school, because they didn’t have that much money to afford all the twelve children to study. Lack of the education made people have no concept of sexual protection, thus, twelve children were not the big number to them. Addition, non-wealthy and lack of foods had led many children to death. As a result, only one girl and two boys stayed in the family, other are sent to else family. And only two boys went to school, my grandfather’s major was architectural. He had been successful that he always builded the building and introduced to his business friends. To earn the money, this strategy never put him to risk. He liked to collect the sculpture