Who Is Adeline Yen Mah An Inspiration In Chinese Cinderella

Throughout the course of life, we are all faced with hardships that cause inhibition, self-doubt or depression, all of which take its toll on our mental capacity. Through the autobiography ‘Chinese Cinderella’ written by prominent author Adeline Yen Mah, it is continuously demonstrated that mental strength is necessary to overcome adversity. The book is written to imply that Adeline needed her mental strength to survive her childhood, some ways she proved this is how she overcame her cognitive torment, how she continued to stay positive throughout the entirety of her childhood and how she became a successful adult.

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.

The true story of Chinese Cinderella is an ‘autobiography’ written by Adeline Yen Mah, describing the many complications she experienced in her childhood and young teenage years. Unlike most children, Adeline struggled to live a ‘normal’ life. She was often looked down upon by most of her family and was neglected and abused in a way that was totally unacceptable. This is significantly repeated throughout her juvenility. An important idea that recurs throughout the story Chinese Cinderella is, unwanted and mistreated by your family and relations.

This memoir, Chinese Cinderella, tells us of a little girl who has an abusive childhood. No matter that she was the top student of her class or was one of the kindest people around, her new stepmother made her childhood one that she wouldn't want to remember. “You have defined the odds and garnered triumph through your own efforts. Your future is limitless, and I shall always be proud of you” (Yen Mah 197). This quote said by her aunt, Aunt Baba, shows how she always believed in Adaline. She told her by doing what she was good at, she could accomplish what no one thought she could. Adaline has always been fighting a never ending war in her childhood, that couldn't have been minimized without Aunt Baba and YeYe. Aunt Baba and YeYe are always

"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the greatest poverty." (Mah xii) Throughout her entire childhood, Adeline constantly feels lonely and unwanted. In the memoir, Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, Adeline's life from age four to fourteen is very depressing. She is abused, forgotten and excluded, and loses important people.

"Cinderella" is perhaps the most recognized fairy tale in history, one of the few that spans across generations and cultures. Every prominent culture in the world tells some similar version of this story of a poor girl going from rags to riches; over 700 versions have been accounted for worldwide. In America, numerous authors have penned their own version of the classic folktale. One of these is Tanith Lee, a prolific writer of stories for young adults. Lee cleverly found a way to include all of the traditional elements of the classic "Cinderella" tale, but added a new twist: Cinderella, or the character similar to her in this story, had malicious intentions for the prince, and her purpose throughout the tale was a malevolent one: revenge.

Chinese Cinderella is a very sad story where a little, unwanted girl is being abused every day. The novel Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is depressing. The main character, Adeline, is always being treated the wrong way, this story could not be more sad.

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.

Throughout Chinese Cinderella, Adeline experiences multiple challenges throughout her difficult childhood. Many in which she faces the problem of being unwanted. To understand her triumph you must first understand the adverse conditions in which she has gone through, in addition to the maltreatment she received as a child. Through her use of rhetorical questions, metaphors, intertextuality/allusion, and repetition, she bombards the reader with emotions. Yen Mah’s use of rhetorical questions causes the reader to have empathy towards her, to evoke emotions. Metaphors are used to create a better level of understanding of her feelings and thoughts. Additionally, the book title, Chinese Cinderella, is an allusion to the commonly known fairy-tale,

The autobiographical novel Chinese Cinderella, is about protagonist Adeline Yen Mah’s 1940 childhood in China. Our main antagonist in the story is Adeline’s stepmother, Niang, who is portrayed throughout the story as the ‘evil-stepmother’ figure. But is there the possibility that Adeline has unfairly depicted Niang? The time period in Naing’s life which this book takes place in, would have been an extremely difficult and stressful for her. She was forced into a marriage with man twice her age and expected to become maternal towards his five children from his previous marriage. Under Niang’s circumstances she also had to take measures to protect, manage and discipline 7 children, which we only see as cruel and violent because of the modern viewpoints.

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.

Ellen shows the readers her level of self-determination time and time again during her journey through her eleventh year. The

Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She

Cinderella is a story that is known to be the best fairy tale in the world. There are more than 700 different versions of Cinderella in the world. Throughout history, "Cinderella" is a story that is interpreted by different countries such as; Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Although the name, clothes, and other details alter in each story, the theme remains the same. In each story, there is an outward transformation of "Cinderbottom" to "Cinderella." In the French "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault, the Native American "Oochigeasw" by an unknown author, and "A Chinese "Cinderella" by Tuan Ch'eng-shih, all of them show the transformation of Cinderella from "rags to rich" because of her kind heart and dedication

Providing the two heroines with strong and engaging personalities, the novel portrays the life of two young Chinese girls, who because of historical events and family secrets, have to grow up faster than what they had planned. The book delivers emotional themes that are powerful yet familiar, and is written in a compelling manner.