Lei has the traditional sense of family, meaning she has the understanding of the support you must give in your family and what you can forgive them for. Although she seems to resent her ties to them. The family teeters based on the events that had happened within their family. Lei supports her family by being the mediator between Leon and Mah because they are constantly fighting and not speaking to each other. "Who shook them? Who made them stop?", when they were fighting Lei did her best to lessen the heated arguments and discussions (33). Leon is Mah's second husband who she had married in order to keep the family out of disgrace, but Mah and Leon are not even living together (32). In the Chinese culture this is still a taboo family structure that causes their name to be talked about. When Leon initially moved out Mah wanted Lei to move back with her to help her cope which Lei did as an obedient daughter. Lei has a loyal to her family she values the individual familial ties, mother to daughter, sister to sister, but as the family on the whole the value is lost.
Lei's family has several strains and disturbances. Lei's mother and step father Leon are living in separate households, whereas her younger sister Ona had committed suicide for reasons unclear and Lei's youngest sister, Nina, left the family as soon as she could (23). Lei resents the ties between the families because they value the individual relations over the whole family relation. There is not a true sense of united family. Nina tries to keep herself separate of family affairs and avoids guilt from the mother trying to make her come back home. Lei herself is even removing herself from the situation by marrying Mason (1). Lei finds her mother to be a burdern always blaming Lei for her sisters absence and nagging about Leon and his half schemes. This family's ties are very thin and almost invisible but as strong as spider's silk, as much as they try to isolate they are still bound together. The strain of the family started with the death of Ona. At this point in the story it seems as if the family has damage that is past the point of being fixed. It is partially destroyed.
It seems like all the family wants to do is separate. Everything is pulling them apart. Their jobs take them away, where they live, gossiping friends, and their significant others. In a weird sense, the tragedy that started all of the conflict is the thing that is holding them together. They all share one thing in common, grief and guilt over Ona. That is the one thing that keeps pulling this dysfunctional family back together.
ReplyDeleteIrene Bloomer
As the oldest child, I think Lei is struggling between choosing what she wants and keeping up with her duties. I know that as the oldest child in my family, I often find that I have a responsibility to my family that my younger sister does not. After watching her parents separate and loosing her sister, I think Lei feels even more pressure to mend a family that she can't even justify mending. I think it's that innate sense of duty to one's family over oneself that many oldest children carry with them; Lei is no different.
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