From the beginning of the text the disparity between young and old generations, as well as males and females is quite obvious. Throughout my reading I found a couple of quotes that really stood out for me, and helped gauge my focus throughout the remainder of my reading. On page 1, it is Leila's father figure Leon who says "Five sons don't make one good daughter" after the gossip of other community members who called Leila's a "failed family...Nothing but daughters". Not only is the older generation stepping in for the younger generation, but it is Leon, the stepfather to the three girls, who explains that their gender does not make them any less than three sons; in fact, in some ways it makes them better. This special bond between Leon and "his girls" is a theme present throughout the first half, but also leads me to my second point concerning Leon and his ex-partner, Leila's mother.
The character of "Mah" is one who further illustrates the gender and generational gaps in Leila's life and culture. At the introduction of sister Ona's death, Leila points out her mother's grief surrounding her suicide. Found on page 13, Ng is quoted as saying "'Better a parent before a child, better a wife than a husband...Everything's all turned around, all backward'" which really opens up this as a main theme. Leila's mother feels guilty that her daughter felt the need to take her own life, and carries the grief with her as she feels she should have been taken before her. She also expresses that a woman should go before a man, which leads me to wonder if, had Ona been a son instead of a daughter, would this grief be any greater or lesser? In Leila's society, cultural heritage, and within her own small, but disjointed family, is there one "superior" gender? As often discussed in many works focusing on people of Chinese, Asian, or Oriental decent, does the older generation reign supreme in all matters? I'm not sure if these questions were, or will ever be, answered through this reading, but it was a point that stayed with me throughout my time spent with the first half of Ng's novel.
Its interesting that in this culture men are so powerful but this family has altered their life style around the fact that they have all girls. The eldest girl is treated with so much respect and given so much power and authority as if she was the son of the family. They put pressure on the eldest rather than the son. The dynamics of a typical Chinese family altered to their particular life.
ReplyDeleteIrene Bloomer
Gaps also widen and generations get altered when the child that grew into an adult conducts their lives with the though process of "I won't do what my parents did or I will do this and that differently." That is when views shift, this family is matriarchial and seems to have a central poitn around Mah through the eyes of Leila. In China it is a norm that women are not held in a high regard, that sons are what mattered but now that this family is Chinese America women's status has risen. Mah, Nina, and Leila all have steady job or career and work very hard, whereas Leon works odd jobs and lives off schemes, living from government check to government check. Mason is one male figure in the story that has a steady job, but even that money is not consistant and problems are beginning to arise
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