Analyze The Short Story 'Ribbons' By Laurence Yep

In the short story “Ribbons” by Laurence Yep, a girl named Stacey gives up her room for her grandmother who she calls “Paw-Paw” to live with Stacey’s family. Stacey also sacrifices her dance lessons for a period of time to afford Paw-Paw’s arrival from Hong Kong. When Paw-Paw arrives to the house, she complains about the amount of steps to the upstairs rooms. Stacey is shown no affection by Paw-Paw. When Stacey entered the bathroom, Paw-Paw was standing there in all of her clothes, except her shoes. Quickly, Paw-Paw dropped a towel over her feet, but it was too late. For Stacey had seen Paw-Paw’s feet. Stacey later finds out from her mother that Paw-Paw’s feet were bound. That night, Ian requests the story called “The Little Mermaid” for Stacey to read. Paw-Paw joins in and helps Stacey finish the story. That night, Paw-Paw clumsily pats Stacey on the head. That was the first sign of affection that Paw-Paw expressed to Stacey. Yep uses
Like stated before, Paw-Paw’s feet appeared as “taffy that someone had stretched out and twisted. Each foot bent downward in a way that feet were not meant to, and her toes stuck out at odd angles, more like lumps than toes. I didn’t think she had all ten of them, either.” Yep wishes to express how the feet looked well in shoes, but without shoes on, they looked repulsive.
The foreshadowing statements like “Why do you have to have so many steps?” and “Grandmother’s climb was long, slow, laborious. Thump, thump, thump. Her canes struck the boards as she slowly mounted the steps.” foreshadow Stacey perceiving Paw-Paw’s feet being bound when she was a young girl. The main foreshadowing in the story is Paw-Paw being a victim of foot binding. Another excerpt of foreshadowing is when Stacey’s mother tells Stacey the story of Paw-Paw carrying her across and expresses the story as more of a courageous feet, because of Paw-Paw’s feet having to be walked on in a weird