Preview

Chinese Cinderella

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1156 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Chinese Cinderella
Adeline Yen Mah’s novel Chinese Cinderella is an autobiographical novel about ‘the secret story of an unwanted daughter.’ The novel is memorable because the story is intriguing and it is also historical as it depicts the chaos of China in the early 1940s. The novel is also remarkable for its strong depiction of characters.

The novel is based on a girl called Adeline who is neglected and unloved by her family members. There are few people who love her. Adeline’s family considers her bad luck because they believe she killed her mother. “Big Sister [tells] me, ‘...Mama died giving birth to you. If you had not been born, Mama would still be alive. She died because of you. You are bad luck.” (Yen Mah, 1999:3). Chinese Cinderella is the story of Adeline’s struggle for acceptance and how she overcomes the odds to prove she is worth a chance. She does this by excelling in her studies at school. She is born the fifth child to a wealthy Chinese family where her life began tragically due to her mother’s death. She then struggles to find a place where she feels she belongs. With no love given from her parents, she finds a special relationship with her grandfather and Aunt Baba, who she is later separated from. She is then sent to a convent boarding school in Tianjin where the communists enter under their leader Mao Ze-Dong. Soon she is the only child left in the convent due to communism. After many months she is collected by Aunt Reine Schilling who is Niang’s sister. “Adeline!’ she smiled and greeted me in English. ‘...Do you remember me? I am Aunt Reine Schilling, your Niang’s older sister.’... ‘Come here! Don’t be afraid! ...” (Yen Mah, 1999:154). Adeline was then taken to Hong Kong.

The characters in Chinese Cinderella are portrayed very well. Every character is three dimensional. The horror of Adeline’s life is depicted vividly in the novel. The characters in this novel vary in personalities. The aspect of the story that impacts on the reader is the terrible

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story represent the relationship between the daughter and mother and the relationship between the traditinal practices of chinese and the modern world. The mother really what her daughter to succeed in her undetermined talent.…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Amy Tan’s story “A Pair of Tickets”, the protagonist June May and her 72-year-old father are on a train heading to China. Their first stop will be Guangzhou, where they will get together with her father's aunt whom he hasn't seen in 62 years. Their final destination will be Shanghai, where they will meet June's two half-sisters whom she has never…

    • 63 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, the girl who finds her prince with the help of a magical fairy god-mother, transforming her previously horrible life to a fabulous depiction of every little girls dream. Generations of children around the world have heard the story Cinderella countless times, however most people are unaware of the multiple versions of this legend. The European version of Cinderella ,“Aschenputtel” written by the Grimm Brothers consists of the female protagonist being treated as a servant, yet somehow manages to leave her cruel family behind for her Prince whom she lives happily ever after with. Another version of Cinderella is the Native American tale “The Algonquin Cinderella”, where the female protagonist is also mistreated by her family, however she is fortunate enough to “find” her own prince in her village. Although both stories present similar morals, both vary in details such as characters, settings,and use of magic.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story of Cinderella is an interesting one as it perfectly depicts the example we’ve been given in class of the “hero’s journey”. Throughout the plot, it begins with her family struggles. Her mother has perished and her father marries a woman who is not fold of Cinderella in the slightest. In addition to this, the woman has two daughters who are spoiled…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with Cinderella has always been that girl mistreated very poorly but has never give up. Her stepmother begins to show her true colors after her and her father got married. “She employed her in the meanest work of the house” (Perraultt). Cinderella step mother was very mean and only cared about her real daughters in the French story. But in the Chinese story Yeh-Shen real mother died. And her father married someone else and her stepmother did not like Yeh-Shen so she mistreated her and killed Yeh-Shen’s fish which was her only friend she had. “She would also scoured the dishes, tables, etc.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Her stepmother struck her hard in the face, her father whipped her multiple times, and her siblings blamed her for their mother’s death. Just wonder she felt, Adeline Yen Mah, with her horrid family, separation from her only loved ones; her aunt and single grandfather, and her genius mind that only her beloved Aunt Baba treasured. As it seems, this depressing novel, Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah, the one who lived through it all, was the most unfortunate girl in all of eastern China.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As is well known, the famous storytale "Cinderella" has many variants across cultures and time periods. These variants have been found to have the same general plot, which is characterized by the persecuted heroine, the meeting with the prince, the revealing of an inner identity, and marriage with the prince. This plot is simple enough to be understood by a child, yet the details that support the story's timeless popularity are more difficult to discern, and are sometimes viewed quite differently by different critics. This shall be demonstrated in the synthesis of Freudian psychologist Bruno Bettelheim's work "'Cinderella': A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts," and an excerpt from Feminist writer Madonna Kolbenschlag's work "Kiss Sleeping Beauty Good-Bye: Breaking the Spell of Feminine Myths and Models."…

    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think the author use flashback technique in her story. She write some scene which takes the narrative in time from the current point in the story. The readers understand that the author write about Old China, because she describe some traditions. Women in that time have not the rights, the main character could not say her opinion for her husband, father, brothers. Women can only do what the men order them. But in the old China women and men have different rights. Men can command the women, men more dominate at that time. Also, they have choice to study or marry. In addition, them government or parents give a field.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conte Poem Analysis

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In “Conte” by Marilyn Hacker, Cinderella shows the reader a glimpse of her life after the childhood tale ends, a less happier ending than the original story implies. She feels trapped in a constant state of misery and boredom in the royal palace. Without life experience guiding her, Cinderella is in a dilemma caused by her ignorance of the potential consequences of her actions. With the use of irony, structure, and diction, “Conte” shows how innocence and naïveté result in regrettable mistakes that create life experience.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    2 Kinds

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages

    A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother's death, her mother's sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949. June has used her mother's regret as a weapon in a battle of wills focusing on what her mother wants her to be and what she wants. June wins, leaving her mother, Suyuan, stunned when she says she wishes she were dead like the twins. Although this scene characterizes the common struggle for power between mother and daughter, the story also illustrates…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Joy Luck Club Symbols

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Jing-mei (June) Woo, the character, is a symbol herself of Westernization of Chinese-Americans. Once she travels to China to visit her deceased mother, she realizes what Chinese culture is all about and what she has been culturally unaware of all this time. Jing-mei and the other daughters always identified themselves as Americans, but often doubted whether or not they should be speaking the Chinese language to keep their cultural identity alive within themselves. Additionally, Jing-mei is representative of Chinese and American comparisons in culture. The mothers in this novel maintained high expectations of their daughters, emphasizing filial obedience and giving constructive criticism all the time. These experiences clashed with American virtues of free speech and free will. After her visit to China, Jing-mei resolves the missing cultural values of herself and the Joy Luck Club and…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The Walt Disney Company is a powerful economic and cultural phenomenon known throughout the United States and the world as a provider of family entertainment (Maltin, 1, 308). Its media and entertainment holdings establish it as a central communicator in contemporary life. As such, it provides many of the first narratives children use to learn about the world” (Ward, 1). Disney has always been family oriented making it one of the main attractions of reading something Disney. They always have an innocent feeling to their stories, which makes it more appealing for children. But in Vietnamese fairytales a family oriented story may be somewhat gory or violent. “The stories from Vietnam tell us about their culture, their beliefs, and their determination throughout time” (Ly, 1). The 1950 version of “Cinderella”, written by Walter Disney and adapted by Campbell Grant, has some differences and similarities to the Vietnamese “Tam and Cam”, by Vo Van Thang and Jim Larsen. They differ in their violent content in their stories but similarly have a great deal of magic included and also both have prevalent characters to help them find their way.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    English Belonging Speech

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel Chinese Cinderella is an autobiography written by author Adeline Yen Mah, which describes her experiences…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Pair of Tickets Essay

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The story takes place in china. The setting of this story is very important as it all revolts around the Chinese culture. One as a reader can be able to place oneself in the same situation and experience the feelings that are being presented in this story. The story is being told from a first person point of view. The narrator is Jing-Mei “June May” Woo. She is the 36-year old American born daughter of Suyuan a women who made the big decision which was to abandoned her twins, however she did it for love because at the time she thought she was going to die. June May is the one telling the story. We only know what the narrator thinks. We can only make inferences about the rest of the characters in the story by the way they behave. The narrator embarks an adventurous journey. Along the way she learns many things about her real roots she discovers things that she never knew before.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chinese Cinderella is a depressing story because of all the hardships Adeline had to endure. Adeline had to face every challenge that came her way with courage and determination to succeed in the future. Three challenges Adeline faced include: she was not wanted or loved by the majority of her family, she had to grow up too soon and support herself alone, and Adeline was beaten and treated unjustly.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays