Family By Pa Chin Essay

Family by Pa Chin Essay In Pa Chin’s novel, Family; it revolves around the Gao family and the many obstacles that the three sons have to go through to obtain their freedom. Since the setting for this novel was based in the early 1920’s, there are many conflicts and struggles that the book expresses and there are many situations where now a days it is understandable but during that time period it was really hard for many of China’s youth to be able to endure and accept the facts. The social conflicts that are described mostly in Pa Chin’s novel, Family are the problems of being a filial son/daughter and the importance of being in a higher status. In the beginning, the novel begins with introducing the three sons who are the successors of the family. The eldest son, Juexin, is the one that will be the person to rightfully inherit the “throne” from his father and hold the family line. Even though there are three brothers and they all have the same mother and live in the same house, Juexin’s position is different from theirs. Because he is “the first son of the first son” (Pa, p.293), his destiny has already been decided for him the moment that he came into the world (Pa, p.35). And to become the filial son that he had to be, he must obey all orders from the elders, because in that way Juexin is showing his family and the world that he is capable of accomplishing these orders that are given to him and it shows that he is a devoted son to his family and to others. Although there are also orders that are put on Juemin and Juehui, they do not have as much responsibility as Juexin. When their father makes the decision for Juexin to marry after graduation and tells him to quit his university studies and start to get a job; he agrees and completely goes with whatever his father says (p.36). In this way, it is showing that Juexin is being a filial son and doing his rightful duties, but at the same time it makes him cowardly. It makes him become like a machine, a robot;