In broad daylight
For the short story analysis I chose “In Broad Daylight” by Ha Jin (146). Over all I believe this is a great example of the human condition that when at our best, we can be someone completely different from whom we are in the deep dark night. I will start by hitting the basic questions of narration, protagonist, settings and conflict. From there I hope to delve into the deeper analysis of what I believe is the take away lesson from the story.
The narration of this story is done in the first person, by a boy nicknamed White Cat. The subject matter of the story is very adult oriented, telling this through a child’s eyes leads to some amusing sub-plot that draw you back into the narrator’s life. For example, when the protagonist Mu Ying states that “My man is nothing. He is no good, I mean in bed. He always comes before I feel anything” (151) the narrator claims to his friends that it means he always comes to close to her when she doesn’t want it and has bad timing. What is possibly a terribly morose story has some levity added to it by the choice of narrator.
The protagonist Mu Ying is a very human character. From the start of the story you’re lead to believe she is a rather busy adulterer, then a simple prostitute. She is revealed slowly to be not what I had expected, an older woman, though well maintained and while an admitted adulterer she hardly seems to live up to her reputation. After holding her own throughout her ordeal with what one might call herculean poise at the end of the story she is shown as a broken spirit calling out for aid.
Though the setting of China during the 1960s plays a role in the details of the story this tale could just as easily been told in another era. A Salem witch trial for example could have played out with remarkable similarities. The setting does add both an oriental flair, to western readers, as well as a cultural clash of the old Chinese ways compared with the more modern. The details I took away were probably different than
The narration of this story is done in the first person, by a boy nicknamed White Cat. The subject matter of the story is very adult oriented, telling this through a child’s eyes leads to some amusing sub-plot that draw you back into the narrator’s life. For example, when the protagonist Mu Ying states that “My man is nothing. He is no good, I mean in bed. He always comes before I feel anything” (151) the narrator claims to his friends that it means he always comes to close to her when she doesn’t want it and has bad timing. What is possibly a terribly morose story has some levity added to it by the choice of narrator.
The protagonist Mu Ying is a very human character. From the start of the story you’re lead to believe she is a rather busy adulterer, then a simple prostitute. She is revealed slowly to be not what I had expected, an older woman, though well maintained and while an admitted adulterer she hardly seems to live up to her reputation. After holding her own throughout her ordeal with what one might call herculean poise at the end of the story she is shown as a broken spirit calling out for aid.
Though the setting of China during the 1960s plays a role in the details of the story this tale could just as easily been told in another era. A Salem witch trial for example could have played out with remarkable similarities. The setting does add both an oriental flair, to western readers, as well as a cultural clash of the old Chinese ways compared with the more modern. The details I took away were probably different than