The China Coin Essay
Discoveries driven by wonder or necessity can be challenging and confronting, compelling individuals to re-evaluate their personal and social assumptions. Their perceptions of themselves and others can be transformative and lead them to new insights on their relationships and the wider world. “The China Coin” by Allan Baillie portrays Leah and her mother, Joan, in a mission to finding half of a missing coin. On this mission, they accept their renewed identities and confront the challenges of the backdrop in Tiananmen Square. In the film “Billy Elliot” by Stephen Daldry, the main character experiences a transformation from an adolescent to extraordinary ballet dancer. Furthermore, Arthur Golden’s novel “Memoirs of a geisha” extends the concept
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In “The China Coin”, Leah gains a new understanding of the society in which she struggles to partake. Leah’s intolerance towards the Chinese culture is presented through her inner monologue “I am being taken to a village so primitive they file their teeth and eat meat raw.” Although she fails to recognise her cultural identity, later “for the first time, Leah was thinking of Joan’s family as her family.” Similarly, Billy Elliot hesitates to enter the boxing hall and discover a new part of his identity. A long-shot showing Billy, swinging the door and being aggressively pushed by another boy, reinforces the idea that he is an outsider in the boxing world. The swinging door is a symbol of a barrier to ballet and rediscovery of a boy’s identity who is different than the others in the working class community. In addition, in the novel “Memoirs of a geisha”, Chiyo Sakamoto’s trajectory from being the daughter of a poor fisherman is illustrated as she becomes a renowned geisha. She recounts her discovery, saying that “it was as if the little girl named Chiyo, running barefoot from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer existed. I felt that this new girl, Sayuri, with her gleaming face and her red lips, had destroyed her.” Thus, discoveries can extensively compel individuals to affirm their perspectives on themselves and explore their new
In “The China Coin”, Leah gains a new understanding of the society in which she struggles to partake. Leah’s intolerance towards the Chinese culture is presented through her inner monologue “I am being taken to a village so primitive they file their teeth and eat meat raw.” Although she fails to recognise her cultural identity, later “for the first time, Leah was thinking of Joan’s family as her family.” Similarly, Billy Elliot hesitates to enter the boxing hall and discover a new part of his identity. A long-shot showing Billy, swinging the door and being aggressively pushed by another boy, reinforces the idea that he is an outsider in the boxing world. The swinging door is a symbol of a barrier to ballet and rediscovery of a boy’s identity who is different than the others in the working class community. In addition, in the novel “Memoirs of a geisha”, Chiyo Sakamoto’s trajectory from being the daughter of a poor fisherman is illustrated as she becomes a renowned geisha. She recounts her discovery, saying that “it was as if the little girl named Chiyo, running barefoot from the pond to her tipsy house, no longer existed. I felt that this new girl, Sayuri, with her gleaming face and her red lips, had destroyed her.” Thus, discoveries can extensively compel individuals to affirm their perspectives on themselves and explore their new