Stephanie Brushway
Literature Circle 4
Summarizer
Chapters 7-8
Chapter 7 begins with a pleasant, happy scene of Ailin teaching her little brother an English song while her mother smiled. This moment of hope is destroyed when Ailin is summoned by Big Uncle who will tell her what he has decided for her future. Her mother is scared for her. Big Uncle reveals to her that he wishes for her to be a concubine for the second son of the Feng family. He believes it is the only future he can find for her. After attempting to reason with Big Uncle, he finally says that she has three choices: become a nun, become a farmer’s wife, or become a concubine. She realizes that she has no way out of Big Uncle’s decision because she has no money, her Father is dead, her sister’s are married and gone, Xueyan’s family cannot legally help her and may not be on her side, and she does not want to commit suicide. She was left with the idea of becoming an amah. Her mother shoots this down by telling her that no respectable family will hire her because her feet are not bound, she does not have the respect and manners that they want their children to learn, and she ran from her own amah as a child. She turns to her teacher, Miss. Gilbertson, who was shocked at what Ailin confessed to her about her Big Uncle’s decision for her future. She offers her to be an amah for the English missionaries that were her friends. Ailin agrees to go visit them. She meets the children, Grace and Billy. She then accepts the offer to be their amah and live in their home.
Chapter 8 begins with Ailin going to tell Big Uncle of her decision to become an amah. He is beyond furious and lets her leave alive because he loved her father. She moves in with the Warner family and is immediately stunned by several aspects of her new life. The first in that she is responsible to care for herself entirely and run her own errands. Second, she finds that she must care for the children as well as teach them lessons in reading and writing. She has trouble adjusting to the food, her clothes no longer fitting, and the strange customs of the Warners. She is able to care for the children though and their behavior improves when she bribes them with learning to brush Chinese characters when they are good. She tells them Chinese folktales that they love. Ailin is disturbed when she overhears the Chinese house help talking about her and placing her on their level. She is also disturbed when she hears the Warners talking about her teaching the children a “heathen” language. She finally understands the price she I paying for her rebellion when Mr. Warner pulls her aside and is upset with her for talking about Confucianism in front of their children. He reminds her of Big Uncle during this conversation. She realizes that her is now in a culture where they hate what she was taught to value.
These chapters were filled with a lot of interesting information that really got the story rolling.I am still amazed at how in many cultures your future is in someone else hands. Maybe because I am an American I'm all about equal rights and opportunity that I find myself having a hard time understand or even imagining such a thing. I don't know what I would do if my future was in the hands of my uncle. It broke my heart to read about Ailin having to deal with these life changing decisions at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteI think there were a lot of twists and turns in these two chapters and I honestly had no idea what was to become of Ailin. It's hard for me to relate with her because she had so many responsibilities and pressures forced upon her at such a young age. The conversation at the end of chapter 8 really got to me because for everything Ailin has done for the Warner's and everything she has been through prior to that, she still gets scolded. I think this part just emphasizes the ignorance of the Warner's and even though they may be considered to be very well educated and progressive, they still have much to learn.
ReplyDeleteI do not know what I would do if I was Ailin and was presented with these three choices. I admire Ailin for putting her fate in her own hands and solving this problem on her own. I was surprised how easy it was for the to become the American family's amah, but she was very fit for the job considering her English skills. I too was surprised that the parents were angry at Ailin for talking about Confucius. She was able to accept their culture, but they were not able to fully accept hers. It will be interesting to see how it goes with Ailin continuing to be the children's amah.
ReplyDeleteI was so proud of Ailin when she stood up to Big Uncle. That showed such courage, and foreshadowed her future personality and the strength that the foreigners would unknowingly teach her.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, it would be really overwhelming to have to face someone that decides everything for you, and openly defy them. I don't think I've ever really done this, but then again I don't think I've ever been wronged like Ailin has in this story.
ReplyDeleteWhat really made me curious was the fact the Warners treated her as a servant to them; throughout the rest of the novel, Ailin is never treated as the woman of higher class that she was raised in. I believe she'll handle that well.
We all agree that Ailin's future being determined by someone else is most unreal. Of course as children our parents make decisions for us, but they raise us to eventually make decisions for ourselves. It's clear that the women are raised not to have any say in anything they do. I am not surprised that Ailin found some way around big uncles ruling...she's a very clever person. Although she didn't really want to take on the "nanny" position, she knew she had no other choice. In our own lives we sometimes have to sacrifice what we want for what we really need; even when it seems bad.
ReplyDeleteLastly, I was kinda taken back by the fact that the Warners got upset over the Confucius tale. Through the whole story we sit and hear about the negative/strict aspects of the Chinese, but are worshipping the American ideals. Here it shows that no culture is superior to another and that we all have flaws. We all need to be more accepting to diversity.