Adeline Yen Mah Essay Example

Adeline Yen Mah Essay Example Adeline Yen Mah Paper Adeline Yen Mah Paper Some readers might say Adeline had presented a picture of childhood which was consistently unhappy? Do you agree? Chinese Cinderella is about a young girl battling through life and many misfortunes to finally get a good future, which she gets through sheer perseverance. I believe that Adeline Yen Mah does have a terrible childhood which consists of mainly sorrowful situations; but her being an optimistic child; she is able to transform little actions into something she can find pleasure from. Therefore in this essay I will discuss how I disagree with the statement Some readers might say Adeline had presented a picture of childhood which was consistently unhappy, as I believe that however rarely it took place there were a few happy situations. I will also try to discuss the idea of how each of these happy situations are transformed each time into depressing situations. The story begins with an enthusiastic child, overjoyed by the recent events where she was awarded a prize at school. She is then delighted about the fact that her dearly loved Aunt Baba would keep her certificate in the same box in which she kept her truly, valuable, possessions, as if her award were also some precious jewel impossible to replace. Therefore I believe she did have moments of true happiness but they were short-lived as these emotions are soon distorted by the adversity she received through her family. For example we are then informed of the sad matter of how no one goes and visits her at school when she receives theses prizes. In this same scene we find out how Adelines own sister blamed her, a four year old child, for the death of their mother. If you had not been born Mama would still be alive. I feel that this show the true extent of how horrible her family were to her and how lonely she may have felt throughout life. Soon after, because of the Japanese invasion, Adeline moves with her family to Shanghai, where she is enrolled into another school. She was excited yet nervous. But again her emotions are quickly transformed into the feeling of resent as she realises that no one had made plans on how she was to travel to and from school. After getting lost she phones home and realises no one had missed her. This again shows how her happiness is always short-lived. Rules basically form our lives. The rules that Adeline has to live with are truly unpleasant and her life is very restricted. She is not given any pocket money, tram fare, or new clothes. This shows her life in general was not a chain of happy events and did consist of misery. An important event to consider was when we are told that the children had been looking forward to Chinese new year for weeks and their new outfits. Again, this however small it may be his is obviously something that Adeline found pleasure in, or it would have been if she didnt get a basic, brown smock mode of material left over from one of big sisters garments. This shows she is not considered nearly as important as Niangs biological children, who get beautiful new clothes in all occasions. All throughout the story it is very clear to see there is a very apparent division between Niangs children and Adelines brothers and sister. Niang and her biological children live on the first floor, unlike Adeline and brothers and sisters who are to live on the second floor. Adeline and the others are not allowed to step foot on the first floor yet Niang can enter their rooms at any time to inspect it. This is Niangs way of showing authority in the family as they now live under her roof, and therefore her rules. Even though Adeline and her siblings were treated poorly by their parents, in chapter 9 her and her siblings unite together to organise themselves against Niang, even though the plan does not go ahead, the actuality that she is finally part of a family or a group obviously means a lot to her, yet this diminutive bit of happiness which she holds onto is taken by her own brothers who play a revolting prank on her where they trick her into drinking their urine. This scene tells us that, all that Adeline really wants is to be accepted, she wants to be part of something, and not have to be alone. I hope I have been able to show you clearly how it is that Adeline does have moments of happiness however small they may be but the point I am trying to make is that they are short lived and soon turn into a miserable situations. Each happy memory so far clearly turns into a heartbreaking, demoralizing situation. Another memory which is hastily transformed into a depressing remembrance is when Adeline was given a pet duckling known better as P. L. T.