The Jade Peony Essay Example

away, which show the idea that the Chinese culture will lose in immigrant’s life. . The three narrators are the three children in the novel. They have different gender and life experience so their stories are absolutely different. Jook-Liang, the only sister, opens the novel about her special friendship with Wong Suk. Wong Suk is known as monkey man because of his face. She is devastated when problems with his immigration papers force him to return to China. The second section is Jung-Sum. He is the adopted second son. He has pet turtle King George, and his attraction to his much older friend, Frank Yuen.

The jade peony is passed on him. Just like people, no two pieces of jade are exactly alike, and each piece is precious. The third section is for Sek-Lung who is the youngest brother. This part shows his experiences of being neither Chinese or Canadian. Cultural differences is a big contradiction in this novel. Sekky details his teenage babysitter's clandestine love affair with a Japanese student and her death as a result of an abortion attempt after her boyfriend is sent to an internment camp. The main themes in this novel are family and friendship.

For Liang it is the monkey man, for Jung it is Frank Yuen, and for Sekky it is his grandmother. For Chinese-Canadians in the 1930s and 40s, family is more than blood ties, close friends quickly become aunts and uncles, mothers are called stepmothers 'to keep things simple', and friends from China become paper aunt and uncles in order to secure their entrance into Gold Mountain. For Shirley Temple, we can see that

Liang is more influenced by North American celebrities and less by the traditional Chinese influences.

When Poh-Poh refuses to watch Liang, it shows how she looks away from the modern. There is the representation of Poh-Poh’s traditional way. 8. These people live in China town so that they can still experience Chinese culture. When the other family members saw their grandma went to pickup garbages, they felt embarrassing. Another external conflict in this story is the conflict between the author which was the youngest child in the family and his sisters and brothers.

The author was following grandma all the time and he was on her side. It can also be seen as a foreshowing that tells reader that the author was influenced by grandma’s tradition. Internal conflict was also introduced in this story. Father knew that it was not good for grandma to pick up garbage, but he did not stop her and his youngest son. Because grandma was the oldest person in the family and he wanted his son to protect the grandma.