Sunday, January 10, 2010

Reading Log: Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah


1)      How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

This story is about an unwanted daughter by her family as her family members thought that she was the caused of her mother’s death shortly after delivered her. She was always ignored by her family especially when her father married a French woman whom she called Niang. Though she was a brilliant girl and always got top in her class, her father never congratulate her or even try to speak to her personally. Only when she was in the news that she won in a writing competition, for the first time she saw her father felt happy for her. As she grew older, she found herself a good university, better job and married a nice guy after the previous failure marriage. Though her family had always mistreated her, she was very patient in this situation.

2)      What is the main issue in the text?

The issue in the story is a girl that was mistreated by her family. After her mother’s death, she was blamed for it and subsequently labeled as bad luck. Her brother who was closed to her was James, the third son in her family,  had always protected her from their stepmother’s actions. Besides, the other two family members who treated her nicely were her Aunt Baba and grandfather. After Niang’s death, she found that she was not listed in her will. Finding her father’s original will, she felt that her father loved her and received an amount of money except her older sister, Lydia. In this situation, it seemed that all her siblings especially James who was once closed to her, had backstabbed her. This made her to be upset.

3)      What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?

I dislike the character of Niang, her stepmother. Feeling afraid that her stepchildren would unite and rebel, she tried to control in every situation. For example, she was the one who made any decision and yet her father-in- law and sister-in-law had to ask for pocket money from her. This has never happened that a father should ask for money from his daughter-in-law. Besides, she never showed her love or affection to her stepchildren and even to her own daughter, Susan, just because her child did not know her. She also had several bad plan for her own advantage.

4)      How does the text develop your understanding of the world?

Every child has different experience childhood. As for Adeline, she faced many bad situations and was mistreating by her own family. Surviving in life, we have to be more patient and make decisions wisely for our own good. We also should not blame other people in any situation as things are not happened as we wish to. Sometimes, it takes time for us use to be with it.

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