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Chapter 19: End of Term
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Chinese Cinderella, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Physical and Emotional Abuse
Coming of Age and Self-Worth
The Power of Stories
Toxic Family
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
After Rachel and Mary leave, Adeline’s headache grows much worse, developing into a high fever, and the next morning she coughs up blood. Adeline is hospitalized and Mary, whose family lives close to the hospital, visits her every day. Adeline’s Father visits once while Mary is there, disproving the common theory between Mary and her other friends that Adeline is an orphan. After Adeline is given penicillin and begins to recover, Father’s chauffer takes Adeline back to the family home to rest for one week.
Father’s regard for Adeline often seems inconsistent. Though he is consistently cruel and seems to have no problem with leaving her in the path of the Communists in Tianjin, he checks on her in the hospital and allows her to rest at home for a week. This suggests, perhaps, that Father may be rather more conflicted by his treatment of Adeline than Niang is. It seems that some part of him may just barely value Adeline as his daughter after all.
Themes
Third Brother, visiting from school in Shanghai (where he has been living with Aunt Baba), and Ye Ye are the only other people home, and the house seems calm and peaceful. The three catch up on the last years of their lives. Ye Ye is stricken with diabetes and has been placed on a very restrictive diet, which he hates. Third Brother loves his life in Shanghai, where the Communists have not yet been as cruel as everyone feared. Second Brother and Big Brother have both gone to college in England, which Adeline wishes she could do, as well, but knows she cannot, since she is a girl. Big Sister and her husband have returned to Tianjin, despite the family’s warnings, and now have a daughter.
In this conversation, the two alternatives for Adeline’s future are laid out: college in England or an arranged marriage to someone whom she does not know and is likely much older than her. This is one of the few times in book that the difficulty of being a woman plays an overt part in the story, though the underlying implication is always there. Adeline fears an arranged marriage, though Big Sister, Niang, and presumably Nai Nai were all placed in arranged marriages. This, too, has an unavoidable impact on Adeline’s view of her own self-worth, as it seems to limit her future possibilities.
Themes
When Third Brother asks Adeline about her own plans for the future, Ye Ye interjects to proudly describe how well she is performing in school, now several grades ahead of her peers, despite being only thirteen years old. Adeline responds rather dejectedly, ranting that none of her success matters since her parents hate her and she is a girl, so she will never be sent abroad to study like Third Brother will. Father treats her like trash, Niang treats like a “leper,” and they hide her away in boarding schools. After all these years, Adeline does not even like herself.
Although Adeline speaks very critically of herself, this is an important moment in her coming-of-age journey in that she is finally able to speak many of the painful feelings and ideas that she has repressed for so long, seemingly for the first time. Admitting the truth about how she feels about herself is a vital step in being able to address and overcome it with the help of others.
Themes
Ye Ye responds angrily that Adeline must not speak about herself in such a manner, that she is indeed special, saying, “…You can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.” Ye Ye continues to explain that Adeline needs to learn to depend on herself and trust in her ability to shape her own future, rather than simply being “married off like Big Sister.” Ye Ye has placed his own hopes in Adeline, he explains, implying that he has nothing left in the world to look forward to. The pain in his voice hurts Adeline and she promises that she will fight to succeed in life for both their sakes.
Ye Ye’s admonition that she can triumph over the abuse of her childhood once she is “convinced of [her] own worth” is a critical realization for Adeline, reinforced by the understanding that her own self-loathing also hurts the people around her. Seeing that Ye Ye—who has admitted defeat in the rest of life—has his final hopes placed on her future taps into her sense of compassion and desire to love and honor him. This powerfully suggests that, for Adeline, taking account of the well-being of the people that she loves becomes a powerful incentive for her to succeed and recognize her own value, though this will not happen instantaneously.
Themes
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