Chinese Cinderella: The true story of an unwanted daughter P.42-P.84

Summary

Chinese New Year finally came and everyone was excited to celebrate a new year and also a new beginning for the whole family. However, the five stepchildren of the Father's side were highly disappointed after they received their new clothes. They all noticed the inequality between them and Niang's children, which is Fourth Brother and Little Sister. Fourth Brother and Little Sister were given stylish Western and fashionable clothing, while the rest received Chinese traditional gowns. Then, the five of them decided to go into a room and discussed everything about how Niang treats them differently compared to their Fourth Brother and Little Sister. They had numerous of examples showing that Niang does indeed show favoritism towards Fourth Brother and Little Sister. For example, all of the three brothers (from the Father's side) had to shave their head, while the Fourth Brother had the most stylist hair cut out of all of the brothers. All five of the stepchildren was planning to write anonymous letters to their Father, explaining all of their problems and complaints. Then, Third Brother found out that Niang was outside of the door room, with her ears glued onto the door. They weren't positive that she had overheard everything, but just to make sure they burned all of the letters and promised each other not to talk about what happened in the room. During dinner, Niang didn't mentioned anything about what she may or may not have heard us talk about in that room. But she did invite Big Sister (which is the other four stepchildren's' so called "leader") to the second floor, where Niang, her Father, Fourth Brother, and Little Sister stayed. After that night, Big Sister had officially changed. She did everything she can to gain Niang's special favors. Big Sister was allowed outgoings with friends, received money, gifts and so much more. Adeline decided that her family situations was way too overwhelming for her to handle at the moment, so she just tried to study really hard and get outstanding grades on her report cards. School is the only way for Adeline to forget all the pain and sadness, that's inside of her. She was nicknamed Genius by her friends at school, because she did tremendously well in her academic grades and also because of her writings and short stories. She actually began writing by accident, but from the point on, Adeline loved to write and read. To her, writing was the only way, she could escape every terrible things that she had to go through every single day. The spring of 1946 came and Adeline's Father decided to take Niang, Big Sister, Fourth Brother, and Little Sister north (Tianjin) for three months. Meanwhile at home, many things had changed even more. Her two oldest brothers started becoming "rebels", by staying out late to be with their friends, whistle at pretty girls, raided the refrigerator and ate whatever they wanted. But everything seemed to return back to it's normal ways not long after Father and Niang returned from Tianjin and also Mr. and Mrs. Huang came for a visit. They were nice enough to gave us seven baby ducklings, for each and every children. But Adeline was the last one to pick and there was only one duckling left, so she had no other choice but to take it. She named her new pet, PLT (Precious Little Treasure). As time went on, Adeline grew a strong connection towards PLT. She considered PLT as her best friend because PLT was always there for her whenever she needed someone to talk to. Unfortunately, PLT died because Jake (family's dog) attacked PLT at the end of chapter 11.

Quote

"By the time my turn arrived, I was left with the tiniest, scrawniest baby bird." (Mah 73).

Reaction

This quote is pure genius. Adeline's extraordinary way of words to describe a small bird is an indirect metaphor to her life. Her other siblings that teased her and made her life miserable, took all of the healthy and beautiful ducklings, leaving Adeline the "tiniest, scrawniest baby bird" which is a comparison to how her siblings sees her. When it was Adeline's turn to choose her duckling, there was only one left because all of her siblings took the healthy and better looking ones. They just left her with the one, single duckling that nobody wanted. Adeline was that one, single duckling that nobody wanted. I believe that is why Adeline loved PLT so much, it's because she sees herself in PLT. Also, she wanted to love and care for PLT, just like how she wishes someone can do the same for her one day.