Summary
Father and Niang still continued to travel back and forth to Tianjin due to their businesses. They even took Big Sister along with them at times. Niang brought Big Sister to Tianjin because she wanted her to meet Samuel Sung, the guy that Niang wants Big Sister to marry, and Big Sister agreed. Before the wedding, Aunt Baba personally gave Big Sister a jade pendant and Big Sister pleaded Aunt Baba not to mention a word about the pendant to Niang. Everyone beside them wore formal Western suits and gowns, except for Adeline, and her three brothers. When the banquet was almost ending, Adeline went to the bathroom and accidently overheard Grand Aunt and Niang talking to each other. Grand Aunt was comparing Niang's jade ring to the jade pendant that she had asked Aunt Baba to give it to Big Sister as her wedding present. Later, Big Sister and Niang decided to talk privately about something. It wasn't until the next morning, when Adeline found out what Big Sister and Niang was really talking about. It turns out that Big Sister lied to Niang, saying that it was all Aunt Baba's fault because she told Big Sister to keep all of this a secret and never reveal it to Niang. After Big Sister lied to Niang, she just left on her honeymoon with her newly husband. Not long after her Big Sister's wedding, Adeline was invited to Wu Chun-mei's (Her classmate) birthday party. That was one time that Adeline felt like she was a normal little girl just going to one of her friend's birthday party. She was having lots of fun, until she realized that she just broken one of Niang's rules and she was terrified of the consequences so she ran straight home. Wu Chun-mei and her classmates couldn't wait any longer for Adeline to return, so she called her house and Niang picked up. After the phone call ended, Niang called Adeline a manipulative liar and thief and said that girls like Adeline doesn't deserve to stay in her house, and that they needed to be sent somewhere else. When Father got home from work, he went into Adeline's room and whipped her, and forced her to tell the truth. After he finished whipping her, he told her that Aunt Baba was a bad influence on her, so they must be separated. The next day, Adeline went to school as if she was perfectly fine. She also found out that her class was having an election for class president and she won! Her classmates choose Adeline to be their class president and they wanted to surprise her by visiting her at her house. Niang didn't approved of it whatsoever so she started loudly lecturing and slapped Adeline so hard that her classmates could've heard it all. She had no other choice but to drag her little feet down the stairs and told all of her classmates to go home. After all of her classmates left, Father and Niang decided to send Adeline to a boarding school in Tianjin.
Quote
""I'm afraid you two will have to be separated." I looked up at him in utter desolation. The fabric of my life was about to be torn apart." (Mah 104).
Reaction
This shows how close Adeline's relationship with Aunt Baba was. Mah used a powerful personification when she said that the fabric of her life was tearing up. I could actually feel the pain that she felt at that moment, because I, too had to be separated from someone I passionately loved and cared about. This quote also screams out many sorrow emotions, like afraid, loneliness, and heartbroken. After she gets separated with her Aunt Baba, I think that was when Adeline began to grow out of her childhood and became a tad more independent. Since she was being sent to a boarding school in Tianjin, Aunt Baba can't be by her side anymore. Although, this was a horrid moment in the story, I believe that this was a teaching for Adeline. This whole situation caused her and her Aunt Baba to be separated, but it'll make Adeline much stronger than before.
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