Monday, May 6, 2013

Rejection At Its Finest


What if you weren't receiving the love you knew you deserved? That someone you thought you were going to be so close with, just shut you down in the blink of an eye? Seemingly, for no reason at all. Except  for them, the instant "shut down" revolved around multiple reasons. This scenario is exactly what Stacy faces in the story “Ribbons”, by Laurence Yep. Stacy’s grandmother moves from China to America and almost instantly rejects Stacy and focuses all of her attention on Stacy's little brother, Ian.

In China, boys are everything. Boys are the gold of the country. Girls are unsatisfactory to most people over there. Because of these reasons, this is partially why the grandmother instantly likes Ian more than Stacy. Ian’s a boy, and remember, he's "everything". Throughout the story, the grandmother is softer towards Ian, and is as cold as ice towards Stacy. 

 Even though it seems the grandmother likes Ian more because he's a boy , the grandmother could very much possibly be racist towards Stacy also.  In the story Stacy says “Everything about Ian looks more Chinese; I look as Caucasian as dad.”. The grandmother probably loves the fact that Ian looks more like her and that Ian is very Chinese looking. Because Stacy looks Caucasian, I think the grandma just forgot about Stacy and decided to praise Ian instead.

 Traditional Chinese people, specifically elders, are very strict and precise when it comes to their culture. A proper way to greet someone in China is to bow and to prohibit any emotion/affection.  Stacy had been taught to greet her grandmother with a bow, but when she saw her for the first time she got too excited and tried to hug and kiss her grandma. Her grandma rudely responded “nice children don’t drool on people.”. Then, the grandma continued to distance herself from Stacy. 

The grandma in this story rejected Stacy and loved Ian. If I were Stacy, I would've given up on the relationship, but Stacy kept trying. People, especially family, shouldn’t reject and dislike other people  if they don’t know them. It can confuse a person and make them feel like they don’t deserve someone’s love. Everyone should give others a chance because there could be a connection, like the grandmother and Stacy developed at the end of the story. After all, we accept the love we think we deserve. 

No comments:

Post a Comment