Intriguing Fiction

Alright, here come my insights into the two stories which intrigued me the most in the fiction unit. I want to start with “A Pair of Tickets” which was written by Amy Tan. “A Pair of Tickets” is a heart-wrenching story which began with the separation of a mother from her young twin daughters. I cannot imagine the pain the mother, Suyuan, must have suffered because she did not know what had happened to her young children. Not long after losing her children, Suyuan found out her husband and the rest of her extended family had died. Had Suyuan not lost her family, she would not have met a new man and chosen to start a family with him. Suyuan remarried, moved to the US, and had another daughter, Jing-mei. One point I really questioned at the start of the story was whether culture could be embraced just because you travel to a certain area in you cultural home? I think Tan meant Jing-mei realized the impact of her culture at a specific point on the trip to China, and not that she became Chinese at that exact moment.

Suyuan may have started a new family, but she never stopped searching for her twin daughters. Even after Suyuan’s husband had given up on finding the twins, Suyuan continued her search. I found it strange that a wife would not share so deep a pain with her husband. I think Suyuan was trying to spare her husband from having to deal with the loss she felt at all times. Then, in the story came a great piece of irony. Suyuan spent her whole life searching for her daughters, and shortly after her death word came from China that the twins wanted to meet with her.

Another crucial part of the story was Jing-mei and her father’s journey to China to reunite with the twins and other family members. Upon first reading the story, I was disappointed in the lack of information about the meeting of the sisters. After reflecting back on it, Tan was able to make the event even more profound by keeping the ending simple. The sisters had been re-united and all understood one crucial thing: they all resembled their mother. Tan was able to emphasize her main point, which was the journey to re-unite the family with the twin daughters, by not having a lengthy section on the reunion.

On to the second intriguing story of the fiction unit, “Boys and Girls,” written by Alice Munro. The family in the story raised foxes to collect the furs. The first thing which struck me as interesting was the difference between the names the boy and the girl gave to their pets. The girl chose “girly” names such as Maureen and Diana. The boy, named Liard, chose more masculine pet names such as Harold and Mexico. But not all of the names chosen for the foxes agreed with the gender of the child. Liard chose the name Maud for a fox after a former hired hand.

All throughout “Boys and Girls,” there is a strong gender bias. The father treats the daughter with little, or no, respect even though she is expected to do the same amount of work as her brother. The different treatment of the children based on gender reflects the time period in which the story was set. The story talks about the mother spending the majority of her time in the house doing household chores. It was a rare occurrence to find the mother outdoors unless she was hanging the wash out to dry. Also, I cannot help but thing Tan did not give the girl a name because it helped to strengthen the gender bias. In that period of time, our society was very male dominated. Without a name, the girl was destined to become jus t a “girl.” The son was given a name in the story which helps to strengthen the fact of a male dominated society.

I have one last critical point, which is the girl’s struggle to find her place in the world, to discuss from “Boys and Girls.” The girl wants to be able to help her father with the chores which are considered to be “male” chores. Several times during the story the girl is chided for not behaving like a young lady. The girl continues to ignore her families strong suggestions she should act more like a young lady. At the end of the story, the young girl chooses to let the horse, Flora, run free. When the girl decides to let Flora run free, she seems to seal her fate of being the young lady everyone had tell her she needed to be.