I would like to start by thanking you all for participating and keeping it going... I was more then a little nervous my seminar would move slowly...is probably the most politically correct terminolgy. There were a few points I would like to mention that really stuck to me and I think they stuck with the class as a whole, or were large points of contoversy.
At the beginning of the passage Lindo says she kept her promise, from earlier we know the promise to be obeying her new family, and being a faithful wife who doesn’t disgrace her old family, and does she really, fully keep this promise? (keep in mind the Huangs asked her not to tell anyone about her doomed marriage…one that she doomed herself)
Question One: It surprised me slightly we all agreed she kept her promise, but the points brought up truely supported it: Lindo never did tell anyone about why she takes ff the bracelets on the Festival of Pure Light, the day she had her "vision". Furthermore it was brought up she kept it more then was meant to in that she was a good wife while living with the family, but she also knew her husband wouldn't have children and thus found him someone already with a child. The braceltets turned out to be a big discussion point: we mentioned how the bracelets not only were metaphors for her freedom but also for her past that wasnt free.
Lindo says that she later heard the servant girl that replaced her was so struck with this miracle of marrying Tyan-yu, do you believe Lindo believed it was a miracle? Does the servant girl really believe it’s a miracle?
Question Two: We all believed the servant girl did see this as a miracle, or at least not a curse: It was brought up that in this time period an illigitamate child probably would not be too well off in society, and that this is protection for the child in a stable,rich family, and no one calling him a "bastard" However on the other hand it was said that we have no idea if the delieverary man would have recognized the son and married. The servant girl may have wanted to live a struggling life with someone she clearly loved as compared to someone who she took as an option to keep the child safe.
These are just the strongest points that I could note, and I believe them all to have merit and logic, so feel free to add on or argue these points out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I would like to comment on the first response. I would like to add on the fact that the bracelets were not the only metaphor in "The Red Candle" that related to making promises. The bracelets only added an effect to the actual comparison which was the American movies and the promises kept in them. Lindo Jong, the narrator, explains a promise can be easily broken, even if it's a GOLDEN PROMISE. She states that in American movies, there are always golden promises made but never fulfilled and so she brings up the fact that America believes 14 carat gold is pure gold just because it has gold on the outer layer, but Lindo Jong believes it isn't enough. She believes 24 carat gold is pure gold because it's solid inside and out, and that she believes is a golden promise. I also believe Lindo Jong has fully kept her promise to her mother even though she left the Huangs' because the only promise she really made, was not to disgrace the family, and by cleverly making up a believable dream about Lindo and Tyan-yu's marriage being doomed, she was released and told her not to tell anyone of the doomed marriage or it will disgrace them. So in my opinion, Lindo Jong kept her promise that she made to her mother.
Chris, excellent post! Truly reflective of the discussion you had going in class. :-) I agree very much with what Prometheus has to say. I wish we all had the will to keep golden promises as defined by Lindo Jong.
Like most of the class, I agree that Lindo kept her promise to her family to be a good wife. What struck me as very lucky was that the servant girl was pregnant at exactly the right time to save both her, her baby, and Lindo. I think this was a miracle for both of them because it seems as though so much more was at work than just coincidence.
Post a Comment