My first question was, It is said that children repeat their parents' mistakes. How is this seen in Lena and Ying-ying's relationship? Ashley mentioned that throughout the books, the daughters repeat the same mistakes in different ways. Nicole remarked that she didn't think Lena was repeating her mother's mistakes. Alyson said that one of the mistakes which both Lena and Ying-ying made was marrying men who didn't understand them.
Most of the class-- bearing in mind that the class is mostly of the feminine inclination-- seemed to think that Harold, Lena's husband, was analytical and Lena herself was romantic in regards to love.
This was elaborated upon with my second question, At the end of the excerpt, Lena says, "and I started to think, It's just not enough." What does this say about her beliefs and values regarding love? There was a lot of feedback on this question. I especially liked Kelsey's comment that Harold and Lena's relationship was more like a business association than a marriage. I think that rang very true. Also, several people mentioned that their relationship was 'too balanced.' The littlest things would disrupt the balance, and eventually, all the issues piling up on the marriage would force the marriage to collapse.
Altogether, the general consensus seemed to be that Lena and Harold shouldn't have been married.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion, it was so interesting to listen to everyone's point of view on the matter.
~~Megan Sarah Furlong
2 comments:
for your 1st question I still beleive that them marrying the men is an obvious example. Both of the husbands may love their wives but they dont bother to understand them nearly as well as they could. Ying-Ying's husband changed her birthday and her last name. Lena's husband doesnt want to get to know her and assumes too much. Like with the icecream he just assumed that she was trying to loose weight instead of trying to talk to her and listen to her reasoning to never having the icecream. You would think that Lena's husband would pick up on the fact that she never eats icecream but eats everything else so she isnt really on a diet.
I also see that they have very different circumstances and live in very different times. There mistakes are different but in a way connected like how they are connected to eachother.
With your second question i mentioned in class that they were too balanced. everyone built on what i was trying to say. That in the other family with the gold bracelets she was able to overcome the balanced but i think that Lena cant do that and that when you have too much balance the outcome wont comeout exactly how you want it. Ok well English class is over so i have to stop.
I think that Harold truly controlled his and Lena's marriage. Lena only entered into his ridiculous ideas about fincances because she believed that love was more important, and theat they truly loved one another. However, I feel that Harold did not feel the same. I think that Harold had the financial values he did because he is not a romantic and still subconsiously valued his money more than his marriage.
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