A spot where Team Po'okela Language Arts students can share their thoughts, reflections, and questions about literature and life.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Per. 1 - Chinese Cinderella
24 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I think the theme is courage. I beleive this is because she always wears the medal for leading her class. Week after week she gets teased by her siblings about being the "teacher's pet" but continues to wear the medal. I also think the story is baced on courage because Wu Mei continues to be hated at home but she finds a safe haven in school. This would be very hard for alot of people to do. As I read the book I can't help but infer she will tell one of the nuns or teachers at her school what her problem is. I hope she lets this potential weakness become one of the things that makes her stronger
The theme of the "Chinese Cinderella" story is probably family rrelationships, because of the way it is in Wu Mei's family. She seems to really have a strong relationship with her parents and her grandmother.Of all Wu Mei's family members, they seem to be the only ones who cares about her, even if Wu Mei's mother did die in the process of her birth. With her siblings, however, it is the same thing that happens to all children scarred by what happened in their childhood. They seem to blame Wu Mei for their mothers death, and are jelous because of her success. Apparently, the importance of family relationships in the story is the fact that Wu Mei is trying to get along with her brothers and sisters, as well as bringing honor to her family. She is trying very hard to have a good relationship with her family, yet she is only succeeding with her father at the time.
From reading the first few chapters of "Chinese Cinderella", I can infer that the theme is about courage. It is possible that it is all four themes, but the other three always come back to this one. Throughout Wu Mei's childhood (or at least the time of her life that the beginning of the book describes), she has had issues with her family, causing loneliness and bad self-esteem. The only person she really talks to is her Aunt Baba. This doesn't mean she's necessarily lonely, though. Wu Mei's situation with her second brother and older sister tormenting her is hard on her, but she is courageous and doesn't let that get in the way of finally getting attention from her father using her class accolade. Although she has no best friends, Wu Mei is strong and doesn't let loneliness get the best of her. Without this bravery, she could have already been in a deep depression and given up on life. Her siblings underestimated her when they couldn't believe that she got a medal for leadership a few weeks in a row. But no, this didn't bring Wu Mei's self-esteem down because she knew she deserved it. I honestly believe that she is so strong to be as persevered as she is despite how her life is like.
I have to disagree with Kevin's comment on having a stable, solid relationship with her parents. For dinner, her stepmother seemed to favor her older sister. Also, the story implied that she was using the medal as a way to receive attention from her father. This obviously means that they didn't have a very good parent-to-daughter establishment to begin with. But, they did show some care for her I suppose. About her mother dying in the process of her birth, her parents are sort of obligated to not bring her down about it. Or else, they wouldn't deserve to be called parents in the first place.
I think the story “Chinese Cinderella,” is about courage. Wu Mei in the story shows the meaning of courage. She has the ability to overcome any obstacles that get in her way. Like the fact she is “responsible,” for her mother death. She always gets pick on from her own family. For example, she won an award at an award ceremony in school, and she stood up on stage with nobody to accompany her. It took lots of courage to go up there and face the crowd of people. In addition, the reason why I think the story is about courage is she has the courage to still focus in school even with all her siblings giving her torcher, and the fact she moved to a new school. I think Wu Mei has the courage to move on, be successful, and do something good with her life.
Kevin- I will have to disagree with your backup information. She doesn’t have a strong relationship with her step-mother. I don’t think getting blamed for your mother’s death is a strong relationship. Also how is she trying to get along with her siblings? All they do is chide her and give her torcher.
I think that the story "Chinese Cinderella" is about family relationships based on what I've read starting from chapter four because the protaganist mentions family relationships many times in the story. For example, page 25 of the story says that Wu Mei (the protaganist) and her family have "become one single unit", which made me infer that from that time the family had to stay together as a family. Also, on page 33, the Little Sister of Wu Mei's family was telling Niang (Wu Mei's stepmother and a really bad mother) to "Go away!". That made me think that the detail meant that the family wasn't getting along, and that the story was showing again and again about family relationsips, which I think it's about.
@mglass I like how you showed your inferences to support your details and reasons, like the example of Wu Mei going to an award ceremony by herself, and everyone else having their families with them. Your inference and detail does convince me that the part of the story you showed represents courage, since it does take courage to recieve an award by herself with everyone else with families and friends staring at you. But, in chapter four, doesn't it mention that unlike Wu Mei's silblings, "nobody looks down on me"? If the other awardees were like that, which is unknown but possible, Wu Mei probably wouldn't have had courage, but embarassment, and depression about her family not being there, which could turn that part of the story into a supporting detail that represents family relationships, since it shows an example of how Wu Mei doesn't have a strong family relationship. That's just my opinion, nothing personal.
I think the theme of this story is courage. I believe this is important to the story because if Wu Mei didn't have courage, the story would be boring. The theme is courage because Wu Mei stood up for her baby sister when Niang kept hitting her. Wu Mei told her step mother to stop when nobody else had the guts to and even though she knew there would be consequences, she still said to stop. Another example would be when Wu Mei walked in the storm because she didn't want to give into her step mother. That showed courage because she could have died in the storm but she still refused a ride from her friend. From these two actions from Wu Mei, this is why I think that the theme is courage.
My theme is self-esteem. Self-esteem is important to the story because adeline has a lot of it and she is very strong. deline is always strong and when her family has forgotten about her she still stays strong. Adeline is always strong and does not let people get to her. She has a lot of self-esteem because some of her family bullied her and wasn't very nice to her. They took her food. Hit her and even called her names but, she stayed strong and didn't put herself down.
I agree with what Nick is saying about how Wu Mei finds school as a haven because she is hated at home. In the story she says that her classmates made her feel that she belonged unlike her siblings that looked down on her. I bet that Aunt Baba would think she had courage if she knew how her siblings really treated her.
I think the theme in the story "Chinese Cinderella" is courage. The main character, Wu Mei, shows the meaning of courage plenty of times. In the story, Wu Mei won a medal for leading the class. When she got home, her siblings started to tease her all the time. Instead of putting the medal away or not wearing it, Wu Mei always wore that medal. It would take a lot of courage to wear that medal in front of your teasing, hateful siblings. In the story, it says,"I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased my siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way Father take notice and be proud of me."(page 15) Also, in the story, it tells us that Wu Mei went to an award ceremony withtout her family. Everyone else had someone there with them when they got their award on the stage. Of course, poor Wu Mei had nobody with her. She decided to go up on stage without anyone with her, even though everyone else had somebody with them. That would take a lot of courage. I think this story shows plenty of examples of having courage. In the story, it says, "On my way back to my seat, I couldn't help noticing that all of the prizewinners, I was the only one unaccompanied by anyone from my family."(page 16)Also in the story, it talks about Wu Mei's dad had to avoid the Japanese because if they found him, something bad would happen. In the story, it says, "It's important that the servants know nothing about my whereabouts. Otherwise, the Japanese might arrest me."(page 23) He then moved to Shanghai. That would take a lot of courage to do that. I can't believe this is a true story! I can't wait to finish the book and find out what happens next to Wu Mei!
Kevin: I disagree with some of your facts. I kind of see what you mean by the siblings being haunted by some tragedies in their childhood, so they're taking it out on Wu Mei as an excuse. Although, I think this is at a whole different level. I actually think this is a family hating on an innocent child for an unfortunate tragedy. If they truely loved her, why would they torture her like that? I know family members play jokes on each other and get in fights every now and then, but this is different. They blamed her for something that wasn't her fault. I don't think that is a great example of strong, family relationships, but that is my opinion. Don't take it personal. I would give you another example of strong, family relationships, but I don't agree with the theme and I can't think of an example of that either.
I think the theme of the book "Chinese Cinderella" is courage. The theme courage is important because I think the protagonist of the story has a lot of courage. One reason on why I think she has a lot of courage is because in the story when she finished her first day of school at her new school, no one came to pick her up and she tried to walk home by herself, and I think that took a lot of courage to walk around in a place you've never been before. The second reason on why I think the theme of the story is courage is because when the step mom of the protagonist started to hit her baby and she told her to stop. I think that took courage because no one else said anything when the baby was being hit but the protagonist.
The theme for the story, "Chinese Cinderella", is courage. There were a variety of ways that the protagonist, Adeline, showed courage in the story. For example, in chapter seven Adeline showed a lot of courage by standing up for her little sister. When Adeline's little sister didn't want to be held by her stepmother, Niang, the stepmother became so furious and violent that she actually started beating the little sister. As Niang was abusing the child, Adeline stood up for her little sister and told Niang to stop. This showed a lot of courage because Adeline had the guts to tell her own stepmother that what she was dooing to her little sister was wrong. Another way that Adeline showed courage is in chapter eight. When Niang caught her children borrowing money from YeYe and Aunt Baba for the tram to go to school everyone gave in, and apologized except for Adeline. Because Adeline didn't confess that she was wrong to borrow money from Yeye and Aunt Baba to Niang, her consequences were that she had to walk to and from school whether it was raining or not. In this chapter, Adeline showed a lot of courage because she stood up for herself, and didn't admit that what she did was wrong.
From reading the story "Chinese Cinderella", I believe courage is the theme. Courage basically means having the strength to go through something. This theme is important for the story because Wu Mei has a lot of hardships that she needs to go through. For one, she always needs the courage to stand up for herself. In the story, Niang was physically hurting one of her daughters. Even though Wu Mei was very scared to say something, she had the courage to stand up for her sister and make Niang stop. Secondly, Wu Mei needs to have the courage to always be independent. Because she's always excluded from the family and nobody pays attention to her, she needs to stay strong and not let that bother her. On the first day of school, nobody had picked her up. Then again, Wu Mei still had the courage to find her own way home. Even if she got lost, she still was couragous enough to take the risk. Because of all the hard times Wu Mei needs to go through, I believe courage is the most important theme. Courage will help her throughout her whole life.
Kevin- They story may be about family relationships, but I don't agree with your reason why. You really think ALL of her family cares about her? If Wu Mei's family really cared about her, would her siblings tease and mock her? Would her step mother still be saying that Wu Mei's bad luck because of her mother's death? Think about it, not all the things her family does to her is positive.
Mikala- I agree with you. You should've added more details to this response, but I think it's really good. You can expand more when saying, "I think she will have enough courage to not let them stand in the way of her life."
Cody- I agree with everything you wrote, but I don't think it was chapter 4 and onward. O:
Ashton- I agree with you and all the details you put in your response. I think some of your sentences are somewhat repetetive. You should explain how / what caused her to feel forgotten. (e.g.- when they forgot to pick her up on the first day of school.)
Victor- When you said "The theme courage is important because I think the protagonist of the story has a lot of courage", you could of expanded that and be more specific. (e.g.- she has courage when it comes to dealing with all the problems she faces throughout the story.)
I think that the theme of the "Chinese Cinderella" is about family relationships.I believe that this is the theme,because while reading chapter four alot has happened with her famliy. Her and her family don't really have a very strong relationship with each other.The protagonist's family don't all get along,and i feel like having everyone love each other and care for each other is part of having a good family relationship.In chapter four when Nai Nai died,that is something that can really bring together the families relationship.But there are still things that can bring them apart like the stepmother.She isnt very nice like when she slapped one of the kids. That isnt a good sign of family relationship.But i think since a family member has died the family is going to try and make things better.
@Nick- I like how you use specific detail and your response is very clear. When you said, "As I read the book I can't help but infer she will tell one of the nuns or teachers at her school what her problem is." You could expand on that. What made you think that?
Nickless G- I agree that it is hard to find a place you call "safe", or "paradise". However, it doesn't take too much bravery to find one. It does, however, take bravery to go out and find one. An example of someone who found a safe haven is Harry Potter. He is unwanted at home, but Hogwarts is what he calls his true home. He didn't need courage to find it; Hogwarts found him.
I think that theme for “Chinese Cinderella” is family relationships. I believe that because after the rest of Adeline’s family moved from Tianjin to Shanghai, she started to lay foundations of a relationship with certain people. For example, she has started to hang out with “Third Brother”, at the park along with Yei Yei. There he admits that he likes playing with Adeline, which is like the foundation with her. Another thing is that the problem of the family hurting each other. For example, when Adeline got one her writing’s published, her brother’s give her an accolade of a innocent glass of orange juice. Which Adeline drinks and quickly finds out that it’s been mixed with urine. So, from that, it shows that they are hurting each other, showing that they have to fix their corrupted family relationships.
However, I do believe too that the theme could be courage for this story. One reason is that Adeline had to stand up to her evil step-mother Niang, who was harassing her own child, Little Sister, and yelling at her to shut up. That had to take up a lot of guts to even stand up to her; I mean Niang is like the devil in the living flesh to Adeline and her older siblings. Also the time when the five of them (Big Sister, Big Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother, and Adeline) tried to stand up to her again, in order to get a tram fare.
@CoDaY-I have to agree with you on the theme, but one of your information is irrelevant to your theme. The detail “For example, she won an award at an award ceremony in school, and she stood up on stage with nobody to accompany her. It took lots of courage to go up there and face the crowd of people.” That is irrelevant because, well, it’s really common to see that in books. I believed that it could be more significant.
I Might ust put this out there. I think all of these themes could be used. Courage could be the theme because she has had to do all of her day to day things by herself. As she waited for the pickup after school nobody came. So she had to be very couragous and walk home when anyone could snatch her up. Family Relations may also be the theme of "Chinese Cinderella" because she may not like all of her family, but the ones she does like she charishes. An example of this is when she called her father to pick her up at the market. She now can trust him to be their whenever she may need him. The theme of the book "Chinese Cinderella" may be loneliness because she is often shuned by her family and has to "explore" life by herself. Honestly this may be he best thing for her in my opinion. It will let her understand some of her problms from an experiencerather than from an explanation or definition. The theme of self-esteem is hard to express in a book. Therefor the theme may be self-esteem because all of these themes may improve or make her self-esteem worse. I thought of this because if she is couragous and it pays off she may stand up to her siblings and be more respected. A family relationship with her father could make her feel better about herself because she could go to him if she is having any problems that he could help her with. As i was reading the book I could relate to this story becuase when I was in elementary school all the kids picked on me because I had a bigger head than I guess they thought was appropriate. So I could relate to her in the fact that I couldn't wait to tell my mom what I had learned that day.
So my reflection is to the whole class because I persoally think that everybody came up with fantastic explanations about each theme. So all of the explanations are correct in their own way. If I absolutly had to pick somone to relate to it would be to Kathryn beause she stood up to her step mother. This lets her siblings know that even though they teased and chided her, tey are still family and they protect each other. It took alot of courage to stand up to Niang and put what is right before personal feeling.
Chasity thank you for the insight on how I could have made my explanation better. The Harry Potter reference was a good relation. Thanks!
After reading more past chapter 4 of "Chinese Cinderella", I still think the theme is courage. More views and conflicts occur further on in the story that could help give out a theme. But, just like my first comment, I believe that all of them still come back to Wu Mei's bravery.
Ever since her whole family moved to Shanghai, everything was different. She had to learn how to depend on herself, like when she had no one to drop her off or to pick her up to and from school. Wu Mei was really scared and felt alone at first. But, her courage brought her the idea to walk home, since she knew there was no one that was coming to get her. This took a lot of bravery since there was the fact that she could get kidnapped.
Another thing is how Wu Mei's family started to fall apart after Nai Nai's death. She was very unfortunate to have such a wicked stepmother. From her seeing her little sister getting hit, I can infer that she just blew up. It would be very very hard for a person with no bravery to speak up about what was going on. Her pride was also what gave Wu Mei the courage to not be the one to give in and ask her Niang or father for tram money. Her strength and faith in herself is the only thing that keeps her moving on.
I have noticed that a lot of the comments state the same thing about the theme being family relationships. But really, it's not that Wu Mei felt the need that she had to improve her relationship with her family. It wasn't worth it to her because she already knew that there wasn't much she could change. That's why I have to say that that could be the theme, but isn't exactly correct. What she wanted to do was get through life and to learn how to be more independent, which is more of bravery and courage.
Sorry, I know it's late but after I was done thinking of all my details and what to put, it was already midnight D: This post is past 12 AM but I had simple grammar errors and other things that I just had to fix from not looking over when I rushed to click submit. It's okay with me if it doesn't count though, that's my fault
*After reading more past chapter 4 of "Chinese Cinderella", I still think the theme is courage. More views and conflicts occur further on in the story that could help give out a theme. But, just like my first comment, I believe that all of them still come back to Wu Mei's bravery.
Ever since her whole family moved to Shanghai, everything was different. She had to learn how to depend on herself, like when she had no one to drop her off or to pick her up to and from school. Wu Mei was really scared and felt alone at first. But, her courage brought her the idea to walk home, since she knew there was no one that was coming to get her. This took a lot of bravery since there was the fact that she could get kidnapped.
Another thing is how Wu Mei's family started to fall apart after Nai Nai's death. She was very unfortunate to have such a wicked stepmother. From her seeing her little sister getting hit, I can infer that she just blew up inside. It would be very, very hard for a person with no bravery to speak up about what was going on. Her pride was also what gave Wu Mei the courage to not be the one to give in and ask her Niang or father for tram money unlike her siblings. Her strength and faith in herself is the only thing that keeps her moving on.
I have noticed that a lot of the comments state the same thing about the theme being family relationships. But really, it's not that Wu Mei felt the need that she had to improve her relationship with her family. It wasn't worth it to her because she was smart and already knew that there wasn't much she could change. I'm sure that many people can't alter situations in their family and hope that they get better. That's why I have to say that that could be the theme, but isn't exactly correct. What she wanted to do was get through life and to learn how to be more independent, which is more of bravery and courage.
Just "putting this out there" as Nick would say. To elaborate more, I learned that a theme is more like a lesson of the story or a trait the author is encouraging the reader to have. The other three options in my eyes don't really give a straightforward message of the story other than if it were perceived from a person. By saying it is courage, you can just say that the protagonist represents it. But, you can't do that with the others. The options don't say "improving family relationships" or "learning how to deal with self-esteem or loneliness". It's kind of hard to explain but I just wanted to state that.*
I see that there is more to improve on in my response, but I still think that the story's theme is family relationships, since Wu Mei has much emotional conflict within her family, due to her Niang being, pretty much, the supreme overlord and ruler of the family. Pretty much, she is in control, since no one but Wu Mei would stand up to her. Another reason that family relationships is the main theme of the story is the fact that all of Wu Mei's conflicts have to do with her family's opinion of her. However, it is shown that her siblings include her in their plans in drastic situations. An example of this is when Niang treated her real children better than them and fed them bettet. They decided to make a truce with Wu Mei just to overrule Niang. Apparently, the only sibling that gives Wu Mei companionship is Third Brother, since, being the youngest sibling, didn't know much about his dead mother. However, older sister is a bit of a minor antagonist, since she is willing to do anything to have luxury.
The story may have to do with courage to, since Wu Mei was the only one who would stand up to Niang when she was treating Little Sister cruelly. Wu Mei was also brave enough to stand her ground and walk through even the cruelest of storms, rather than give in and admitt defeat and apology to her Niang for tram fare.
I believe that the theme of the story “Chinese Cinderella,” is all about courage just like my last response. Like I said earlier, she has the ability to overcome any obstacles that get in her way. In chapter four and on, she showed that. In the story she just enrolled in a new private school, and it was her first day. But there was just one big problem. There was nobody to drop off, and pick up Wu Mei at/from her school. She showed the courage to not let that conflict get in the way with her “heaven,” (school). Instead she just walked to and from school by herself. In addition later in the book Wu Mei’s little sister was being physically abuse by Niang, and she had the courage to stand up to Niang even though she was still scared. Also nobody except for Wu Mei opened her mouth to help her baby sister. Plus she had the courage to stand up for what she believed in, and it was her own step-mother. Again like I said earlier, I believe Wu Mei has the courage to move on, be successful, and do something good with her life.
@Kevin-I don’t think she is the so called “supreme overlord and ruler of the family,”. Why, well because of the fact that Wu Mei is standing up to her, and not really obeying her. The tram money for example. She doesn’t own up to it like the rest of her siblings.
@chasitymae&DEnriquez- Mahlo for the help on my response. Friends, thank you for pin pointing what I need to fix.
24 comments:
I think the theme is courage. I beleive this is because she always wears the medal for leading her class. Week after week she gets teased by her siblings about being the "teacher's pet" but continues to wear the medal. I also think the story is baced on courage because Wu Mei continues to be hated at home but she finds a safe haven in school. This would be very hard for alot of people to do. As I read the book I can't help but infer she will tell one of the nuns or teachers at her school what her problem is. I hope she lets this potential weakness become one of the things that makes her stronger
The theme of the "Chinese Cinderella" story is probably family rrelationships, because of the way it is in Wu Mei's family. She seems to really have a strong relationship with her parents and her grandmother.Of all Wu Mei's family members, they seem to be the only ones who cares about her, even if Wu Mei's mother did die in the process of her birth. With her siblings, however, it is the same thing that happens to all children scarred by what happened in their childhood. They seem to blame Wu Mei for their mothers death, and are jelous because of her success. Apparently, the importance of family relationships in the story is the fact that Wu Mei is trying to get along with her brothers and sisters, as well as bringing honor to her family. She is trying very hard to have a good relationship with her family, yet she is only succeeding with her father at the time.
From reading the first few chapters of "Chinese Cinderella", I can infer that the theme is about courage. It is possible that it is all four themes, but the other three always come back to this one. Throughout Wu Mei's childhood (or at least the time of her life that the beginning of the book describes), she has had issues with her family, causing loneliness and bad self-esteem. The only person she really talks to is her Aunt Baba. This doesn't mean she's necessarily lonely, though. Wu Mei's situation with her second brother and older sister tormenting her is hard on her, but she is courageous and doesn't let that get in the way of finally getting attention from her father using her class accolade. Although she has no best friends, Wu Mei is strong and doesn't let loneliness get the best of her. Without this bravery, she could have already been in a deep depression and given up on life. Her siblings underestimated her when they couldn't believe that she got a medal for leadership a few weeks in a row. But no, this didn't bring Wu Mei's self-esteem down because she knew she deserved it. I honestly believe that she is so strong to be as persevered as she is despite how her life is like.
I have to disagree with Kevin's comment on having a stable, solid relationship with her parents. For dinner, her stepmother seemed to favor her older sister. Also, the story implied that she was using the medal as a way to receive attention from her father. This obviously means that they didn't have a very good parent-to-daughter establishment to begin with. But, they did show some care for her I suppose. About her mother dying in the process of her birth, her parents are sort of obligated to not bring her down about it. Or else, they wouldn't deserve to be called parents in the first place.
I think the story “Chinese Cinderella,” is about courage. Wu Mei in the story shows the meaning of courage. She has the ability to overcome any obstacles that get in her way. Like the fact she is “responsible,” for her mother death. She always gets pick on from her own family. For example, she won an award at an award ceremony in school, and she stood up on stage with nobody to accompany her. It took lots of courage to go up there and face the crowd of people. In addition, the reason why I think the story is about courage is she has the courage to still focus in school even with all her siblings giving her torcher, and the fact she moved to a new school. I think Wu Mei has the courage to move on, be successful, and do something good with her life.
Kevin- I will have to disagree with your backup information. She doesn’t have a strong relationship with her step-mother. I don’t think getting blamed for your mother’s death is a strong relationship. Also how is she trying to get along with her siblings? All they do is chide her and give her torcher.
I think that the story "Chinese Cinderella" is about family relationships based on what I've read starting from chapter four because the protaganist mentions family relationships many times in the story. For example, page 25 of the story says that Wu Mei (the protaganist) and her family have "become one single unit", which made me infer that from that time the family had to stay together as a family. Also, on page 33, the Little Sister of Wu Mei's family was telling Niang (Wu Mei's stepmother and a really bad mother) to "Go away!". That made me think that the detail meant that the family wasn't getting along, and that the story was showing again and again about family relationsips, which I think it's about.
@mglass I like how you showed your inferences to support your details and reasons, like the example of Wu Mei going to an award ceremony by herself, and everyone else having their families with them. Your inference and detail does convince me that the part of the story you showed represents courage, since it does take courage to recieve an award by herself with everyone else with families and friends staring at you. But, in chapter four, doesn't it mention that unlike Wu Mei's silblings, "nobody looks down on me"? If the other awardees were like that, which is unknown but possible, Wu Mei probably wouldn't have had courage, but embarassment, and depression about her family not being there, which could turn that part of the story into a supporting detail that represents family relationships, since it shows an example of how Wu Mei doesn't have a strong family relationship. That's just my opinion, nothing personal.
I think the theme of this story is courage. I believe this is important to the story because if Wu Mei didn't have courage, the story would be boring. The theme is courage because Wu Mei stood up for her baby sister when Niang kept hitting her. Wu Mei told her step mother to stop when nobody else had the guts to and even though she knew there would be consequences, she still said to stop. Another example would be when Wu Mei walked in the storm because she didn't want to give into her step mother. That showed courage because she could have died in the storm but she still refused a ride from her friend. From these two actions from Wu Mei, this is why I think that the theme is courage.
My theme is self-esteem. Self-esteem is important to the story because adeline has a lot of it and she is very strong. deline is always strong and when her family has forgotten about her she still stays strong. Adeline is always strong and does not let people get to her. She has a lot of self-esteem because some of her family bullied her and wasn't very nice to her. They took her food. Hit her and even called her names but, she stayed strong and didn't put herself down.
I agree with what Nick is saying about how Wu Mei finds school as a haven because she is hated at home. In the story she says that her classmates made her feel that she belonged unlike her siblings that looked down on her. I bet that Aunt Baba would think she had courage if she knew how her siblings really treated her.
I think the theme in the story "Chinese Cinderella" is courage. The main character, Wu Mei, shows the meaning of courage plenty of times. In the story, Wu Mei won a medal for leading the class. When she got home, her siblings started to tease her all the time. Instead of putting the medal away or not wearing it, Wu Mei always wore that medal. It would take a lot of courage to wear that medal in front of your teasing, hateful siblings. In the story, it says,"I was winning the medal every week and wearing it constantly. I knew this displeased my siblings, especially Big Sister and Second Brother, but it was the only way Father take notice and be proud of me."(page 15) Also, in the story, it tells us that Wu Mei went to an award ceremony withtout her family. Everyone else had someone there with them when they got their award on the stage. Of course, poor Wu Mei had nobody with her. She decided to go up on stage without anyone with her, even though everyone else had somebody with them. That would take a lot of courage. I think this story shows plenty of examples of having courage. In the story, it says, "On my way back to my seat, I couldn't help noticing that all of the prizewinners, I was the only one unaccompanied by anyone from my family."(page 16)Also in the story, it talks about Wu Mei's dad had to avoid the Japanese because if they found him, something bad would happen. In the story, it says, "It's important that the servants know nothing about my whereabouts. Otherwise, the Japanese might arrest me."(page 23) He then moved to Shanghai. That would take a lot of courage to do that. I can't believe this is a true story! I can't wait to finish the book and find out what happens next to Wu Mei!
Kevin: I disagree with some of your facts. I kind of see what you mean by the siblings being haunted by some tragedies in their childhood, so they're taking it out on Wu Mei as an excuse. Although, I think this is at a whole different level. I actually think this is a family hating on an innocent child for an unfortunate tragedy. If they truely loved her, why would they torture her like that? I know family members play jokes on each other and get in fights every now and then, but this is different. They blamed her for something that wasn't her fault. I don't think that is a great example of strong, family relationships, but that is my opinion. Don't take it personal. I would give you another example of strong, family relationships, but I don't agree with the theme and I can't think of an example of that either.
I think the theme of the book "Chinese Cinderella" is courage. The theme courage is important because I think the protagonist of the story has a lot of courage. One reason on why I think she has a lot of courage is because in the story when she finished her first day of school at her new school, no one came to pick her up and she tried to walk home by herself, and I think that took a lot of courage to walk around in a place you've never been before. The second reason on why I think the theme of the story is courage is because when the step mom of the protagonist started to hit her baby and she told her to stop. I think that took courage because no one else said anything when the baby was being hit but the protagonist.
The theme for the story, "Chinese Cinderella", is courage. There were a variety of ways that the protagonist, Adeline, showed courage in the story. For example, in chapter seven Adeline showed a lot of courage by standing up for her little sister. When Adeline's little sister didn't want to be held by her stepmother, Niang, the stepmother became so furious and violent that she actually started beating the little sister. As Niang was abusing the child, Adeline stood up for her little sister and told Niang to stop. This showed a lot of courage because Adeline had the guts to tell her own stepmother that what she was dooing to her little sister was wrong. Another way that Adeline showed courage is in chapter eight. When Niang caught her children borrowing money from YeYe and Aunt Baba for the tram to go to school everyone gave in, and apologized except for Adeline. Because Adeline didn't confess that she was wrong to borrow money from Yeye and Aunt Baba to Niang, her consequences were that she had to walk to and from school whether it was raining or not. In this chapter, Adeline showed a lot of courage because she stood up for herself, and didn't admit that what she did was wrong.
From reading the story "Chinese Cinderella", I believe courage is the theme. Courage basically means having the strength to go through something. This theme is important for the story because Wu Mei has a lot of hardships that she needs to go through. For one, she always needs the courage to stand up for herself. In the story, Niang was physically hurting one of her daughters. Even though Wu Mei was very scared to say something, she had the courage to stand up for her sister and make Niang stop. Secondly, Wu Mei needs to have the courage to always be independent.
Because she's always excluded from the family and nobody pays attention to her, she needs to stay strong and not let that bother her. On the first day of school, nobody had picked her up. Then again, Wu Mei still had the courage to find her own way home. Even if she got lost, she still was couragous enough to take the risk. Because of all the hard times Wu Mei needs to go through, I believe courage is the most important theme. Courage will help her throughout her whole life.
Kevin- They story may be about family relationships, but I don't agree with your reason why. You really think ALL of her family cares about her? If Wu Mei's family really cared about her, would her siblings tease and mock her? Would her step mother still be saying that Wu Mei's bad luck because of her mother's death? Think about it, not all the things her family does to her is positive.
Mikala- I agree with you. You should've added more details to this response, but I think it's really good. You can expand more when saying, "I think she will have enough courage to not let them stand in the way of her life."
Cody- I agree with everything you wrote, but I don't think it was chapter 4 and onward. O:
Ashton- I agree with you and all the details you put in your response. I think some of your sentences are somewhat repetetive. You should explain how / what caused her to feel forgotten. (e.g.- when they forgot to pick her up on the first day of school.)
Victor- When you said "The theme courage is important because I think the protagonist of the story has a lot of courage", you could of expanded that and be more specific. (e.g.- she has courage when it comes to dealing with all the problems she faces throughout the story.)
I think that the theme of the "Chinese Cinderella" is about family relationships.I believe that this is the theme,because while reading chapter four alot has happened with her famliy. Her and her family don't really have a very strong relationship with each other.The protagonist's family don't all get along,and i feel like having everyone love each other and care for each other is part of having a good family relationship.In chapter four when Nai Nai died,that is something that can really bring together the families relationship.But there are still things that can bring them apart like the stepmother.She isnt very nice like when she slapped one of the kids. That isnt a good sign of family relationship.But i think since a family member has died the family is going to try and make things better.
@Nick- I like how you use specific detail and your response is very clear.
When you said,
"As I read the book I can't help but infer she will tell one of the nuns or teachers at her school what her problem is."
You could expand on that. What made you think that?
[don't delete your original response]
Nickless G- I agree that it is hard to find a place you call "safe", or "paradise". However, it doesn't take too much bravery to find one. It does, however, take bravery to go out and find one. An example of someone who found a safe haven is Harry Potter. He is unwanted at home, but Hogwarts is what he calls his true home. He didn't need courage to find it; Hogwarts found him.
I think that theme for “Chinese Cinderella” is family relationships. I believe that because after the rest of Adeline’s family moved from Tianjin to Shanghai, she started to lay foundations of a relationship with certain people. For example, she has started to hang out with “Third Brother”, at the park along with Yei Yei. There he admits that he likes playing with Adeline, which is like the foundation with her. Another thing is that the problem of the family hurting each other. For example, when Adeline got one her writing’s published, her brother’s give her an accolade of a innocent glass of orange juice. Which Adeline drinks and quickly finds out that it’s been mixed with urine. So, from that, it shows that they are hurting each other, showing that they have to fix their corrupted family relationships.
However, I do believe too that the theme could be courage for this story. One reason is that Adeline had to stand up to her evil step-mother Niang, who was harassing her own child, Little Sister, and yelling at her to shut up. That had to take up a lot of guts to even stand up to her; I mean Niang is like the devil in the living flesh to Adeline and her older siblings. Also the time when the five of them (Big Sister, Big Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother, and Adeline) tried to stand up to her again, in order to get a tram fare.
@CoDaY-I have to agree with you on the theme, but one of your information is irrelevant to your theme. The detail “For example, she won an award at an award ceremony in school, and she stood up on stage with nobody to accompany her. It took lots of courage to go up there and face the crowd of people.” That is irrelevant because, well, it’s really common to see that in books. I believed that it could be more significant.
I Might ust put this out there. I think all of these themes could be used. Courage could be the theme because she has had to do all of her day to day things by herself. As she waited for the pickup after school nobody came. So she had to be very couragous and walk home when anyone could snatch her up. Family Relations may also be the theme of "Chinese Cinderella" because she may not like all of her family, but the ones she does like she charishes. An example of this is when she called her father to pick her up at the market. She now can trust him to be their whenever she may need him. The theme of the book "Chinese Cinderella" may be loneliness because she is often shuned by her family and has to "explore" life by herself. Honestly this may be he best thing for her in my opinion. It will let her understand some of her problms from an experiencerather than from an explanation or definition. The theme of self-esteem is hard to express in a book. Therefor the theme may be self-esteem because all of these themes may improve or make her self-esteem worse. I thought of this because if she is couragous and it pays off she may stand up to her siblings and be more respected. A family relationship with her father could make her feel better about herself because she could go to him if she is having any problems that he could help her with. As i was reading the book I could relate to this story becuase when I was in elementary school all the kids picked on me because I had a bigger head than I guess they thought was appropriate. So I could relate to her in the fact that I couldn't wait to tell my mom what I had learned that day.
So my reflection is to the whole class because I persoally think that everybody came up with fantastic explanations about each theme. So all of the explanations are correct in their own way. If I absolutly had to pick somone to relate to it would be to Kathryn beause she stood up to her step mother. This lets her siblings know that even though they teased and chided her, tey are still family and they protect each other. It took alot of courage to stand up to Niang and put what is right before personal feeling.
Chasity thank you for the insight on how I could have made my explanation better. The Harry Potter reference was a good relation. Thanks!
After reading more past chapter 4 of "Chinese Cinderella", I still think the theme is courage. More views and conflicts occur further on in the story that could help give out a theme. But, just like my first comment, I believe that all of them still come back to Wu Mei's bravery.
Ever since her whole family moved to Shanghai, everything was different. She had to learn how to depend on herself, like when she had no one to drop her off or to pick her up to and from school. Wu Mei was really scared and felt alone at first. But, her courage brought her the idea to walk home, since she knew there was no one that was coming to get her. This took a lot of bravery since there was the fact that she could get kidnapped.
Another thing is how Wu Mei's family started to fall apart after Nai Nai's death. She was very unfortunate to have such a wicked stepmother. From her seeing her little sister getting hit, I can infer that she just blew up. It would be very very hard for a person with no bravery to speak up about what was going on. Her pride was also what gave Wu Mei the courage to not be the one to give in and ask her Niang or father for tram money. Her strength and faith in herself is the only thing that keeps her moving on.
I have noticed that a lot of the comments state the same thing about the theme being family relationships. But really, it's not that Wu Mei felt the need that she had to improve her relationship with her family. It wasn't worth it to her because she already knew that there wasn't much she could change. That's why I have to say that that could be the theme, but isn't exactly correct. What she wanted to do was get through life and to learn how to be more independent, which is more of bravery and courage.
Sorry, I know it's late but after I was done thinking of all my details and what to put, it was already midnight D: This post is past 12 AM but I had simple grammar errors and other things that I just had to fix from not looking over when I rushed to click submit. It's okay with me if it doesn't count though, that's my fault
*After reading more past chapter 4 of "Chinese Cinderella", I still think the theme is courage. More views and conflicts occur further on in the story that could help give out a theme. But, just like my first comment, I believe that all of them still come back to Wu Mei's bravery.
Ever since her whole family moved to Shanghai, everything was different. She had to learn how to depend on herself, like when she had no one to drop her off or to pick her up to and from school. Wu Mei was really scared and felt alone at first. But, her courage brought her the idea to walk home, since she knew there was no one that was coming to get her. This took a lot of bravery since there was the fact that she could get kidnapped.
Another thing is how Wu Mei's family started to fall apart after Nai Nai's death. She was very unfortunate to have such a wicked stepmother. From her seeing her little sister getting hit, I can infer that she just blew up inside. It would be very, very hard for a person with no bravery to speak up about what was going on. Her pride was also what gave Wu Mei the courage to not be the one to give in and ask her Niang or father for tram money unlike her siblings. Her strength and faith in herself is the only thing that keeps her moving on.
I have noticed that a lot of the comments state the same thing about the theme being family relationships. But really, it's not that Wu Mei felt the need that she had to improve her relationship with her family. It wasn't worth it to her because she was smart and already knew that there wasn't much she could change. I'm sure that many people can't alter situations in their family and hope that they get better. That's why I have to say that that could be the theme, but isn't exactly correct. What she wanted to do was get through life and to learn how to be more independent, which is more of bravery and courage.
Just "putting this out there" as Nick would say. To elaborate more, I learned that a theme is more like a lesson of the story or a trait the author is encouraging the reader to have. The other three options in my eyes don't really give a straightforward message of the story other than if it were perceived from a person. By saying it is courage, you can just say that the protagonist represents it. But, you can't do that with the others. The options don't say "improving family relationships" or "learning how to deal with self-esteem or loneliness". It's kind of hard to explain but I just wanted to state that.*
I see that there is more to improve on in my response, but I still think that the story's theme is family relationships, since Wu Mei has much emotional conflict within her family, due to her Niang being, pretty much, the supreme overlord and ruler of the family. Pretty much, she is in control, since no one but Wu Mei would stand up to her. Another reason that family relationships is the main theme of the story is the fact that all of Wu Mei's conflicts have to do with her family's opinion of her. However, it is shown that her siblings include her in their plans in drastic situations. An example of this is when Niang treated her real children better than them and fed them bettet. They decided to make a truce with Wu Mei just to overrule Niang. Apparently, the only sibling that gives Wu Mei companionship is Third Brother, since, being the youngest sibling, didn't know much about his dead mother. However, older sister is a bit of a minor antagonist, since she is willing to do anything to have luxury.
The story may have to do with courage to, since Wu Mei was the only one who would stand up to Niang when she was treating Little Sister cruelly. Wu Mei was also brave enough to stand her ground and walk through even the cruelest of storms, rather than give in and admitt defeat and apology to her Niang for tram fare.
I believe that the theme of the story “Chinese Cinderella,” is all about courage just like my last response. Like I said earlier, she has the ability to overcome any obstacles that get in her way. In chapter four and on, she showed that.
In the story she just enrolled in a new private school, and it was her first day. But there was just one big problem. There was nobody to drop off, and pick up Wu Mei at/from her school. She showed the courage to not let that conflict get in the way with her “heaven,” (school). Instead she just walked to and from school by herself.
In addition later in the book Wu Mei’s little sister was being physically abuse by Niang, and she had the courage to stand up to Niang even though she was still scared. Also nobody except for Wu Mei opened her mouth to help her baby sister. Plus she had the courage to stand up for what she believed in, and it was her own step-mother. Again like I said earlier, I believe Wu Mei has the courage to move on, be successful, and do something good with her life.
@Kevin-I don’t think she is the so called “supreme overlord and ruler of the family,”. Why, well because of the fact that Wu Mei is standing up to her, and not really obeying her. The tram money for example. She doesn’t own up to it like the rest of her siblings.
@chasitymae&DEnriquez- Mahlo for the help on my response. Friends, thank you for pin pointing what I need to fix.
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