Essay

How does Adeline Yen Mah present her fears in the extract from ‘Chinese Cinderella’?

There are “eight weeks” left, representing a countdown, which shows how much she is concerned
for the event that is coming up; the end of school. The cesura in the first paragraph shows her
despair at the upcoming event. Adeline Yen Mah uses pathetic fallacy: “outside it was hot and there
was a warm wind blowing,” increasing the tension and fear that is slowly building up. The weather is
reflecting her present emotional state. The despair of the problem has become not just a mental
pain but also a physical pain that is constantly haunting her. She uses a metaphor and simile to show
the pain is almost physical: “the thought of leaving school throbbed at the back of my mind like a
persistent toothache. Direct speech is used to unexpectedly interrupt her train of thought, which
created tension that is emphasis by the punctuation used.

All the thoughts that are related to home are immediately negative, which is ironic as home has
positive connotations of happiness and comfort. It is obvious that she does not have a close
relationship with her family; as she only goes back home when someone dies. Emphasising on the
fact that she has a distant relationship with her family, a chauffeur is sent to pick her up and not her
family. The chauffeur is also more aware of the family’s situation than she is. It is a short drive but
yet her family chose to have a chauffeur pick her up instead of them. She immediately relates home
to a place that she foes to because of something she has done wrong and/or a punishment: “I
wondered what I had done wrong.” This clearly shows her fear towards her family and home in
general. Adeline’s distant relationship between her family is slowly being unravelled as the text
continues. Adeline is not aware her family has moved homes, as she is not informed of any of these
things. The atmosphere of the house foreshadows the relationship within the family. “It was quiet
and cool,” it is not warm as the family room isnt used as much as normal families do, and the fact
that is it “quiet” suggests isolation and distance within the family. When Adeline entered her home,
no one bothered to come out and great here, especially since she doesn’t visit often. Everyone is
doing their own things, the family isnt bonding and doing things together. Even though none of them
are actually busy, they didn’t bother to pick Adeline up from school. There is a large amount of
distance between the father and his daughter. Adeline entering her father’s room makes her
“overwhelmed by the thought.” Something that normally occurs on a day-to-day basis is actually
uncommon and overwhelming. The fact that she refers to her Father’s room as the “Holy of Holies”
emphasises how scary the place feels for her and she is in an overwhelming feeling of fear, implying
that she has never entered his room before. “Why?...” the use of short sentences and a question
mark and caesura to show a build-up of tension.

Adeline’s distant relationship with her father is shows again when he says, “Tell me, how did you do
it?’ he continued. ‘How come you won?’” Her father has no confidence in his daughter and his lack
of knowledge about this subject shows that he does not know that she even entered the
competition and much less about her writing talents, as he is surprised that she even won this it.
“‘Please, Father,’ I asked boldly, thinking it was now or never. ‘May I go to university in England too,
just like my brothers?’” The fact that she thinks asking this question is bold shows a distant
relationship and lack of communication between her and her father. However, it also shows her
degree of respect towards him, as she does not want to be rude and disrespectful at all.