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Chinese Cinderella
How does the writer show her thoughts and feelings in this passage? You should refer
closely to the passage to support your answer. You may include brief quotations.
The autobiographical extract of the writer’s painful childhood experience is portrayed
to the reader via her emphasis on her cruel and greedy parents. Her father tells her to
‘Sit Down! Sit Down!’. The use of imperatives shows a sense of power and dominance
over her. The writer also highlights how unpredictable her father is and how she
doesn’t know where they stand, especially as he raises his voice at her before
congratulating her; It’s quite bizarre and evokes sympathy from the reader as we
learn about her precarious life. The use of exclamation marks denotes volume and the
repetition of the phrase emphasises his impatience. Alternatively it could suggest his
excitement and joy that his daughter has done something so impressive however her
father’s demands towards the end of the extract would suggest to the readers that
he is only happy for himself creating a sense of criticism from the reader.
The writer subtly compares her father to God using ambiguous references from the
bible and religion in general. For one she is ‘summoned’ to his room, which has
negative connotations suggesting she’s in trouble. The word summoned has
connotations of power and formality, which the writer implies to the reader, her father
craves. Another link to religion is through the writer referring to his office as the ‘holy of
holies.’ This is a reference to the Hebrew bible and the holy of holies was a sacred
place of awe where only the high priest was permitted to enter. Since she references
a holy place it would be fair to assume the writer compares her father to God
however the reader gets a sense this may not be the case as she portrays both God
and her father in stark contrast. For one God is supposed to be omnibenevolent but
her father’s use of imperatives contradicts his love. Also her father seems happy when
she enters his room but as previously hinted at, this is because she has made him look
good implying her father only cares about his image and his craving to be noticed.
This opposes God as he is very much a figure in the shows and full of ambiguity. The
reader feels the writer’s pain as her father desperately wants to be noticed and this
advocates a certain sense of disgust to some readers as he cares more about himself
and his image than his children which is utterly selfish.
The writer conveys her thoughts and feelings by demonstrating to the reader how one
positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities. Her
perseverance and resilience is tested in the extract but she remains composed and
doesn’t complain nor talk back. The writer develops of the course of the extract from
‘timidly’ to ‘telling’ showing the grow in her confidence. She says to her father ‘I plan
to study literature’ which is a declarative sentence and foreshadows her future career
as a writer, to which her father scoffs which is ironic as she did make it as a writer. The
tension dies down at this point and the reader can feel somewhat relaxed since the
use of the foreshadowing helps the reader to realise the writer will go to England and
become successful to which they would rejoice.
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