Waiting Between the Trees

“This was a man so bad that even today I cannot speak his name. Why did I marry this man? It was because the night after my youngest aunt’s wedding, I began to know a thing before it happened.” This is an example of foreshadowing. Through this passage, the reader knows that later on in the story, Ying-Ying will marry the bad man. They can also tell that the man will do something bad to Ying-Ying.

“I took this baby from my womb before it could be born. This was not a bad thing to do in China back then, to kill a baby before it is born. But even then, I thought it was bad, because my body flowed with terrible revenge as the juices of this man’s firstborn son poured from me.” Ying-Ying aborts her baby because she wants to get back at the bad man for leaving her for another woman. She does something bad for revenge but really ends up hurting herself. The child she killed was her son as well as the bad man.

Today, many movie and book plots revolve around people getting revenge. A lot of the time, after the people have gotten their revenge, they do not feel satisfied. They realize that they only hurt themselves or that seeing another person suffer doesn’t feel as good as they thought. In Ying-Ying’s case she hurt herself trying to get revenge by aborting her baby.

Magpies

“I know this, because I was raised the Chinese way: I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way.” This is an example of irony. An-Mei expects if she teaches her daughter, Rose, in the opposite way she was taught her daughter won’t turn out like her. However, even though she raises her different Rose turns out meek like someone who is raised Chinese.

“Because we both knew this: that on the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother’s case, this would be the first day of the lunar New Year. And because it is the New Year, all debts must be paid or disaster and misfortune will follow. So on that day, Wu Tsing, fearful of my mother’s vengeful spirit, wore the coarsest white cotton mourning clothes. He promised her visiting ghost that he would raise Syaudi and me as his honored children. He promised to revere her as if she had been First Wife, his only wife.” Before this passage An-Mei’s mother committed suicide. She did this because she could not stand her circumstances and to give her children a better life. She knew that her husband, Wu Tsing was afraid of ghosts haunting him, so she killed herself at a time when he would be most afraid of her spirit. She used his fear and superstition to procure a better life for her children.

This is similar to a scene in the movie and book, Matilda. In the story, the main character Matilda is a genius and has special powers that allow her to move objects with her mind. Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey, is being mistreated by her aunt, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda uses her powers and Miss Trunchbull’s superstition to make Miss Trunchbull move out of Miss Honey’s house and stop treating her badly.  Both An-Mei’s mother and Matilda play off another’s superstition in order to obtain better circumstances for the ones they love.

    Matilda        Magpie cartoon 

Without Wood

“My mother once told me why I was so confused all the time. She said I was without wood. Born without wood so that I listened to too many people.” This saying, “without wood,” is an example of a maxim. By saying Rose is without wood, her mother is telling her she listens to the opinions of everyone and ends up confusing herself. She is also telling her this so she can change her habit and help herself to be able to make decisions without confusion.

“I used to believe everything my mother said, even when I didn’t know what she meant.” When she was small, in her naïveté Rose believed everything her mother said without question. She also took everything to be literal. If her mother was exaggerating, Rose would believe the exaggeration.

Children in general are like this. They believe everything their parents tell them and think that their parents are all-knowing. I myself was like that when I was little. My parents and I were at the beach and I asked my dad how many grains of sand were in the ocean. He told me he didn’t know and I thought he knew but didn’t want to tell me so I was angry and started yelling at him. Although this example is not exactly the same as Rose’s circumstances, it too shows how naïve children can be.

Four Directions

“‘I wanted to talk to you….I wanted to tell you…Rich and I are getting married.’” This is the climax of the chapter. All of the anecdotes and explanations lead up to Waverly telling her mother of her engagement. It is the part of the chapter where everything comes together.

“And hiding in this place, behind my invisible barriers, I knew what lay on the other side: Her side attacks. Her secret weapons. Her uncanny ability to rind my weakest spots. But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was really there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.” In this quote, Waverly realizes that she had read her mother completely wrong. She had thought for a long time that her mother was intentionally making snide comments and stabbing her with little barbs. In reality, however, her mother was only waiting for Waverly to include her in her life and to tell her things.

Today many mothers and daughters have problems with miscommunication. Mothers try to get their daughters to share details from their lives and their daughters resent them because they think their mothers are prying.



"a wok for her armor"



"a knitting needle for her sword"



Rice Husband

“She has a Chinese saying for what she knows. Chunwang chihan: If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. Which means, I suppose, one thing is always the result of another.” This quote is an example of an adage. It is a made up saying used by Lena’s mother. This saying is exclusive to the St. Clair family and is probably only understood by them.

“And when we bought the house, we agreed that I should pay only a percentage of the mortgage based on what I earn and what he earns, and that I should own an equivalent percentage of community property; this is written in our prenuptial agreement.” In this passage, Lena explains how her marriage to Harold works. They keep all of the money they earn separate and pay for things according to how much money each of them earns.

In real life this way of living is similar to that of roommates. Roommates buy their own things, split the rent, and keep their lives and money separated. This is exactly how Lena lives with her husband.

Two Kinds

“‘You want me to be someone that I’m not!’ I sobbed. “I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!’

“Only two kinds of daughters,’ she shouted in Chinese. ‘Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!’

‘Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother,’ I shouted” This is a conversation between Jing-mei woo and her mother and an example of a dialogue. In the dialogue Jing-mei and her mother are fighting after a talent show in which Jing-mei played the piano badly. She then expects her mother to stop making her practice, but her mother is adamant that Jing-mei should keep trying. 

“We didn’t immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. We’d watch Shirley’s old movies on TV as though they were training films.” In this quote, Jing-mei’s mother is convinced that her daughter is going to be a child prodigy. She thinks that Jing-mei is going to be like Shirley Temple and is pushing her to be something she is not.

This situation is a lot like pageant moms on the television show Toddlers and Tiaras. The mothers push their children through beauty pageants hoping that they will win and be good at something. The parents push the children to do things that their children may not be interested in doing. The girls then throw tantrums and complain about the clothes their parents make them wear and the makeup they have to put on.

Half and Half

“Ted and I met in a politics of ecology class when he leaned over and offered to pay me two dollars for last week’s notes. I refused the money and accepted a cup of coffee instead.” This is an example of an anecdote. Rose is telling a short story about meeting her husband and their marriage.

“As proof of her faith, my mother used to carry a small leatherette Bible when she went to the First Chinese Baptist Church every Sunday. But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up under a too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life.” Here Rose is talking about her mother losing faith in God after her son died.

Today many people lose their faith after a tragedy occurs. Some decide that God would never let something so bad happen so they start to believe there is no God. Others blame God for what happened and turn their backs. Usually the time most people lose their faith is when they need God the most. That is what happened to Rose’s mother:  after she lost her son, when she needed God's help, she stopped believing.