Adeline Yen Mah Falling Leaves Analysis

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From unloved and unwanted, to boarding school, to self made millionaire Adeline Yen Mah transformed her life. Motifs are sub-themes that support main theme. Authors like motifs to open the readers mind slowly to the idea of the main theme. A few motifs from “Falling Leaves” are that hardships lead to success, family heritage is important, and family makes people who they are. Though all these things seem as though they stack the odds against a person, that person can overcome anything they put their mind to. Hardships are hard; that is why they are called hardships, but no matter how many a person goes through they can be great. This motif was prevalent throughout the book; it is interwoven into the very fabric of the pages. It is even in the title “Falling Leaves: The story of an Unwanted …show more content…

This story was written for the author to reflect upon her childhood, and to share how her family tormented her; also, how that helped her become who she is today. She talks about her aunt Baba who always encouraged her to do her best in school. The author speaks about how they would sit on her bed and look at her report cards when she was upset. Her aunt Baba would always say something like, “look at this one all A’s and top of your class again.” (Yen Mah 61-62). She spoke about how her aunt and grandfather would sneak her money to ride the bus to school, or little pieces of candy when she would get good grades in school (Yen Mah 47-50). They encouraged her and helped her become the wonderful accomplished person she is today. Even the bad things that happened to her when she was a child helped her. If she had not been sent to that boarding school by Naing she would not have entered the writing competition that lead her father to realize how talented she was, and send her to college. If she hadn’t been sent to college in London by her parents she would have never become a

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