In his primary law, Sir Isaac Newton once stated: “Inertia is the tendency of moving objects is to stay in motion unless an external force is exerted upon them.” Most people live on the lessons of their guardians, and unless a person contradicts them, they continue to live on the teachings. When they meet this person contradicting them, they continue to live on the teachings. When they meet this person contradicting them, they would only change their way of thinking if the external idea is accepted, and so, this outsider is represented by a few “outsiders” within Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony – all whom contribute with their various functions. These outsiders have very important individual roles which assist in the development of the children, and especially with Jook-Liang and Jung-Sum.
Contained in the book are three parts in which it is divided into, and it is in Part One where we are presented with a young girl named Jook-Liang who tells us the story through her eyes. Early in the book, it becomes apparent the Jook-Liang’s grandmother Poh-Poh is the sole person who pays most of their attention to Jook-Liang, until Sek-Lung – her newborn baby brother – comes forth into the world. Then Poh-Poh, becomes the negative force to Jook-Liang’s happy go-lucky and bringing her down to earth; the yin to Jook-Liang’s yang:
“‘You not Canada, Liang’ she [Poh-Poh] said, majestically, ‘you China. Always war in China.’
I [Jook-Liang] hated the Old One: Grandmother never let me get on with my movie-star daydreams.” {I, ii, 36-37}
Eventually, if Poh-Poh had completely taken over Jook-Liang thoughts, she wouldn’t have been able to blossom like a flower in the way she was open to new ideas and changes. These changes were mostly due to the support...
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...d upon him that Poh-Poh was right, and he realized that yes, he was the moon. He found that he was attracted to the masculine features of Frank and that he had more characteristics of the yin/feminine side.
It remains as discernible as the nose on your face that these characters played roles to assist in the advancement of the protagonists coming of age. The way that Wong Bak had supported Jook-Liang with all her unusual and imaginative endeavors to Frank Yuen’s support when Jung-Sum had broken down and became his pillars that upheld him leaves irrefutable evidence to support this. A good story doesn’t only contain the main protagonist and antagonist, but a collection of many additional people who help either progress the story or help develop the characters, these side characters are important to the entire narration.
Works Cited
Wayson Choy's - The Jade Peony
Liang's main interests consist of movies, stories, tap-dancing, and imitating Shirley Temple. Wong-Suk buys her expensive, beautiful ribbon one day for her second hand tap shoes and Poh-Poh helps her tie them into fancy flowers. -- This is where we learn a bunch about Poh-Poh's childhood. She was born in China and so it was already too bad that she had be born a girl child. But further more she was sort of disfigured. Her forehead was sloppy and mis-shapen and immediately everyone told her mother she was the ugliest baby ever. Her mother sold her to a wealthy family; where she was a servant. The concubine would beat her and their other servants with a rod-- as if they were oxen. Poh-Poh had to learn to do things quickly and flawlessly or she would be beaten. Her fingers would bleed because she was practicing tying these intricet(abc?) patterns. She of course grew out of her 'deformity' and was quite a pretty lady.
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