Xinhao Zhou
Professor Julie Thi Underhill
Asian American Literature
13 Apr 2023
Loss and Transformation in “Bone”
As the protagonist of this novel, and the narrator of this novel, Leila, Leila is a Chinese American woman. She feels disconnected from her family's cultural traditions and is disturbed by her sister Oona's suicide. Leila tries to make herself feel better by forgetting her sister's suicide and tries to escape her past. But as the novel progresses, Leila realizes that she cannot make herself feel better simply by forgetting her sister's death and ignoring her family's secrets, but must face these facts head-on, even though it is a difficult and painful process. By the end of the story, Leila has learned more about herself and gained
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In accompanying him to the Social Security Administration, she and the interviewer try to sort out the confusion caused by Leon's claimed alias and multiple birthdays over the years. It turned out that he had entered the United States illegally, using someone else's name and life history as a false identity. The Social Security Administration interviewer sent them home to find the proper documentation. What Leila found was a suitcase full of documents, neatly sorted by year and rubber-banded in chronological order - a history of denials, letters from when Maher shipped, photographs, newspaper clippings, receipts for money transfers to China, conflicting official documents, and finally the required proof of identity and entry. At the end of the chapter, she says, "I never forgot. I am the stepdaughter of a newspaper boy's son, and I inherited this whole box of lies. All of this is mine. All I have are these memories, and I want to remember them all." (242) For me, this was a brave way for Leila to confront her identity and the secrets of herself and her unearthed …show more content…
Until then, of course, she lives on Salmon Lane and will eventually move back to help her parents. She realized that she could always go back to her apartment. However, she had many reasons to leave. It seemed to me that Leila was lonely and tired inside. As the eldest daughter, she had to comfort her mother when Oona died. When Oona committed suicide, Ma shouted "my daughter, my daughter"(169), and although Leila was also sad at this time, Leila did not shed tears and just stood by to comfort her mother. She took it upon herself to tell the other family members and her sister that a man had committed suicide. So in my opinion, Leila had many reasons to want to move out of Chinatown, and many reasons not to move out of Chinatown. In Chinatown, she took on the role of caring for others, but at the same time she felt she was leaving a community that supported her. Mason's presence is like a light in Leila's life; Leila does not need to take care of him or worry about him like she does with others, and Mason takes Leila through a different life. Just as they did in chapter 4 "That night, I moved first. I kissed the hollow of Mason's throat and I licked his smooth earlobe. Mason followed suit, impatient. Just like that, moving with Mason, I felt safe. What do you want? What do you want? Our questions moved
From her perspective, if the Nazis were to lose the war, it would likely mean certain death for her sons. With both women, Liesel confronts the uncomfortable truth that her close
Don't I matter? There I was, the living present daughter, and Mah was hung up on the other two" (Ng 88). Leila resented Mah because Mah doesn't show her appreciation toward Leila, who takes care of her while the other two daughters were gone. Leila sacrificed many things to stay near Mah and Leon, but she felt like she doesn't mean much to them than
In Bone, Ng commentates on the fragility of an immigrant’s position through the experiences of a Chinese immigrant, Leila. Fractured by time before and after Ona’s suicide; colored in perception by historical discrepancies in identity; torn in position between inside and outside Chinatown; Leila must repair semblances of two lives to save herself from becoming nothing. Moreover, Ng captures the vulnerability of immigrants by employing ambiguous language, multifaceted layers of translation, and applying elusive qualities to constitute an individual fully immersed in American or Chinese culture. On the edge of nothing and otherness, Leila’s expression of her experiences allows her to find her identity within the context of America. Ng utilizes
Salvage The Bones(2011) written by Jesmyn Ward details a Family from a Mississippi Gulf town, Boi Sauvage, going through 12 days leading up to and facing hurricane Katrina. Esch, the protagonist, is infatuated with Manny who wants nothing to do with her, even if she is carrying his baby. After telling Manny of the baby in her womb she faces rejection from the man she desires most. This passage explores Eschs reaction to rejection and foreshadows her eventual acceptance of the journey of motherhood without the father and man she loves, Manny. Through repetition, diction, and point of view Ward creates a scene of anger and disgust towards Manny that contrasts with the earlier time of infatuation and deep desire for Manny's love and attention.
The death of Liesels brother affected her and caused her to be shy and not want to try and be happy again. This event is one of many events that show how death has affected Liesel as a person.
Liesel was caught up in one of the most stressful periods in modern times as she lived during the rise of Nazi Germany. Liesel is one of the few Germans who are not supporters of Hitler. Liesel also lost her brother at the age of ten, and she is forced to live with a foster family: “Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead.
Laetitia’s mother just doesn’t want her daughter to leave because she will really miss her. She even goes as far as to say that Salt Lake City sounds too good to be true trying to persuade her daughter not to leave.
The girl let her hold her hand on top of the accordion case, which sat between them.” (545). After the bombings on Himmel Street, Liesel was left with nothing. After the mayor and his wife had found out that Liesel had survived, they decided to take her in and welcome her into their home. Liesel helped Isla mourn the loss of her son in WW1.
After she shuts the door, Leisel does not return home, but instead, goes back up to the house to unload how she's feeling onto Ilsa. She uses her words to tear her down, and compares her dead son to her dead brother, "He’s dead and it’s pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?" (Zusak 262). Consequently, while angry, Liesel makes herself vulnerable, bringing up her brother who is, otherwise, rarely mentioned.
Liesel’s foster family and friends that she grown to appreciate are all decimated by a bomb. Shocked by the sudden loss of everyone she used to love, Liesel weeps and faints. Those moments are times when both the audience and principle characters truly understand the significance of death, and with further thought, realize that there have always been signs of death on display
Liesel has realized she must respect the man who was the reason for her and her entire families suffering. She has realized she officially has lost her home, that she is completely isolated from the community. “It was quite a sight seeing an eleven year old girl try not to cry on church steps, saluting fuhrer”(Zusak 115). After losing all of these emotionally wrecking things Liesel learns and understands she needs to keep going forward. She refuses to give up she although times are rough manages to think, it could be worse.
Liesel learns a valuable life lesson from Hans, and he also provides her with a place to escape to in order to escape to heal and cope. While reading stories, she can immerse herself in another world and distract herself from the intense trauma she has been through. With these skills, Liesel can find comfort and control in words, a way of healing. Although the power of words is used in contrasting ways, Hans and the Nazi party demonstrate how words
She wanted to prove to her family that she could be independent, and that was very important to her. According to page 16 in the book Outcasts United, it states "Luma gave her parents the news by telephone: she was staying in the United States - not for a little while, but forever. Hassan al-Mufleh was devastated. " This quite shows the struggle that Luma had to go through as leaving her family and dealing with the devastated and angered family members. She was also cut-off from family funds so she was living all on her own in a new country of opportunity.
In this chapter, Foster discusses the importance of viewing a story from the perspective of the character. This accounts for fully understanding the character’s background and weighing that with the current occurrences. After taking into account Laila’s familial and religious background along with her new situation with Rasheed, this passage has a lot more weight. In the situation Laila is in right now, she likely feels repressed and alone. Because of this, she confides in her memories with Tariq.
At first, Liesel is illiterate, but when she steals her first book at her brother’s funeral, and is abandoned by her mother, she turns to something she