WOW! I love the storytelling method of this book. It really allows me to know everything that is going to happen before I actually read the actual part of the plot. Great use of foreshadowing!! It may also due to the repetition, where she divided the entire story into fragments and glued them together while switching the order!
For instance, for the death of her younger brother. On page 7, the narrator talked about the death of her younger brother in between of discussing the clothes. The topic just appears from nowhere, and embedded that into the reader’s mind without telling us the reason of the death. Also, after she talked about his death, her younger brother does not disappear from the story like the other books. He was still a part of the story, like he was not dead. And suddenly on page 17, she said he was dead again! So did her mother. The point of view is always changing, from the first person point of view to the third person point of view. I like this kind of change as long as it is not THIS FREQUENT!!! Sometimes it just made me confused.
Also, she repeatedly talked about her clothes and the clothes of women around her. I swear that everyone who have read this book remember the”gold lame shoes” and the “men’s hat” she was wearing. It showcases her desire to the fancy clothes that her family is not able to afford. And it brings up the topic of living in the poverty while “having” privilege as a white girl.
We were white children, we were ashamed, we sold our furniture, but we weren’t hungry, we had a houseboy and we ate… we indulged in the luxury of declining to eat. (p.6-p.7)
She stressed that the houseboy cooked her family “garbage” that they had to eat, showing her superiority in front of the houseboy. But her identity as a white girl is not valued by the Chinese guy’s father, where on the page 35, she wrote:
He won’t let his son marry the little white whore from Sadec.
It is worth mentioning that page 35 is before she starting to date the Chinese guy. Same technique again! Here is how she foreshadowing the ending to the readers that a fiancee has been chosen for the guy ten years ago by his dad.
The foreshadowing ends at where he phoned the narrator and told her he’d love her till death (117). Okay… this is out of expect. I thought that was just an affair…
The question at the end of the blog is that do you think the Chinese guy really love her?