The Ill Treated Wife

2. The Red Candle

3. I thought it was horrible how they had arranged marriages in China. I understand that some of the weddings worked out and the couple was happy, but in the case of this chapter, the bride wasn't happy. How they could look at a person and decide what elements make up the person interested me, but the idea of marrying off your children seems like slave trade to me. When Lindo met her husband, I felt so sorry for her because her husband seemed like quite the loser. It was unforunate that such a lovely, hard-working girl like Lindo would become married to an arrogant snob like Tyan-yu. In the scene where Lindo was forced to move from her family to her new home with the Huang's, I thought her family had a very strange way of telling her they would miss her because all they did was give her a dowry and tell her not to disgrace them. Once Lindo arrived her in her new home, it made me very sad when there was no special celebration for her coming and how she was treated like a servant. That seemed very unfair because not only was she forced to leave her family and move into a house with strangers, she was being treated equal to the servants when she was supposed to be the same status as Tyan-yu. The idea of having the red candle symbolise an unbreakable marriage seemed very sweet to me, but in this case it was sort of like a life-sentence in prison for Lindo. Tyan-yu seemed evil before the actual marriage, but after he kicks Lindo off the bed and forces her to sleep on the couch, he reveals himself to be a nothing but a brat. Also how he lied to his mother to make Lindo seem like the reason why they're not having a child annoyed me a lot. Despite all the hardships Lindo went through, I loved how she still maintained her identity and was still smart enough to think of a plan to get out of her "unbreakable" marriage.

4. Lindo and Tyan-yu seem to have a sibling relationship when they're supposed to be married. Tyan-yu is the annoying little brother who always gets his way and Lindo is the older sister who is always catering him. Lindo is forced to obey whatever Tyan-yu told her to do. She gives up the bed for him and when he lies, she takes the blame, just like an older sister is supposed to. In the scene where Lindo takes off her gown and advances towards Tyan-yu, he runs like a little boy who has never grown up. That's when Lindo realizes that he isn't a husband to her, he's more like a little brother who needs her protection. She isn't afraid of him anymore and sleeps with him in a non-sexual way. She protects him and because they do not have a sexual relationship, they are clearly not friends, the only relationship they could have is a brotherly sisterly one.

5. One writing techinque that Amy Tan uses in the chapter is imagery and it improves the story because I could really see and feel what Lindo was going through. During the wedding, everything was describe in extreme detail and I felt as if I really was with her in the room watching her get dressed. It felt as if I were a guest attending the wedding and partying with the rest of her family. I understood everything that Lindo was feeling before, during, and after the wedding. I was shown every extravagent detail of the wedding instead of just listening to her tell me.

6. This chapter is connected to the allegory at the beginning of the chapter because Lindo seemed to be telling her daughter about how difficult her life was in China. She was telling her daughter about the hardships she did not have to go through because she was born in America. Her daughter, just like the daughter in the allegory, would not ever understand the troubles of China through experience, so the story needs to be passed on or it'll die along with her mother. Lindo is passing her memories and stories of hardship onto her daughter, similar to how the mother in the beginning wanted to pass the swan feather onto her own daughter. Similar to the feather, the stories may seem worthless to the daughter, but to Lindo the memories and stories are all she has of China, just like the feather