Grow A Backbone

2. Without wood

3.In this chapter, I thought it was very typical for a mother to force her daughter to listen to her, and for the mother to always think that she is right. I can understand Rose’s struggle to listen to her mother when so many opinions and thoughts were being told to her. I liked the metaphor that An-Mei used; about how a young girl is like a tree, and will bend if the girl bends to listen to other people besides her mother. Once again, Rose is indecisive about signing the divorce papers and ignores it by sleeping for 3 days. This sort of frustrated me, because procrastinating her troubles isn’t a good way to handle things. But in the end, it was a good idea that she pondered her thoughts and was indecisive instead of signing the divorce papers right away. I liked how she stood up for herself against Ted, and I was very annoyed at Ted for wanting to get rid of Rose all along. If he wanted to do that, what’s the point of marrying Rose in the first place? I was a little confused by the ending. I wasn’t sure if she was going to try and save her marriage, or get as much of out the divorce as possible and leave Ted miserable.

4. The relationship between Ted and Rose is one that a bully and a victim might have. Ted treats Rose badly during their marriage and decides to divorce her without a good reason. Rose, being too scared and meek to do anything about, accepts all the troubles and hardships that Ted gives her and does not fight back. Ted, wanting to get rid of her all along, bullies her one more time for the house. Rose has had several days to think about what she wanted, and she fought back against Ted. He was shocked and surprised when someone that he had been bullying for so long fought back against him and he became afraid of her. In the end, Rose learns to stand up for herself and challenges Ted for all the abuse he’s put her through for so many years.

5. Tan uses a metaphor when An-Mei is talking to Rose during China Mary’s funeral. She says “A girl is like a young tree. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind.” She explains to Rose that if she does not listen to her mother, she will crumble. In the beginning, Rose defies her mother’s words and does not think of them to be important, this causes her to grow weak and allow Ted to do whatever he wanted to her. Later in this story, An-Mei calls Rose and tells her to stand up for herself. Rose listens to her mother and fights back against Ted. This forces her to grow strong, and she is no longer afraid of Ted.

6.The life lesson in this chapter is that mother might be right after all. This is shown throughout the story, starting with the metaphor I explained in question 5. If Rose continues to not listen to her mother, then Ted would have bullied her even more, and she wouldn’t have found hidden strength inside herself.