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Fisher Midgett
ENGL 9
K. Shimabukuro
3 March 2016
Weekly Essay
The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy is a very interesting story filled with
great description and facts about life. Seklung tells a story about his grandma
and how she wants to leave a wind chime behind when she dies. To find
materials Seklung and his grandma look through garbage cans, while the rest of
the family is embarrassed at them doing this. When his grandma eventually dies,
she leaves a special jade peony from her childhood that she always kept with
her. That means that she will always be with him.
Some conflict in the story was when Seklung and his grandma went
dumpster diving for the materials for the wind chime. All of Seklung’s family really
disliked them for doing this. Another form of a conflict was when the white cat
with pink eyes arrived at the house a grandma said death was coming. All of
Seklung’s family didn’t believe her, but when she got a cold from being outside
for too long they knew it was true. When Seklung figured put his grandma was
going to die he hurried up to finish the wind chime.
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Seklung in The Jade Peony was a very influential character in the story.
He was both understanding and compassionate for his grandma when she died.
He helped his grandma as much as he could when they were building the wind
chime. His grandma showed both determination and experience as she taught
Seklung how to do stuff. Seklung’s grandma is a very understanding lady and
she likes to use her own knowledge to figure things out. She is both fearless and
very determined to get things done. She also doesn’t care what others think of
her as she goes dumpster diving.
The Jade Peony was really well written by Wayson Choy and it really let
me know how much culture influenced other countries compared to mine.
Seklung and his grandma are the two main characters in the book and they show
much compassion towards each other as they are making a “special” wind
chime. I would like to read another story like this in the future!