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Nick Sorensen
ENGL 9
K. Shimabukuro
3 March 2016
Analyze of “The Jade Peony”
By Wayson Choy
I recently read Wayson Choy’s short story known as “The Jade Peony”.
The story was about a young Chinese-Canadian boy named Sek-Lung who tells
the story of the wind chime he made with his Grandmamma before she died that
signified her death. After he died Sek-Lung received the Jade Peony his
grandma had so he would always remember her. At the same time the family
continues to battle whether to keep or remove its Chinese Cultural habits. It was
a heartwarming story that looked into the bond shared between a Grandparent
and her Grandchild and the ability to respect or attempt to change your heritage.
The story featured two round or main characters. They were Sek-Lung
and his Grandmamma. They both were involved throughout the whole story and
multiple dimensions to their personality. Sek-Lung’s brother would be considered
a flat character because the only thing you know about him is that he wants his
family to be more Canadian than Chinese. Generally, the rest of the family was
flat characters wanting to either keep their Chinese heritage or act like
Canadians.
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“The Jade Peony” also had many conflicts both internal and external. One
example of an external conflict in the book was Sek-Lung and his Grandmamma
dumpster diving for wind chime materials when the rest of the family tried to get
them to stop. It was an external conflict because it was people vs. people. The
father had an internal conflict because he could not decide whether to leave
grandmamma be or to try to make her act more Canadian so she didn’t
embarrass her older grandchildren. There were many other conflicts and plots in
the story that made the story very diverse.
Overall, the story was very good it had a great plot and many interesting
conflicts that all went together making the story very smooth flowing. I thought it
had a good theme of respecting and loving your families and heritage. I thought
was a very good short story.