Lindsey Ecker
Ecker 1
ENG1D
Mrs. Ecker
March 20, 2013
A “spiritual playmate”
The grandmother in “The Jade Peony” is a well rounded protagonist with a static key trait
based on her spiritual beliefs and her caring nature. She is described as an 84 year old
recent Chinese-Canadian immigrant woman living with her son and his family in
Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Her past is rich with details of her life as a village girl in Southern Canton and how she
met and fell in love with a juggler there who gave her a windchime with a jade peony
which is her luckiest possession. This jade is also the inspiration for her treasure hunts
with her grandson SekLung. At the end of the story she dies of pneumonia and leaves her
jade to SekLung as a reminder of her love for him.
Her beautiful character is represented by many things in this collage. Her face is shown
to be round and darker with gentle eyes. I chose a picture of a woman with thin, arching
eyebrows and grey brittle hair to match the description in the story. Her hands are very
important in the story. She uses them to show love and to make her wind chimes. They
are plush and warm with long slender, elegant fingers, impeccable nails and wrinkled
skin. She has a “magically strong grip” which is surprising for her age.
I chose many other symbols to represent different things that the grandmother does
during the story that reflect her character. There is a picture of her garden as well as
some herbs and a mortar and pestle to show that she knew about ancient and traditional
remedies like the ginseng root and peacock’s tail and tried to use them to get better when
she got sick. I have a picture of a wind chime because most of her actions were tied to
them. She would go out searching in garbages and alleys to find scraps and bits like the
stained glass after the church fire. She ends up having to sneak around to continue these
trips. I included a rocking chair because when the family is together she rocks in her
chair and watches them, encouraging them with the mother’s knitting and the
grandchildren’s brush strokes and listening to them argue about her. I put the white cat
because it represents the juggler and she curses it and then regrets that action.
Her character says many interesting things which I included as quotes in my collage.
These quotes show she is stubborn, that her spirituality is so strong she personifies death
and that her love for her family and SekLung is very strong.
She also has many thoughts and feelings that I put as quotes on the page. She thinks she
just has a cold and doesn’t realize until it’s too late that she needs to go to the hospital.
She feels joy at finding the special pieces like the glass for the wind chimes. She believes
strongly in her spirituality and life after death.
Because she is such a strong character other characters react strongly to her I chose to
show this in the collage through key words instead of quotes. Her family does not like
her searching in garbages and thinks their friends will laugh at them for it, that it makes
them look like beggars and that it will make SekLung crazy. Her son calls her “Grand
Old One” which shows that she has his respect and is an important part of the family.
My favourite connection she has with others is her connection to SekLung where she is
described as his “spiritual playmate” and that the hours they spent together gave him an
important education.
In conclusion, the grandmother is a powerful character. She is kind, loving, traditional,
romantic, and thoughtful. She is spiritual and strong and she does not worry about what
other people think. Her wind chimes show that she is creative and wise. The most
important part of her character is her loving nature and her spirituality through which I
think readers can learn valuable lessons.