Week 9 Analysis

This week I will be doing a close reading of Nguyan Du's poem "The Tale of Kiều". The part of the poem that intrigued me the most in this story was "By what means could she save her flesh and blood? When evil strikes, you bow to circumstance. As you must weigh and choose between your love and filial duty, which will turn the scale? She put aside all vows of love and troth—a child first pays the debts of birth and care. Resolved on what to do, she said: “Hands off—I’ll sell myself and Father I’ll redeem.”" (p.563). This is saying that because her family is in trouble with being charged with theft if i could by a silk dealer. In order to help her family Kieu has decided to sell her body which will get her money to free her family from prison. Due to her selling her body she decided to give up marrying the person she love because her family is the most important thing over her own happiness. The way she phases this whole passage like flesh and blood to show how significant family is and the importance of it in this society. The word bow which in this case would be used to show something or some one has a certain control over you. Also the phrase filial duty is something that kids should have towards there parent like actions, services, and attitudes. After reading this story it has not changed my initial thought that this would be a story were the women in all older asian cultures have no rights and power will always be mistreated. This also add more to what I thought this is also a story of sacrifice for ones family over everything else. This is important to understanding the character because for her to willing as well as have this kind of society upbringing that you must filial towards your parents, to sell herself to help them. Shows what she kind of person and daughter she is and what she believes how a daughter should do what ever they can for there parents since they did everything for her.

"The Tale of Kiều". The Norton Anthology World Literature, Third Edition, Vol. E. Martin Puchner. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Pages 546-586.