Blog #5

 

Adeline saw herself in living a better life through her books. She was constantly subjected to emotional and physical abuse. Literature allowed her to escape her own reality and live the life she wanted to. It was a vehicle that gave her awareness to her misfortune and what she could do to make her situation better. She learned about character through the protagonists in her books. Since Adeline read so much, she knew that education was her way out of misery. Ultimately, this proved to be true and she was given the opportunity to go college.

 

In contrast, Niang seems to suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).  According to its definition in the book, NPD is an inflated view of the self, a desire for attention and positive reinforcement from others, along with a disregard for the feelings and welfare of others. The root cause of narcissism is low self-esteem. This means that NPD is a coping mechanism to deal with the pain of one’s own perceived worthlessness. I think that one of the reasons why Niang inflicts pain on to others is because she lacks agency or a complete identity. Niang was half Chinese and half French. As often happens with biracial individuals, they are caught in the midst of a struggle to belong to both of their cultures. Hence, Niang is at war with herself trying to come to terms with who she is.