Blog #4

 

                On a school holiday (which Niang did not know was a holiday), Adeline goes to Wu Chun-mei's birthday party. To attend this party Adeline chose not to tell her stepmother or father that she was going because she knew that her stepmother would not approve based on the fact that she forbid Adeline from going to visit with friends. On the day of the party, Adaline packed her backpack and walked to school as she would on a normal day of school. But instead of having classes, Wu Chun-mei’s chauffeur picked up her and the other girls who were attending the party that day. Adaline described the party beginning as a wonderful morning playing with dolls, admiring Wu Chun-mei’s puppy, eating watermelon seeds, skipping rope and shooting basketballs into a hoop. Trying to keep up the pretense that she attended school that day, according to her mother, Adaline rushes home from the party at the same time she would normally be off from school. Wu Chun-mei tells Adaline before she leaves the party that everyone will wait till she returns to cut the cake. When Adaline does not return to the party, Niang receives a call asking for Adaline to come back to the party, where at this point

Adaline’s cover is blown. Adaline is sent to her room without dinner. When her father gets home, Adaline’s Aunt Baba is blamed for Adaline’s recent reckless behavior, and then Adaline’s father beats her.Soon afterward, Adeline is elected class president and her friends show up at her house to congratulate her. Niang’s reaction is anything but pleased or that of what would be expected from a loving mother. While Adaline’s friends are within hearing distance Niang forces her friends to listen as she verbally and physically abuses Adaline. In the book Adaline describes the abuse stating that Niang’s voice screams, “Who are these little hooligans, making such a racket in the living room downstairs?” The chapter goes on to say that Niang screamed, “come here,” to which she then slapped Adaline hard, and said “liar! You planned it, didn’t you, to show off our house to your penniless classmates. How dare you!” As one reads this part in the chapter it is easy to see and feel Adaline’s humiliation as Niang purposely embarrasses Adaline and insults the only friends she has. However, Adaline’s friends react with contempt of Niang and sorrow for Adaline. When Adaline tells her friends they have to leave, with tears in her eyes and blood on her face, Wu Chun-mei hands her handkerchief to Adaline. All her friends left their gifts for her still as they left. But just before Wu Chun-mei leaves she shouts up to Niang, “this is unfair. You’re cruel and barbaric! I’ll tell my father!” How fitting and true her words were!When Adeline is rescued by Niang's older sister and her family (the Schillings) she learns that they are very different from Niang. Traveling with the Schillings gives Adeline her first close-up experience of warm family life. She is able to experience what is like to be treated fairly, to know what its like to be giving a fair chance to receive something good instead of assuming she only gets the bad. One example that stood out to me in the book was where Adaline describes a scene where there are only two beds and a cot to sleep on during travel by ship. Assuming she would have the cot Adaline already prepares herself to get the short end of the stick, however the mother who is very different from Niang corrects Adaline and informs her that they will draw fairly for who gets a bed or the cot. Adaline actually ends up sleeping on a bed by fair draw. She expresses how she feels in her book by saying, “that was how the Schilling family treated me throughout the time I spent with them. They made me feel as if I were their third child”. This was something Adaline was not used to, since her real family always treated her like the black sheep of the herd and never considered justice or fair treatment when it came to her.