Essay Questions

Using Psychoanalysis expound Lily’s primary Unconscious aspiration.

Lily divulges, “I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one and the same. For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me—as a girl and later as a woman—to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life. I dreamed that my mother would notice me and that she and the rest of my family would grow to love me. To win their affection, I was obedient—the ideal characteristic for someone of my sex—but I was too willing to do what they told me to do. Hoping they would show me even the most simple kindness, I tried to fulfill their expectations for me—to attain the smallest bound feet in the county—so I let my bones be broken and molded into a better shape.” Evidently, Lily’s utmost unconscious aspiration has been love. However, her longing is incongruent with her culture which means that she has stifled it all through throughout her lifetime. Her yearning for affection stimulates her to weather hardships such as footbinding and motherhood tussles for her family to adore her unreservedly. However, when her labors do not lead to the realization of love, she Projects hatred all her family members.

Elucidate the intersection between Laotong association and a woman’s social ranking.

Lily’s aunt insists, “ “Lily has an opportunity to follow a path different from the one either you or I took to end up here…This laotong relationship will give her added value and show people in Tongkou that she is worthy of a good marriage into their village. And since the bond between two old sames is forever and does not change with marriage, ties with people in Tongkou will be further cemented and your husband—and all of us—further protected. These things will help secure Lily’s position in the women’s quarters of her future husband’s home. She won’t be a woman crippled by an ugly face or ugly feet. She will be a woman with perfect golden lilies who has already proved her loyalty, faithfulness, and ability to write in our secret language well enough to have been the laotong of a girl from their own village.”

Lily’s aunt’s proclamations authenticate the materiality of having a promising laotong. The capacity to flourish in a laotong affiliation upsurges the value of a woman for it designates that she will add momentous significance to her matrimony. Girls who are not fortunate to have laotong inhabit the bottommost cadre in the standing of women and their probabilities of having eminent marriages are contracted. Accordingly, a laotong is a social ticket to a valuable matrimonial.

How does Snow Flower assist Lily in distinguishing her sexual preference?

Lily concedes, “While it’s true that Snow Flower and I didn’t mean all the words we’d written to each other in our initial contact through the fan, when we first looked in each other’s eyes in the palanquin I felt something special pass between us—like a spark to start a fire or a seed to grow rice. But a single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love—true-heart love—must grow. Back then I didn’t yet understand the burning kind of love, so instead I thought about the rice paddies I used to see on my daily walks down to the river with my brother when I still had all my milk teeth. Maybe I could make our love grow like a farmer made his crop to grow—through hard work, unwavering will, and the blessings of nature. How funny that I can remember that even now!”

The spark is emblematical of an erotic longing which when given opportunity would bloom into bursting romantic affair. ‘Looking into each other’s eyes’ is reminiscent of conventional romantic acts which arouse powerful passion among lovers. Lily and Snow Flower’s reaction is the representative ‘love at first sight’ because it conjures penetrating sensations between the two. Accordingly, Snow Flow activates Lily’s passionate longings. It would be convoluted for a girl of Lily’s age to establish that she is sexually attracted to Snow Flower considering that their culture does not sponsor such kind of eroticism.