The Imagery of Snow Flower and Lily’s foremost meeting
Lily recalls, “Madame Wang held the door to the palanquin open, Mama set me down, and I stepped into the small space. Snow Flower was far prettier than I had imagined. Her eyes were perfect almonds. Her skin was pale, showing that she had not spent as much time outdoors as I had during my milk years. A red curtain hung down next to her, and a rosy-hued light glinted in her black hair. She wore a sky-blue silk tunic embroidered with a cloud pattern. Peeking out from beneath her trousers were the shoes I had made her. She did not speak. Perhaps she was as nervous as I was. She smiled and I smiled back.” The primary meeting is outstanding because Lily and Snow Flower naturally connect. Their association is cemented at this meeting since they get the occasion to perceive move past the unfamiliar phase. The reciprocal smiling is contributory for the evolution of their Laotang connection.
The Imagery of Snow Flower, Beautiful Moon and Lily’s Learning
Lily explicates, “the year Snow Flower and I turned thirteen our learning came at us from every direction, and we were expected to help in all the usual ways. Where Snow Flower’s womenfolk had excelled in teaching her the refined arts, they had failed miserably with the domestic arts, so she shadowed me as I did my chores. We rose at dawn and started the cooking fire. After Snow Flower and I washed the dishes, we mixed the pig’s meal. At midday, we went outside for a few minutes to pick fresh vegetables from the kitchen garden; then we made lunch. Mama and Aunt once did all these tasks. Now they supervised us. Afternoons were spent in the women’s chamber. When evening came, we helped prepare and serve dinner. Every minute of every day involved lessons. The girls in our house-hold—and I include Snow Flower in this—tried to be good students. Beautiful Moon was best at making thread and yarn, tasks that Snow Flower and I had no patience for. I liked to cook but was less interested in weaving, sewing, and making shoes. None of us liked to clean, but Snow Flower was terrible at it.”
The grown-up womenfolk accomplish the obligation of assisting the young girls’ learning because they are veterans in womanly matters. All the lessons dwell on the domestic jurisdiction since it is where the woman is obliged to be faultless in. The chief intent of the learning is to prepare the girls for their womanhood. Snow Flower and Lily show their loathing for the conformist gender responsibilities unlike Beautiful Moon who is a prototypical student. Accordingly Lily and Snow Flower are not unadventurous lasses.
Snow Flower and Lily at Fifteen
Lily recalls, “Snow flower and I turned fifteen. Our hair was pinned up in the style of phoenixes as symbols that we were soon to be married. We worked on our dowries in earnest. We spoke in soft voices. We walked on our lily feet in a graceful manner. We were fully literate in nu shu, and when we were apart we wrote each other almost daily. We bled each month. We helped around the house, sweeping, picking vegetables from the house garden, preparing meals, washing dishes and clothes, weaving, and sewing. We were considered women, but we didn’t have the responsibilities of married women. We still had the freedom to visit when we wanted and spend hours in the upstairs chamber, our heads bent together as we whispered and embroidered.”
At fifteen, Lily and Snow Flower seem like blossoming women who are apt for matrimony. Fashioning their hairs symbolically, is a cultural communication of their standing which would be construed by all the individuals in the community. The duties they are allotted are parallel to an orientation that acquaint them with their womanly accountabilities. They relish some degree of autonomy in terms of making visitations because they are not yet wives.
