Reflection

Authors note:

This is a piece I wrote to analyze the way the author, Laurence Yep reflected a certain time period and history thought the short story "The Ribbons."

“She’s here! She’s here! Paw-Paw’s here!” this is how Stacy and her little brother, Ian, felt when their very old and traditional grandma arrived to their home in the United States from Hong Kong after she escaped from the communist way back in the day. The author, Laurence Yep, of the short story “The Ribbons” does a great job inserting little bits of information throughout the piece to help represent and reflect the history and the time period of the grandmas life.

When Paw-Paw was a child her mom started binding her feet, which is the very painful practice of modifying a woman's feet to make them about three inches long. At that time, bound feet were a status symbol, the only way for a woman to marry into money, most mothers had their daughters' feet bound when they were two to five years old. They would bend the toes under until they broke, then  they would break the arch of the foot, and finally wrap it tightly in ten feet long silk ribbons until the foot was a triangular shape. Once Paw- Paw got into the house Stacy was so excited to show her all of her dance moves she had learned. She pulled out her shoes to show them to Paw-Paw but Paw-Paw didn't react like she was hoping. When she looked at the satin ribbons, it was with a hate and disgust that Stacy had never seen before. “Give those to me.” she said.  After Paw-Paw said this Stacy head was filled with confused and disappointed thoughts with the reaction of her grandma causing them to not talk for days until Stacy’s mom sorted it all out. Paw-Paw and Stacy learned later that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

The ribbons represented many years of pain and agony to Paw-Paw so she wanted to get them away from Stacy to protect her but once Paw-Paw learned what the ribbons were really used for now a days she reacted differently. “She took my hand and patted it clumsily, I think it was the first time she had showed me any sign of affection“ Stacy said. “‘When I saw those ribbons I didn’t want you feeling pain like I do’” Paw-Paw said humbly. At this point in the story you can feel the way the mood changes with the way the author writes the story. The mood changes from a distant relationship between the grandma and the child to a close relationship where the ribbons were almost binding their relationship together more and more.

Foot binding was a major way that the culture of the grandma is shown in this piece but there are other ways too, like in the way that they greet each other. “Mother had coached us on how to do a proper Chinese greeting for the last two months, but I thought Grandmother also deserved an American-style bear hug. However, when I tried to put my arms around her and kiss her, she stiffened in surprise. “Nice children don’t drool on people,” she snapped at me.” In modern day a bear hug would be a normal way to say hello to someone but since Paw-Paw came from a different time period and a different culture, this was inappropriate. According to this history of the grandma it would have been appropriate for them to do just a firm handshake and to say “Joe sun " ,meaning welcome.

In addition to the greeting, another way they show culture is by the way they address their grandma. You will see in this piece that they call their grandma Paw-Paw to her face but to each other they call her grandma. Most people in the world don't call their grandma and grandpa by their original names, they call their grandma simply, grandma, but this is the american way, where name Paw-Paw literally translates to mother’s mother and that makes it much more of a traditional name. The grandma coming from the background that she came from would much rather be called a traditional name because it shows her that people respect her.

Similar to a multitude of other short stories across the world there are many ways that this short story reflects the culture and time period of their grandma.  This piece is perfect way to show that even in a short story like The Ribbons you can really learn a lot about a person’s culture and what is respectful or not respectful to do and or to say.