Adeline Yen Mah's Chinese Cinderella

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Chinese Cinderella, a disheartening autobiography of an unwanted and unloved daughter, written by Adeline Yen Mah. The author of this saddening tale explores the effects that our families can have on us. In Adeline’s case without her family mistreating her, she wouldn’t have risen above diversity or even became the individual she is today. She shows that due to her family’s resentment she begins to find herself worthless and nothing. Even while dealing with her family feuds she still yearns for her broken family’s attention.
Whilst dealing with her “family’[s] ugliness” and feuds she still yearns for the undivided attention of her neglecting parents. Adeline, otherwise known as ‘Brains’, ‘Scholar’ and ‘Genius’ often uses her gifts of intelligence to get her father to acknowledge her, but to her dismay it often makes her siblings jealous and envious. Adeline thinks to herself “I must study harder and keep wearing this medal so I can go on pleasing father’, but later her siblings take her dragon eyes from her plate as revenge for her showing off her well-deserved medal. Having made this great achievement and finally drawing attention from her father for the first time in so long, she still …show more content…
She receives slaps, whips, pranks, lies and endless secrecy about her dead mother. “Chinese Cinderella” seems to prove that suffering the anguish she had to live with made her more determined and an even more unique person and that helped her survive her terrible upbringing. Adeline also teaches the reader about the hardships she had to live through due to her siblings despising her for the death of her mother. She receives terrible threats and punishments for things that she believes in and trusts. However, even while receiving horrible and barbaric punishments, she begins to grow and develop in to the person she is
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Essay about Chinese Cinderella and Yen mah

Chinese Cinderella: Unwanted Feelings In the sixth chapter of Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah addresses the fact that as a child she felt like the unwanted daughter. This memoir is emotional, thought-provoking, and presented in a way that allows the audience to relate to her story. Yen Mah uses a diverse array of pathos soaked words and vivid visual imagery to capture the reader’s attention throughout her memoir. It is clear that Yen Mah writes with no reservations since she uses phrases infused…

Words 785 - Pages 4