Analysis Xiaodans Dawn Short Story - Essay Example

Prof’s Dawn Xiaodan woke to a beam of sunlight cascading over the curtains, bouncing from small bits of dust. She could hear her mother preparing food in the kitchen, and hugged her toy bunny, hoping to keep her eyes closed for a few more minutes of sleep. Her hopes were crushed with the opening of the door, her mother framed in the doorway with a plate of cong you bing and some rice for breakfast. Xiaodan buried her head in her face, mandarin syllables tumbling from her lips in her high, surly, twelve-year-old voice. “Mama, I want more sleep. Go away!” “It’s time for your first day at the new school, you have to wake up!” Eventually Xiadan’s hunger won out over her sleepiness, and she dragged herself, still clutching her rabbit, into the kitchen. All of the apartment would have fit into the living room of some American homes, so she only had a few feet to walk. Too soon breakfast was over, and even sooner Xiaodan found herself, skirt clad and none-to-happy, hesitating outside of the large, grey, downtown Beijing middle school where she would spend the rest of her day. Her hesitations were cut short by a stumble, as a crush of people from behind bowled her over past the door step. Xiaodan heard mutters under breath as students pushed past her into the school. “Idiot” “Kid” “New one, so slow” Xiaodan bit her lip and pulled back her tears. Her mind flashed to the school she had been in only a year before. It was a small, country school. Poor. Her father and mother had been poor too, like everyone else in their village. But her father had a stroke of luck. He got in with an important person, helped him out of a tight space. Xiaodan didn’t know the details. But he got passed up and up. He got a job in the city, and a permit to move. The dream. But all Xiaodan could see were the friends left behind. The known happiness of the past. And all she could see in front of her was the open, scary doorway of an unknown future. Xiaodan found herself swept inside. She found her classroom, found, against the chances, her seat. Found herself listening to the teachers drone. Found herself trying to talk to a girl next to her, and finding only the back of a head in response. Xiaodan found she could not find anything to hold on to. She found tears welling up inside of her again. She got bumped in to once more, seeming so invisible on her first day. And on this bump, her cheap bag split open. Her books spilled out. As did her rabbit. Her toy rabbit she had clutched when sleeping, that she had foolishly, childishly, brought to her first day of school to support her. She knew what would happen next. A torrent of laughter. Maybe someone would make a grab for it, and make the new girl dance for toy. Her toy that she was too old for. Her toy she was ashamed of. Her toy. All of this crossed through her mind in the fraction of the second when she first saw her rabbit And she was right. The laugher boiled up from the crowd around her. She even heard someone shout words from a nursery rhyme about rabbits, mockingly: “Bèng bèng tiào tiào zhēn kěà” But all of this was lost on Xiaodan. All she noticed was a hand. A hand gently grasped hers, and another hand picking up the rabbit, handing it back to her. And then leading her away. After that she noticed eyes. A boy about her age. They were standing in a corner of the hallway, and he had saved her. And putting his finger to his lips, he opened his bag. And showed her his first-day, too-young stuffed turtle. Analysis My first thought was to try to create mood. I did this through creating a very visual opening scene, one that many readers would be able to picture well in their mind. Since the theme of this assignment was sympathy, I then wanted to start developing a sympathetic character. I did this in a few ways. Firstly, I made the character a young child. Children are understood to need protection and allowances, so a child is more likely to evoke sympathy than an adult. But more importantly, I wanted the experiences to be somewhat universal. It is easier for an audience to connect sympathetically with someone who has an experience that is like an experience they have had. Getting out of bed too early, for instance, is a nearly universal experience. Everyone wants to lie in from time to time. And most people have also experienced the nerves associated with a new school. This, as another universal experience for most readers, would further help connect with the character. As the story moved forward, I spent less and less time describing physical surroundings, and more and more time describing the thought process going on in Xiaodan’s head. I believe this movement helps readers identify with the character. They will never identify with the character immediately, and so the opening visuals keep them at a distance. But as the story progresses, the narrative becomes more and more internal, as the comfort level of the reader with that character increases. The close of the story also forces the reader to feel sympathetic, as another student doing the same thing as she does and feeling the same way makes her experience normal. One of the weaknesses of this story is lack of agency. While it sometimes builds sympathy to have a character blown around by the forces around her, I think this would have been a stronger story if Xiaodan did more to affect her fate. It is easy to feel lost and blown around on days like the one described, and this was a sense I was trying to get the reader to feel. But I think that a truly sympathetic character is one who faces a challenge, and then overcomes it. Xiaodan does seem able to overcome her challenges, but not through action of herself. Read More