INTRODUCTION
The story tells
of a family who was prominent but fate becomes selfish to them. Their
disposition decline in a matter of moment and hold on to silkworm marketing
which they wished it could bring them back the sufficiency which they used to
have. However, their aspirations failed but sheer determination shows how
humans should strive in order to survive.
SUMMARY
Tung-pao and
Chen family both flourished and were the richest in town. But gradually both
families had declined. Tung-pao no longer had any rice land left and was more
than three hundred dollars in debt. As for the Chen family, it was long ago ‘finished.’
It was said that the reason for their rapid decline was that the ghosts of the
Taiping rebels had sued in the courts of the nether world and had been
warranted by King Yama to collect.
The last straw
for Tung-pao was that cocoons which will be hatched from foreign eggs and it should
actually sell for ten dollars more a picul. The colonialists are already stepping
on the land and he is afraid that everything he own would eventually be
foreign; the cocoons and the mulberry leaves. He noticed buds opening like
fingers and assured himself that it would be a fine crop and would not result
as last year.
As the hatching
days approached, the room for the silkworms had been made ready some days
before. Tung-pao smeared a head of garlic with mud and put it in a corner of
the room since it was believed that the more leaves there were on the garlic on
the day the silkworm hatched, the better it would be in the harvest.
The day of
harvesting of the black ladies finally came and they prepared solemn ceremonies
and celebration for it. It was as solemn an occasion for it was to inaugurate a
month of relentless struggle against bad weather and ill luck during which
there would be no rest day or night. Tung-pao’s silkworms weighed three hundred
pounds after the ‘great sleep.’
The silkworms
had at last mounted the trees and fires were placed under the ‘mountains’ in
order to force the silkworms up. Three days later the fires were withdrawn. The
entire ‘mountain’ was covered with a snowy mass of cocoons. Tung-pao family
expected a hundred and twenty or even hundred and thirty percent crop. The actual
harvesting of the cocoons followed he next day.
As they sold the
silkworms , none of the factories were opened for the season, although Wusih
factory accepted the offer, only a small amount was gathered.
It ended for
the Tung-pao family as having a state which is deeper into debt for their
spring silkworms.
CULTURAL STRAINS
The following are the practices that can be
found in the short story: to kill a Taiping sentinel to make an escape….. ’it
was true that his grandfather killed a Taiping sentinel to escape from the
rebels’; celebration of the Tomb festival …..’the Tomb Festival over’; the
culturing of silkworms and its cocoons are to be sold out as an earning to be
used in their living….’they were mobilized in preparation for the silkworms’;
to put garlic on the silkworms to be hatched to have a better harvest…..’it was
believed that silkworms would give better harvest on the day it hatches when
fed with garlic; to dedicate the silkworm with a paper flower and a pair of
goose feathers…….’Fourth Sister stuck in her hair a paper flower and a pair of
goose feather for the silkworms’; they are afraid to be contaminated with somebody’s
misfortune and withdraw to this person to be successful in their tasks….’they
would not even pass by the house of the contaminated woman’; when they discovered
that the growth of the cocoons were successful they believe that the Goddess of
Silkworms blessed them……’The Goddess of Silkworms had been good to them.’
CONCLUSION
The story shows
that the situation involved which is silkworm culturing is part of China’s life
routines in building a culture which forms their living.
Rebecca Rodriguez
Web Rank Solution
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