Chapter 2
The Voice From The Wall
Lena St. Clair
This chapter is narrated by Lena St. Clair, daughter of Ying-Ying St. Clair. The story begins with Lena summarizing her family life. Her father was a man of Irish-English descent and his name was Clifford. He tells Lena that he saved her mother from an unspeakable tragedy in China. Lena's mother, Ying-Ying, is a very quiet woman. She rarely speaks and, when she does, it is in broken english or in mandarin. Conversation between Ying-Ying and anyone who doesn't speak mandarin is usually through gestures or phrases. Lena can understand her mother's mandarin and her father's english, so she acts as a bridge between the two. Though many of times, Lena constrews her mother's weird expresssions into more Americanized, mainstream thoughts. At one point, Clifford recieves a promotion and the family moves from Oakland to a highly Italian neighborhood in San Francisco. Ying-Ying claims their new home is not balanced and begins to constantly rearrange things. Lena began to think her mother was going crazy; but Clifford informed Lena that her mother was acting this way because she was pregnant. While her father was anxious for the baby, Ying-Ying showed no signs of joy or hope. One night, Lena hears fights between a girl named Teresa Sorci and her mother next door. In her mind, Lena imagines Teresa being beaten or even killed. But soon after, she sees Teresa running down the stairs, smiling and laughing. When Ying-Ying went into labor, the baby, (a boy) died immediately after birth. Ying-Ying layed with an empty look in her eyes, blaming herself for the baby's death and speaking incoherently of a child she had killed in the past. Instead of translating this to her father, Lena told Clifford that her mother was speaking words of hope and grief. Upon coming home, Ying-Ying began to deteriorate psychologically. As a form of comfort, Lena began to be thankful she was not as miserable as Teresa. One day, Teresa comes to Lena's apartment and climbs out of her windowsill. She tells Lena that her mother kicked her out and she is going to surprise her by sneaking back into her room from the window. Later on, Lena heard Ms. Sorci and Teresa both yelling threats at eachother, sobbing, and laughing.
This chapter, to me, was the opposite of Rules Of The Game. Rules Of The Game showed the strengths of silence and invisibility, whereas, The Voice From The Wall showed its dangers. Ying-Ying is silent for most of Lena's life. The few times she would speak, were to warn Lena of all of the dangers around her and to put fear in her heart. This causes Lena to grow with an ultimate fear of most things. When she hears Teresa "fighting" with her mother next door, she immediately thinks she is being beaten or killed by her mother. She cannot understand that that is how Teresa and Ms. Sorci express their love and endearment. Ying-Ying told Lena a story of her grandfather and how he sentanced a beggar to death. As legend says, the ghost of the beggar returned and said "the worst is on the other side". He then pulled Lena's grandfather through the wall and into the land of the dead. Lena once feared the other side of her wall, but discovered it is actually a loving household. This leaves her with the terrible thought that the worst side may be the St. Clair's side.
No comments:
Post a Comment