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Jean Kwok's Short Story 'Where The Gods Fly'

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The short story ”Where the Gods Fly” from 2012 is written by the Chinese American author Jean Kwok, who immigrated to the United States of America at the age of five. Being the
The story is set in America, but the specific location is never mentioned it can be safe to assume that it is set in New York; Brooklyn due to the fact Jean Kwok also grew up in this area and therefore is familiar with its societal structure. The main characters of the story as a small family of three; the daughter Pearl, the father Ah Sun and the mother whose name is never mentioned throughout the story. The family are Chinese immigrants in the United States, just like the author herself. This family came to the states when Pearl was around 7-8 years old since she …show more content…

This is another thing she is torn about, because while it is necessary for her to have Pearl to translate the English into Chinese, she is as bothered by the fact that Pearl speaks English faster than she speaks Chinese which is already a fast spoken language. “When I heard her talking and laughing on the telephone with her American friends, jabbering in English much faster than she could speak Chinese by then, a part of me wanted to run over and wrench the phone from her hands.” Her mother is not only bothered by the fact that she speaks English so well but also incredibly bothered by the fact she does not know what her daughter is talking …show more content…

Just as her mother describes when she sees her dance for the first time “She flew, she turned and leapt like water in motion, weightless and infinitely powerful. She had been made of stone and now was freed.” The mother is aware that doing ballet is something that brings her daughter incredible joy and it pains her that she has to deny her from continuing it. “I know this will be the blow hat finally severs already the tenuous bonds between us.” She sees the relationship between her and her daughter as strained and blames this on herself and that she spend too much time working at the factory and wasn’t there enough for her daughter. Maybe also because her daughter has a more western

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