Chinese Cinderella Research Paper

Chinese Cinderella is the perfect title for this touching and emotional novel. Chinese Cinderella is a true story of Adeline Yen Mah's childhood where she was hated and despised by her family because she is believed to be the cause of her mother's death. Despite this, she is an extremely intelligent girl trying exceedingly hard at school, desperate to prove her worth. Some of the themes evident in this novel are perseverance, isolation, Tragedy, Acceptance and self-worth.

One of the themes of the story was Tragedy. All her life Adeline was suffering, her life was miserable, few people loved her and her family despised her. Through this hardship, she was able to build a strong character that never gave up. An event in the novel that represented tragedy was when her beloved pet duckling was cruelly murdered. PLT or precious little treasure was the name of her cherished duckling. PLT symbolised Adeline's heart. When her duckling was eaten into pieces by her father's wolf-like dog, her heart was crushed to bits because her duckling was as fragile as her heart. The dog is a symbolism of her father. The harsh dog would eat a delicate baby duckling. This shows how Adeline isn't able to fight back to her father. …show more content…
A reoccurring idea throughout the novel is that "a single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities." Adeline Yen Mah shows an unnatural resilience throughout her story, a level of serenity unbelievable for a child of her age. The treatment given to Adeline via her family is so cruel and barbaric that I immediately felt like the story was fictional. I had no idea that children could be treated this way for almost no reason at all. At a point where most people would crash and fall, Adeline keeps going on, determined to prove her