Diction In Chinese Cinderella

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Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is a memoir about the author’s childhood difficulties. The author uses a variety of sensational and vivid diction to portray her fear and pain in the scene where her father severely scolds her.
To begin with, Adeline asserts that her father comes into her room with “towering rage”(Mah 104) and chastises her for secretly visiting her friend’s house. This phrase shows Adeline’s immense fear towards her father and indicates the readers how severe Adeline’s situation is.
Furthermore, the author states that her “heart feels heavy with the most excruciating pain” (Mah 104) as she is being whipped by her father. This phrase shows that Adeline was painful not only physically, but also mentally as she realizes that her father does not consider her as a loving daughter. This diction especially explains the main character’s agony by using vivid vocabularies such as “heavy” and “excruciating”. …show more content…
In this phrase, the “lip” represents Adeline’s true emotions and thoughts, but she “remains silent” to conceal them from her father who would not care about her emotions at all. The author’s diction in this phrase expresses Adeline’s tough situation in a symbolic way.
Lastly, Adeline claims that she looked up at her father with “utter desolation” which is a sensational diction that clearly shows Adeline’s emotion. In this scene, the Father whips Adeline until her heart is completely empty with no hope left, that her Father may consider her as a family, particularly as a daughter. In Chinese Cinderella, the author uses several sensational and vivid diction to portray the main character’s agony. These phrases and vocabularies allow the readers to relate more deeply to Adeline’s situation, and make more clear and easy to understand Adeline’s

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