Jihyung's+first+draft

 Jihyung Moon  English 12 B  “Strongest wind cannot be seen” (Tan 103) 

Lindo and Waverly Jong might be the most hated charaters of the book. Both the mother and daughter share similar characteristics, while some of their other traits differ and conflict with each other. But the fact that they are mothers and daughters cannot be changed and they do share traits that make them similar even though they were raised and influenced in different cultures. Waverly Jong is the perfect “American Translation” of Lindo Jong. Simply they share the power to look beyond the future and see steps ahead. They are the same little girl who lived in different generations. Lindo and Waverly both share traits that get them hated by readers and even characters in the book, they most likely would be perceived as the arrogant and irritating type of person. But, on the other hand, they share traits that also express their similar passion and aggression for a happy life.

Lindo and Waverly are very stubborn and head strong women. They are very strong mentally and tenacious about their decisions. Lindo, who was raised and influenced mostly by the Chinese culture, has a different definition for her values and priority. But certainly Waverly resembles Lindo as the American Translation of her. They dislike similar things such as obstacles that hinder their freedom. They are easily annoyed and irritated. They are both very headstrong and shrewd. They would most likely be the strongest characters in the whole story in terms of mental strength and keenness. They share the same talent for coming up with plans to get their way out of trouble or difficulties. They both innately share the “invisible strength” that keeps them strong throughout the story. They are both very tricky in different manners and situations. Both of them always look for ways out of trouble, without getting themselves hurt, at least they try. For Lindo, when she was young and destined to marry Tyan-yu, she worked her way out to escape her life with the family she was tangled with. She, with her cunning schemes seeks for a plan to get herself kicked out without hurting her mother’s name. “I started to think about how I would escape this marriage without breaking my promises to my family”(59). Lindo was very cunning and keen even at her younger age, she was not keen in a way for hurting others, but keen in a way for getting out of things and making situations advantageous for herself. Similarity in personality exists in Waverly, she does not like losing, and she has her own strong self esteem and shrewdness. By understanding her mother’s lesson of the “invisible strength” she able to master chess at the age of six. As a young girl at the age of eleven, Waverly was shrewd and keen. She was always very acute and intelligent. Her thoughtfulness is similar with her mother’s in many ways. They both knew how to get around things they did not like or felt were not interesting. Times when Waverly already knew that Santa Claus was not real, “I think that the only children who thought he was the real thing were too young to know that Santa Clause was not Chinese” (92). And most so not a Chinese, or when she knew that the big gift boxes were not always the best. “…I already knew that the big gifts were not necessarily the nicest ones” (93).

It is true that Lindo and Waverly differ in some aspects of them. They both have the mind and brain for coming up with strategies. Lindo was always busy coming up with strategies that would liberate her from the Tyan family. She is always scheming plans to get away from her marriage. Her desire to come up with any reason to end her contract for her life under her husband’s family is clearly shown when she frantically stared and hoped for the red candle to go out, which meant her marriage would not be a blessed one. “…I was praying to Buddha, the goddess of mercy, and the full moon to make that candle go out.” “My throat filled with so much hope that it finally burst and blew out my husband’s end of the candle” (56). Lindo’s urge and desire for always developing and thinking of sly strategies to get away from her destined and locked up life is similar with Waverly’s constant eagerness for more new chess strategies. Waverly perceived the fact the chess was a game of secret and strategies at her first glance of the chess board when her two brothers Vincent and Winston opened the gift box. “…the chessboard seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled” (94). Waverly’s eager request to let her play chess for the first time to her brothers show how determined she was to try this game of secret. “Let me! Let Me!” (94) She was already aware that this game needed patience and internal energy. She also proves her young and innocent shrewdness when she offered her Life Savers to substitute for the two missing chess pieces, knowing that fact that she would win in the future. “Let me! Let Me!” (94) “I offered my Life Savers as replacements for the buttons that filled in for the missing pieces…” (94). Just like her mother, Waverly knew the ways of the “invisible strength” by heart. Her mother and her strength both lie in their strong mind and determination for themselves.

The strength of a person lies within the soul. It is a force that the opponent cannot see. “I could create barriers to protect myself that were invisible to my opponents.”(187). Waverly stated as she described how her chess skills improved. “I could see t he power of the wind. I couldn’t see the wind itself, but I could see it carried the water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside” (53) said Lindo, when she finally found the strength in herself and pull herself back together just before she was about to throw herself down the river. These two girls are just the same, they think in the same way and behave the same. They are the same girls except that they lived in a different background.

