Introduction
This blog post will focus on a creative nonfiction story called What You Don’t Know by Lulu Wang. This is a story about a woman whose family decides to not tell her grandmother that she had been diagnosed with stage four cancer. The woman struggles internally with weather or not her family is right for not telling her grandmother. Literary Analysis The author of the story was Lulu Wang she was born in Beijing , but grew up in Miami. She went to school in Boston. According to Thumbelulu.com She is a recipient of the Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, which was awarded at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The setting of the story was America and northern china. The story was about a girl whose family decided not to tell her Nienie that she was dying of stage four lung cancer. The family plans a fake wedding reception as a way to get their last goodbyes in before nienie passes away. Throught the story the author struggles with understanding why her family made the decision that they made. The story is told in third person point of view. The tone of the story is sad. Theme of the story is fear what you don’t know. The underlying message in the is story is sometimes what is best for you doesn’t always involve doing what is right. Argumentation I do agree with Wang’s family’s decision to deceive her grandmother. Wang mentioned in the story that she was surprised to find out that her grandmother did the same thing to her grandfather. So therefore, I believe that if she made that decision for her husband then she would more than likely want the same for herself. Also her cancer was at stage four so it was no longer curable. This means that her family didn’t strip her of the opportunity to get treatment. Wang’s aunt told her about an ancient Chinese joke about two patients who go to get a physical. One of the patients is healthy, the other is ill. The patient’s results get mixed up and the healthy patient gets the ill patients results and the ill patient gets the healthy patients results. The healthy patient dies and the ill patient lives. I believe that this joke has some truth to it. Since her grandmother didn’t know she was sick she didn’t feel anything. In fact when Wang saw her grandmother at the airport she told her that if it wasn’t for her knee hurting she would be fine. Wang’s grandmother went on to live for three more years after her diagnosis. She did begin the get sick during this time but it eventually stopped. She returned to the hospital and received that same diagnosis. I also think that the joy she received from being around her family aided in her ability to live longer. Narration I have once had to make the important choice to tell someone a lie. It was junior year of highschool and my friend and I had started applying to jobs. We were very eager to work because with prom and summer and senior year approaching we needed money. We applied to so many places but weren’t having much luck. We both applied to a clothing store inside the mall hoping to get hired but still feeling unlucky. It was a Thursday afternoon I was just getting out of class when I felt my phone ringing. I answered and it was the manager of the clothing store we had applied to. She called to set me up with an interview. I was so excited because this was my first interview at one of my favorite stores. My interview was for that following Monday. When the day came I wore my interview clothes to school because I was going straight to my interview after school. At lunch I saw my friend lauren who I had been applying to jobs with I hadn’t told her about my interview because I felt bad that she didn’t get a call. So when she asked why I was dressed so nice I lied and told her I was going to a banquet after school for my sister. I couldn’t hurt her feelings I wouldn’t feel right. So just didn’t tell her. I went to my interview and it went surprisingly well for my first interview I didn’t really know what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting what happened next. As I’m walking out of the store feeling so relieved that it was finally over I spot my having a conversation with Laurens mom and instantly I wished that hadn’t lied to her. I hurried into the next store and texted my mom to meet me in there. She told me about how she saw Lauren’s mom and she told her about my interview an I’m thinking “OMG why did I lie ?”. Anyway we leave the mall and I go home and soon as I get there my phone rings and its lauren texting me asking why I lied to her and why didn’t I tell her that I had an interview .Shes asking me questions like "did you think I would be jealous of you or something ? " which was the farthest thing from my mind.So I apologize for lying and explain my dumb reason for doing so . She tells how how dumb it was for me to lie . she was mad at me for a few days but eventually got over it. That is how a lie also cost me my friendship.
1 Comment
9/12/2017 07:05:50 am
I think your take on whether or not you agree with the decision to lie is interesting. Personally, I was sort of on the fence about it. It's one of those things that I feel doesn't really have an answer to.
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Inayah CottmanThis blog is for my English Composition II course Archives
December 2017
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