Brave Orchid tries to harmonize the experiences she gained in China with her life in America. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work as she’d hoped. For example, “none of Brave Orchid’s children was happy like the two real Chinese babies who died” (132) and her American children “had no feelings and no memory” (115). The dynamics of a traditional Chinese family doesn’t develop as expected. Also, Brave Orchid “never explained anything that was really important” (121) to her children because she didn’t feel like they would understand—“ they certainly didn’t seem like much” (129).
Maybe the reason Brace Orchid's children weren't as happy as the "real Chinese babies" [like the one in the photo above] is because they weren't being torn between two completely different cultures.
Moreover, Brave Orchid was robbed of her youth in America. In a discussion with her daughter she says, “human beings don’t work like this in China. Time goes slower there… I would still be younger if we lived in China” (106).
This leads one to conclude that there is nothing that Brave Orchid really enjoys about her life. She only exhibits positive feelings towards her children once throughout the readings, and that’s when she says, “I can’t turn around without touching somebody. That’s the way this house should be” (108). The rest of the time she tries defining them by traditional Chinese standards; she doesn’t understand—almost refuses to understand—that her children could never uphold and embrace the same traditional philosophies as she does. This doesn’t subtract from her love for them, but it clouds it. Also, Brave Orchid worked hard (if not harder) in China as a doctor, yet she notices that she has aged considerably more in America.
It's as if Brave Orchid's love for her children is like this maze. They no it's there, it surrounds them, but there are so many barriers preventing them from reaching her and each other.
Moon Orchid has a completely different reaction to her life in America. Initially she is taken with everything that Brave Orchid seems to doubt or dismiss. For example, when Brace Orchid shows Moon Orchid her children’s trophies Moon Orchid exclaims “’Oh my, isn’t that wonderful…. Your children must be so smart” (129), while Brave Orchid finds it “hard to believe that they could do the things the trophies said they did” (129). Moon Orchid even admires the children’s lack of modesty. However, in the end Moon Orchid finds the transition to America too much to bear “and all variety had gone from [her]” (159). This means, at least to Brace Orchid, that her sister had finally gone mad.
A bunch 'o trophies to be proud of... or to doubt.
Perhaps this was due to her softness. Moon Orchid’s husband—who had “black hair and no wrinkles. [Who] looked and smelled like an American…. (152)—says “’it’s a mistake for you to be here. You can’t belong. You don’t have the hardness for this country” (153).
Moon Orchid's husband does have a point- she found it very difficult to work in a dry cleaners folding towels.
It seems that Brave Orchid, Moon Orchid, and Moon Orchid’s husband can be placed on different parts of the spectrum of assimilation. I would say that Moon Orchid is on one extreme and her husband is on the other. I say her husband belongs on the other extreme because of the way he talks about his homeland: “it’s as if I had turned into a different person. The new life around me was so complete; it pulled me away. You become people in a book I had read a long time ago” (154). Brave Orchid belongs somewhere in the middle. She retains enough of her experience in China, but still has that hardness that Moon Orchid’s husband mentioned. For example, she “… did not wear any rings. They got in the way of all the work” (127).
Hands that don't wear rings because of all the work they have to do.
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