chapter summary:
Unlike the previous Chapter, this chapter focuses more on Ruth rather than Luling.the chapter begins with an introduction on Ruth losing her voice. First, it was when she had broken her arm as a child then, it was when she moved in with Art, her boyfriend and then it was during their first anniversary. What connection did these occasions have in common? So the following year, while Ruth was awaiting her muteness to 'arrive', she told her clients and friends that the muteness she would experience was a way of realizing how important words are.
In this chapter, you can also see Luling's superstitions. Luling often told Ruth myths and stories behind the simple things like fog and shooting stars. To Luling, 'fog was really the steam from fighting dragons, one water, the other fire.'water and fire come together make steam'. Also, throughout Ruth's childhood, Luling often said that shooting stars were 'melting ghost bodies'.'to her [Ruth's] mother, just about anything was a sign of ghosts: broken bowls, barking dogs, phone calls with only silenceor heavy breathing at the other end'.
Also, you can see how Luling has infuenced Ruth in her thinking. Ruth remembers errands she has to run by counting them on her fingers. Luling, on the other hand, uses finger counting to remember all the bad things that Ruth has done. Also, Ruth was a very organized person and 'everything had its place' and to her, 'a clean desk gave her a sense of a fresh start, an uncluttered mind'.
themes:
1)friendship-between Ruth and Wendy
2)mother-daughter relationship
3)relationship Art and Ruth
4)mother-daughter relationship-Ruth and Fia and Dory
character analysis:
Ruth
1) gave in easily:
When Art asked her to call the plumber to fix the hot water heater, she already had a whole bunch of errands she had to run so she said she couldnt do it. But then Art made her feel guilty about it and she gave in even though she was busy.
2)organized
She remembered all her errands she had to run by systematically counting them off her fingers as she voiced them. Also, she organized her desk and because a 'clean desk gave her a sense of a fresh start, an uncluttered mind'. She aligned her documents and all the items that were of questionable priority or value, 'she [Ruth] dumped it in the bottom right-hand drawer of her desk'. Also, in Ruth's daily activities, 'she always organized her day by the number of digits on her hands'
3)Conservative:
When Fia wore a top above her navel, she immediately made a scene about it . Later, she found out that Miriam, Fia's birth mother had bought it for her. She made Fia zip up her jacket before she let her go off ice-skating.
Also, her convervative ways could be seen from her friendship with Wendy. ' wendy was not the person Ruth would have chosen for her closest friend.' Mainly because Wendy was a loud and outspoken person while Ruth was conservative and quiet. 'She [Ruth] needed Wendy's boisterousness as balance to her own caution, Wendy's bluntness as antidote to her [Ruth's] reserve.'
4) Responsible:
She made it a point to remember all the chores and errands she had to do and also, she made sure she did them. She did not shirk her responsibilities and even though it was Art's house, she still did the errands.
Art
1) dependent on Ruth
'Ruth! ' Art said, 'the girls are going to be late'. from this sentence alone, you can see that Art is dependent on Ruth. The girls were going to be late because she was sending them to ice-skating. They were his children but Ruth was the one sending them to ice-skating.
Also, He needed Ruth to take care of all the household matters. Just like when the hot water tank was not working, it was Ruth who called the plumber to fix it and not Art himself.
2)Insensitive
When he 'nuzzled her neck and bumped gently into her backside', Ruth tensed and then he was unhappy and rolled over. He did not even ask why she was tense or if anything was wrong. He just wanted sex and since Ruth was not up for it, he was unhappy and rolled over. He was insensitive to Ruth's feelings.
3)Selfish
'Ruth!' Art said in a warning tone, ' the girls are going to be late' apart from showing us how Art is dependent on Ruth, it also shows that he is very selfish. He was only concerned about making sure the girls got to the ice skating rink on time and did not care whether if Ruth was on the phone. He did not spare a thought for Ruth's feelings or that she was busy on the phone.
4) Irresponsible
When the hot water tank did not work, he shoved the responsibility of calling the plumber to fix it to Ruth even though she had already told him she was tied up with other errands to do. He gave excuses like he had appelas coming up and he has tons of work and only when Ruth agreed, then he sweet-talked her to make her feel better about accepting the extra responsibility when truth is, it was Art's home and he should have been responsible enough to call the plumber since Ruth was already running other errands for the home.
5)Took advantage of Ruth
When he neede Ruth's help to call the plumber, he called her 'sweetie' but when Ruth could not cope with all the other errands she had to run, he said she ;made everything so difficult' and finally when Ruth gave in and agreed to call the plumber, he said 'love you'. his change in attitude towards Ruth makes you wonder if he was only trying to make Ruth guilty so that she would do the job of calling and he was have another task washed off his hands.
6) career minded/helpful
Art's excuse for not being able to call the plumber was that 'i[he] had meetings and three appeals coming up ' and that he had cses on deaf prisoners who had been arrested and tried without access to interpreters, the fact that he was focusing on his job shows that he was carreer minded and that he was working on a case to help the deaf prisoners shows that he was helpful and wanted to prove their innocence.
Fia
1)Rude
When Ruth was concerned about what Fia was wearing- a shirt that revealed her belly, Ruth said her mother, Miriam, would be unhappy and then Fia replied 'Uh, she bought it for me okay?' which in this case, is very rude since no matter what, Ruth was older than Fia and deserved the same respect that Fia would give her mother.
And after she zipped up her jacket, she delibrately said that Ruth loved making everything so difficult, so that Ruth would hear it.
2) Trendy
She dared to wear a top that revealed a good six inches of belly and she wore 'low-slung jeans'. Also, Fia was also very superficial. she said 'She [a friend] has the best hair, i could just kill her.'
Dory
1) Rude
when she was passing Ruth the phone in the morning, she kept pounding on the doorand seemed very impatient when she was passing Ruth the phone.
Also when Ruth told Dory to tell her if Fia took off her jacket during ice-skating, she said 'i not telling on nobody'
Wendy
1) Loud
Wendy was boisterous and she was blunt.
2) Persistant
The friendship between Ruth and Wendy would not have grown if not for Wendy's persistance because Ruth herself, was not the persistant sort.
Luling
1) Patient
She took great pains to go into detail ofn the chinese characters so that she could teach Ruth chinese. She also drilled chinese into Ruth's brain.
2) Proud of her culture
'If Ruth showed impatience in listening to any of this [chinese], Luling became outraged....' this proved that to Luling her chinese culture and background mattered alot and she wanted to pass it down to Ruth.Also, she wrote the entire manuscript for Ruth to read so that Ruth would undersatand her mother's past and their culture from the bonesetters to the peking man.
3) Superstitious
To luling, just about anything was a sign of ghosts. Dogs barking, bowls breaking, 'phone calls with only silence or heavy breathing at the other end'. She often told Ruth that fog was the steam of dragons and that shooting stars were 'melting ghost bodies'
most memorable moment:
favourite quotes:
1) 'to argue mean she was offering to foot the bill, something she had done so often over their years of living together that it had become expected of her.'
2)
questions:
1)What had Ruth losing her voice when she was older had to do with her losing her voice after she had broken her arm when she was little?
2)When Art said that he had 'meetings and three appeals coming up', and that was why he could not call the plumber, was it because his job was so important or was it because he was just trying to get the responsibility off his hands?
