Imagery of Helplessness and Loneliness
‘Extra’ depicts images of helplessness through the character of Granny Lin. She works in a garment factory and she gets retired when the factory goes bankrupt. Granny Lin remains penniless, she does not have anything to depend on for the later part of her life. The images of helplessness become more apparent when she starts taking care of Old Tang, and he slips in a bath while bathing by Granny Lin and dies on the spot. Old Tang’ s family blames Granny for his death. Once again, she is dismissed from inheritance and she becomes alone and empty handed. The portrayal of helplessness is further reinforced when after getting a job in a school she is fired for her negligence. She takes great care of the children and even helps Kang and saves him from insult by spending her own money but still she is deprived of her job. Furthermore, the thieves snatch her bag when she moves out of the school. From beginning to the end of story Granny remains alone with little or no money for her survival. The story of Sansan also represents images of loneliness as she is betrayed by her fiancé and her close friend and is chastised by the society.
Images of Betrayal
In the story ‘Love in the Marketplace’, the images of betrayal have been conveyed through the relationship of Tu with Sansan’s friend. Sansan and Tu were engaged since they were studying in university but in an attempt to help her friend, Min, Sansan asks Tu to accompany Min to live in Pennsylvania. She asks him to divorce her later on and then Sansan and Tu would get marry but Min and Tu betrays Sansan and stays together leaving Sansan alone. There are images of Sansan agonizing because of being ditched by her closed ones. She remains virgin and does not marry anyone. After ten years, Tu divorces Min and sends a marriage proposal for Sansan but she seems to be still suffering because of Tu’s infidelity. The society blames her that she is not a virgin that’s why she is not marrying anyone. Her family thinks that she would have some intimate physical relationship with Tu and no one believes that she has never got involved in any physical relationship.
Images of Marriage Proposals
The short story ‘Son’ is replete with images of marriage proposals. Han’s mother shows him the pictures of girls on his every visit to Beijing and asks him to marry one of the girls. Although he avoids the topic of his marriage because he is a gay, but his mother reiterates him to marry. She considers her son a ‘diamond bachelor’ because according to her most the girls want such a man, who earns dollars and who possess American Citizenship.
