Girl in Translation Literary Elements

A novel

The events of the story take place in New York. Kimberley and her mother leave everything they have in Hong Kong and come to the USA, for Mrs. Chang is convinced that Kimberley has no future back home. However, their life in the new country is even more difficult. Kimberley’s only hope is Harrison High School and, if she succeeds, Yale. If she doesn’t get proper education, they are doomed to work for her aunt for the rest of their lives.

The story is told from the first point of view by the protagonist, Kimberley Chang.

Tone is thoughtful, mood is calm. Kimberley reflects on her life, but does it calmly, for she doesn’t regret anything.

Kimberley Chang is the protagonist of the story, while Aunt Paula is the antagonist.

The main conflict is man vs. self. Kimberley and her mother have to deal with terrible hardship and live in awful conditions. All of these makes Kimberley be unsure of herself. She has to cope with her fears in order to achieve success. Her victory over her own insecurities is the most important one. When she has to choose between Matt and Yale, she has one of the biggest inner conflicts of her life, but she does what is better for both him and her, even if it causes her a great deal of emotional suffering. One more conflict is man vs. man. It is Kimberley who doesn’t agree to live according to her Aunt’s rules and disobey her openly, Kimberley refuses to be a victim of her aunt’s cruelty. According to Chinese traditions, she doesn’t have a right to speak against an older family member, but it doesn’t bother her anymore, for they are in the USA and there is no need to follow every Chinese tradition.

Kimberley and Matt’s meeting after 12 years from their break up is the climax of the story.

The scene in the beginning of the novel, in which Kimberley looks at a little girl in a bridal shop, foreshadows the events of the story. She says that her “heart stirs like a wounded animal” when she sees a father of that girl, which allows us to assume that we are going to learn more about this man and Kimberley’s past.

Let me buy you an iced tea.
This is what Uncle Bob says to Kimberley’s mother when she asks him when a better apartment is going to available. He pretends that it is not worth worrying about and believes that a cup of iced tea is going to distract them from absence of a central heating in their flat.

The novel alludes to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China.

Imagery is used to describe terrible poverty the Chang family has to deal with, the poorest parts of Brooklyn and differences between Kimberley and other kids.

I thought of myself as one of black kids.
The paradox is that Kimberley is a Chinese.

You look like a monkey,
You smell like one too.
We really hate you, Mr. Bogart,
We really do.

It has been long since you’ve eaten rice at our house. (Rice is synecdoche, for main course stands for the whole meal).
I have a lot of head pains. (Head pains are metonymy, which stands for duties).

This was wild ice.
Wild ice means that it is not artificially created.