World Literature

” Bai Liusu laughed sarcastically. ‘Third Brother has certainly planned out everything.’ she said, ‘but unfortunately it’s a bit late. The divorce went through some seven or eight years ago. Are you saying that those legal proceedings were empty non-sense? You can’t fool around with the law!’

‘Don’t you try to scare us with the law,’ Third Master warned. ‘The law is one thing today and another tomorrow. What I’m talking about is the law of family relations, and that never changes! As long as you live you belong to his family, and after you die your ghost will belong to them too! The tree may be a thousand feet tall, but the leaves fall back to the roots.’ ” (page 113)

Eileen describes Bai Liusu’s characteristic through Third Master’s words in this part. It is obvious to see that Bai Liusu was borned in a traditional and feudal family. In this family, each one’s thought is closed. They all think women should stay at their husbands’ families during their whole lives. They don’t accept the law made by government, so that is why Third Master says “what I’m talking about is the law of family relations”. However, Bai Liusu is different with them. She is talking about the real law. And the biggest difference between her and other women during that time is her bravery. Liusu violates the traditional rules. She divorces with her ex-husband bravely and breaks the law of her family relations. This conversation between Liusu and Third Master also indicates their conflicts in later part of story because Liusu is different with anyone in this big family. Third Master’s words show that this family is feudal. He says “the tree may be thousand feet tall, but the leaves fall back to the roots.” He describes his sister, Liusu as a tree, and tells her that her “root” is her ex-husband’s family, not this family. He doesn’t treat Liusu as a part of this family just because she had married before.