From the start of the story, I related to the melancholy tone when Lu Xun did not recognize his home town and felt like a stranger. After returning from the North back to his home town, Xun thought he would see people he knew from his past, or at least know his way around. To his surprise, everything was different except one wine shop. This change was talked about through out the story and had played a major role in how Lu Xun felt being back home.
From the age of 3, my family would rent a summer home in Arrowhead Lake community, located Upstate. I basically lived there for two months every year and absolutely loved it. The community had multiple swimming pools, 4 beaches, and many other kids that came repeatedly for the summers. In addition to all that, the community had many activities like tennis and even a swim team that held practice everyday. What I didn’t mention was that my grandparents that live in Russia would come and babysit me and my brother the whole time we were in Arrowhead.
In 2016, my grandparents couldn’t make it any more. So my family resorted to having my other grandma watch my brother for the summer. That year was also the year I started working and could only come up to Arrowhead on the weekends with my parents. But it was not the same. Since I didn’t live there and only came for one and a half days every week, I couldn’t attend the activities I grew up too. My childhood friends also had jobs, and some completely stopped coming. That summer was the worst for me, coming to my second home and realizing my youth days were over.
I still visited Arrowhead, maybe once or twice a summer in 2017 and 2018.
“I felt that the North was certainly not my home, yet when I came South I could only count as a stranger.”
