In the Wineshop – Jeremy Ramirez

Describe an instance of filial piety in the story.  What is its significance?

One instance of filial piety in the story is when Lu Wei-fu went to his younger brother’s burial site in his mother’s request because the coffin was getting destroyed by the river. It’s significant because he hadn’t the time or money to go there in the first instance he knew about it from his mother. But once the New Year’s holiday came around he instantly went there to resolve the issue. The story stated, As soon as my mother knew this, she became very upset, and couldn’t sleep for several nights—she can read letters by herself, you know. But what could I do? I had no money, no time: there was nothing that could be done.” Here it’s stated that his mother was suffering but he felt that it was a hopeless mission, and yet, once it was possible to go, Lu Wei-fu went for his mother so she wouldn’t be upset anymore. Once he got there it was already too late and futile to move the body to a new coffin because everything inside rotted a was now emptied. So he pretended to move the body in this new coffin and then buried this empty coffin in order to satisfy his mother’s request and for her mind to be at ease. Lu Wei-fu believes and follows the old traditional Chinese philosophies of filial piety- of strong loyalty and deference to one’s parents, to one’s ancestors, and to one’s country and its leaders.

What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?

The aspects of this short story that seem to me modernist are the way as we the readers are inside the thoughts of the narrator the story is told from his perspective, meaning the narrator’s self-conscious and how he is describing and navigating throughout the world. Another aspect is modernist themes such as the sense of alienation, the loneliness, of the characters particularly the narrator. For example, when the narrator stated he felt like a stranger going back to a place he once been, “When I passed the gate of the school, I found that too had changed its name and appearance, which made me feel quite a stranger. In less than two hours my enthusiasm had waned, and I rather reproached myself for coming.” Another aspect is the use of metaphors and symbols and description of the setting, such as- the artificial flower, moistness of the heaped snow, dry northern snow, the poor grave, and more.