Sacrificing Happiness - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 603 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/05/07 Category Society Essay Level High school Topics: Happiness Essay Did you like this example? Sometimes, sacrifice is more than just a part-time job. It can be a self-made life sentence, where escaping is not an option. In The Joy Luck Club, the vignette The Red Candle shows Lindo Jongs struggles of balancing happiness and her role of being the perfect wife and daughter. Disobeying the rules set for women that she had been taught from a young age would cause disappointment in her family, so she did her best to hide herself and fulfill her role. Lindo Jongs sacrifice for maintaining peace within family is developed from her adherence to feminine expectations. Lindo hides her unhappiness of the arranged marriage because she knows that it was for her familys satisfaction of having a perfect daughter and wife. ?Obey your family. Do not disgrace us, she said. ?Act happy when you arrive. Really, youre very lucky. (Tan, 54) She is told how to feel toward people who will become part of her family, and she doesnt want to disappoint. Lindo feels the need to be obedient and t ake her place in terms of the housewhich is to be the female; dont speak of herself, just take it. Huang Taitai hurried me upstairsa place where family children usually didnt go. This was a place for cooks and servants. So I knew my standing (Tan, 55). Lindo is going to be the wife of Huang Taitais son, who believed Lindo had the worth equivalent to people just there to either make food or take orders. Her being a wife would make her a servant to her king, but she never speaks against it. This comes from her belief that she shouldnt have a say, and that her happiness should come from her familys satisfaction. The Red Candle was supposed to be a bond between two lovers, but for Lindo, she saw it as watching her freedom fading and her place in marriage sealed. That candle was a marriage bond that was worthI couldnt divorce, I couldnt ever remarry, even if Tyan-yu diedI stayed up all night crying about my marriage (Tan, 59). Though she had been taught the basics of what was expected of her, reality finally hit her after the candle resembled her imprisonment in the marriage. Lindo cried, because she didnt want to upset family about being an ungrateful wife, and also since she didnt want the marriage. I made the Huangs think it was their idea to get rid of me, that they would be the ones to say the marriage contract was not valid. (Tan, 63) Lindo knew she couldnt stay; she just was not fit emotionally to do so, and her way of escaping was not through her talking out of it. Lindo couldnt talk anyway, she was in a lower place than everyone, being the wife. She had to make the family decide, and because they made the decision to make her leave, it would keep the peace. She wouldnt be blamed, and Lindo saw that she could make her way out of the marriage without disappointing people. Lindo Jong escaped her imprisonment in the marriage without causing chaos, and while staying in her place. While she was the wife, she cooked, cleaned, tried to have children, and ne ver talked back to Tyan-yu. Her sacrifice toward her family came out of the stereotypes of females, to be an obedient daughter and wife. She was able to slide out of the marriage, because she knew how her place workedshe shows a problem, and lets the upper people in the family talk and make decisions, which is also peace because she doesnt actually ever talk. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Sacrificing Happiness" essay for you Create order