When Lindo is locked in her room by her mother in law, she grows jealous of those that have the freedom to move, she “envied this girl, the way she could walk out the door” On the other hand, Mary nor An-Mei ever experienced jealousy during their confinement, whereas Lindo did when she was locked in a room, which Lindo describes as “worse than a prison”. Eventually, Lindo reacts to her dilemma and confinement to such an extent that she attempts a course of escape.
One day, Lindo started to think how she “would escape this marriage without breaking my promise to my family”. Lindo plans for many days, she “observed everyone around” and when she had laid out her plot, she cleverly chose a superstitious day, the “Festival of Pure Brightness” to arouse more belief. Although she was escaping her marriage, Lindo stays unwavering from her decision to not “breaking my promise to my family”. Where Mary and An-Mei improvises or at most thinks a little ahead of their plans, Lindo can effectively create a well thought out plot with patience: “I thought about my plan for many days”. When Lindo puts her plan into action, she acts very well to be seen as in pain and desolation. She is also firm to wail for the attention of Huang taitai as long as it was needed:
“I woke up Tyan-yu and the entire house with my wailing. It took Huang Taitai a long time to come into my room. “What’s wrong with her now,” she cried from her room. “Go make her be quiet.” But finally, after my wailing didn’t stop, she rushed into my room” All three characters make firm decisions that they stick to, once Lindo decided to try to escape the marriage, she did so and once she decided to stick to her promise since she was twelve, she did so. Lindo is also similar to Mary as they act well to deceive people to their benefit in facing their dilemmas, the evidence is shown for Lindo: “My body was writhing as if I were seized by a terrible pain. I was quite convincing, because Huang Taitai drew back and grew small like a scared animal”.
As Lindo continues with her plan, she utilizes her knowledge of those around her that she gathered previously: “I observed everyone around me, the thoughts they shows in their faces, and then I was ready” By understanding that the Huangs were a superstitious family like many others, Lindo puts herself at a great lead by taking advantage of their beliefs. By claiming that the ancestors of the family have decided to kill the couple if they were to continue the marriage and then declaring the signs: “”He said there are three signs… this spot will grow and eat away Tyan-Yu’s flesh… my teeth would fall out one by one, until I could no longer protest leaving this marriage…the servant girl is Tyan-Yu’s spiritual wife.””
The Huangs fall for the trick and release Lindo from her marriage when they find the pregnant servant girl and “extracted her terrible confession”. Through wit, determination and cunning, Lindo manages to escape her marriage without breaking her promise. Where An-Mei takes the most practical approach, in the face of dilemma, it can be said that Mary and Lindo use cunning as their greatest weapon.
The characters Lindo Jong, Mary Maloney and An-Mei Hsu all have similarities and differences in the way they approach their confinement and dilemma. An-Mei, Mary and Lindo are all faithful and devoted. Mary is faithful to her husband and devoted to their marriage, Lindo is faithful to her promise and devoted to stick to it no matter what and An-Mei keeps faith in her mother by trusting her even when the rest of the family curse her. During confinement, Lindo felt sadness and jealousy where Mary were content to sacrifice her freedom for the love of her husband. On the other hand, when An-Mei’s mother died, one could say that they were permanently confined from one another, in this case An-Mei releases her anger upon Wu Tsing and Second Wife.
Once Mary had learned that her devotion to her husband was in vain, she also felt sadness and gave in to anger by killing her husband. Lindo on the other hand, was nearly provoked to give in to anger, yet she controlled herself and remembered her promise. An-Mei in fact used her anger as her weapon to control Wu Tsing and Second Wife to lead herself a better life that her mother wanted. Where Mary was angered to give in to rash violence, Lindo was disciplined enough to control herself and remember her devotion to her promise. An-Mei could be somewhere in the middle between the two, as she didn’t fall for violence but wielded her anger in a practical way.
In the face of dilemma, a clear distinctive resemblance is within Mary and Lindo, the use of cunning and deceit. Moreover, they are also both great actresses as well as being clever in the way they approach their dilemma. An-Mei on the other hand never had the need to act or deceive, instead she took the direct advance to solve her own problems. Where Mary and An-Mei improvised much of their plans, Lindo took her time to think about what she was going to do, proof of her organizational skills over the other tow characters.
The last connection I could concur is the firmness of all characters, whom stuck to whatever decisions they had made without hesitation. Throughout this comparative analysis, I describe Lindo Jong and Mary Maloney are on two ends of the same line. The two share their abilities and skills yet all wield them in a different manner in the face of confinement and dilemma. Conversely, An-Mei doesn’t seem to fall exactly into Lindo’s and Mary’s category; as she has different traits used when encountering her confinement and dilemma, yet she still remains similar just not as distinct between Mary and Lindo.
