Journey by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
Journey Info and Resources created by Caleb Clayton, ZiYou Du, Hao JiaAbout the authorBorn in Malaysia, Lim was raised in poverty, deprivation, and with the threat of constant parental violence. She was abandoned by her mother and grew up with her father and 5 brothers . In a culture that rarely recognized girls as individuals, she tried desperately to fit in. Lim described herself during this period as “a wild girl who ran with the boys and alone through the streets”.
She is now a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara Thematically, questions of identity and transition, gender, race, and the complexities of relationships are found inLim’s writing. Dreams and her childhood experiences often provide inspiration. |
In a nutshell:
In 'Journey', the story is told from a third person perspective looking upon the family of a young girl. It opens during one of the girl's nightmares sleeping on the bus. She is on her way to pick up a package on the instruction of her mother. When she reaches the package's location, she is extremely uncomfortable with being in an unfamiliar location as is shown when she expresses her discomfort when offered a place to sit while she waits. After she receives the package, she returns home where we get a glimpse at her family, and her young, dependent siblings and her sick yet loving mother and her father who are in the next room playing games/ gambling with friends. Later that night, the girl is awoken by her mother, who is "gushing blood from some unseen wound" in the bathroom. The girl then has to care for her mother, not knowing what is going on. After her mother sleeps she proceeds to cry while she cleans:
Mrs Wilding says: she has lost the innocence of childhood as she realises that there is no real protection and that the neverending pattern of domestic drudgery, childbirth and objectification are all that await her.
PRIORITY: HIGH
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
- Yellow Wallpaper (oppression of women by patriarchy, change, isolation, unbreakable cycle, conflict);
- Games at Twilight (childhood, innocence lost, change, isolation, gender, age/youth);
- Five Twenty (age/youth, oppression of women by patriarchy, change, isolation, colours and physical symbols)
- Secrets (age/youth, growing up, relationships, women in society, change, isolation, epiphany)
- The Lemon Orchard (oppression, isolation)
Deeper analysis:
‘Journey’ by Shirley Goek-Lin Lim creates a lucid narrative of a young asian girl who faces adversity in the solitude she experiences, and her development as a character through through the caring responsibilities forced upon her - forcing her to mature quickly.
Vivid and gruesome imagery alluding to death and rituals plague her dreams in the beginning of the story, representing the fear she faces alone as a youth. Lim creates a longing idea in her description of walking past families in their houses, and how the main character felt jealous yet disconnected from a close familial relationship like this. The girl is seen to be responsible and loyal through the fact that she is following the command of her mother in the task of bringing a packet of herbal tea.
Derogatory and displeasing language in the descriptions of male figures in her household reflect her frame of mind toward her father and his friends in her life- they represent a irresponsible and non-communal aspect of life. This is further presented through their gambling, which symbolises their wasteful existence. A cornerstone in the girl's life is evidently her mother- among her caring for the multiple young children at home, she is described with language alluding to her qualities of protection and consistency within the girl's life.
There is a dramatic turn of events as the mother is suddenly seen to be in need of care with the discovery of an unknown injury, which gushes blood and seems to indicate a miscarriage. The girl tends to her mother faithfully,. There is a clear reversal as she employs the role of her mother over her childhood, while also showing the sudden growth of her maturity, responsibility and the loss of her innocence- her bursting into tears in the ending of the story portrays her powerful emotion in her lack of acceptance of this lifestyle, her fearfulness of the transformation which she is powerless to prevent and from which there is no protection.
‘Journey’ by Shirley Goek-Lin Lim creates a lucid narrative of a young asian girl who faces adversity in the solitude she experiences, and her development as a character through through the caring responsibilities forced upon her - forcing her to mature quickly.
Vivid and gruesome imagery alluding to death and rituals plague her dreams in the beginning of the story, representing the fear she faces alone as a youth. Lim creates a longing idea in her description of walking past families in their houses, and how the main character felt jealous yet disconnected from a close familial relationship like this. The girl is seen to be responsible and loyal through the fact that she is following the command of her mother in the task of bringing a packet of herbal tea.
Derogatory and displeasing language in the descriptions of male figures in her household reflect her frame of mind toward her father and his friends in her life- they represent a irresponsible and non-communal aspect of life. This is further presented through their gambling, which symbolises their wasteful existence. A cornerstone in the girl's life is evidently her mother- among her caring for the multiple young children at home, she is described with language alluding to her qualities of protection and consistency within the girl's life.
There is a dramatic turn of events as the mother is suddenly seen to be in need of care with the discovery of an unknown injury, which gushes blood and seems to indicate a miscarriage. The girl tends to her mother faithfully,. There is a clear reversal as she employs the role of her mother over her childhood, while also showing the sudden growth of her maturity, responsibility and the loss of her innocence- her bursting into tears in the ending of the story portrays her powerful emotion in her lack of acceptance of this lifestyle, her fearfulness of the transformation which she is powerless to prevent and from which there is no protection.
Ways of Seeing
Feminist perspective
The male figures are distant, powerful and vulgar. The strong female figures experience lives of quiet suffering. In particular, note the uncaring, distant household god and the description of the father. The woman seen through the bus window is "exhausted and faded by having had too many children, too much labour done, too many years lived". This foreshadows the girl's eventual revelation that this is all her life as an adult will offer. When the girl's mother rises at night, Lim writes how the mother "contracted" and "contorted" -- the language of childbirth (or, in this case, miscarriage). The girl is transformed from a child to a young woman with a life of cleaning, caring and blood ahead of her. Journey shows not only the transition between innocence and adulthood but also how women's identities are soley defined by family and domestic burdens with no hope for a different life.
Depressing things worth considering: either the mother is sick (the medicine packet) to the extent where she may soon die and the child will be left as the maternal figure in her family OR, the mother is pregnant again and the sickness/tiredness is connected with this; the medicine packet could either be to help pregnancy or possibly to terminate it, inducing miscarriage. If the latter (and remember, we can't diagnose -- the story is ambiguous as the third person narrative reflects the girl's experience), then this choice is a reflection of the only control the mother can exercise in her life, no matter how painful.
Rough thematic areas: gender identity, patriarchy, transition, growing up, loss of innocence, powerlessness, age and youth.
Enquiry
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Mrs Wilding's other Key areas to investigate:
a) search for semantic fields of confinement or being otherwise trapped. Notice how some of these keep things out and provide safety and security (or exclusion), while others keep things and trap them. Why the differences? How is the girl protected by confinement and how is she trapped? b) collate examples of the recurring motif of twighlight. Notice how it becomes synonymous with dread and how it is an even more powerful force than darkness. What is the twighlight a metaphor for? Remember that it is a transition phase (or a liminal phase). What is the transition phase in the girl's life? What is Lim therefore saying about growing up? c) binary opposition: find examples of how the men are presented as vugla; compare this with the imagery relating to females. What does Lim tell us about the girl's existence and future through this? Why is this particularly significant when we have understood the shocking revelation that the girl has about her own future at the end of the story? d) the "household god, an inscrutable figure, who sat and watched the domestic goings o, always to be placated, never please, awful Lord of the destiny of furniture, food and family". Notice the red dragon's prominent position here (think about the end revelation). On one hand, we see an uncaring god who offers no comfort. On the other hand, notice the male pronoun of Lord - consider what parallels this description has with her own father and her understanding of male figures at the end of the story. What is Lim telling us about male power in family life? e) "his eyes rifled her clothes" p379: what does his inappropriate attitude to the girl show about male power and how they view females? This moment is revisited in the girl's final revelation so what else does it signify in terms of her development? f) Look at the graphic, painful verbs connected with the description of the mother's suffering on p379-380. What effect do these have and how can them be seen as representative of female existence in Lim's society? g) How does Lim convey the girl's loss (and loss of innocence) in the last paragraph? h) How are copiousness and anaphora (repetitive patterning again!) symbolic when the girl realises what her future holds? |