Good Critical Thinking On World Literature

In the story of old customs, Meng’s mother in law could be right by beating her up. Just as their village is remote and behind by all activities and customs, so is her mother in law behind (pg 110). I think that Meng’s problems were not only those from her family and relationships with her in-laws, but the mother in law was also a strong talker. This mother in law must have influenced her son on how to treat the wife. The customs were not only the ones that made Meng’s life difficult but also her mother in law. It is stated that Meng’ was an orphan, and nobody was there to protect her from her problems. With the culture that she was married, it can be justified that Meng’s nature of being an orphan exposed her to more risks. It is normal for girls to have their parents protect them even during marriage but for Meng’s situation the reality comes that she was an orphan thus had to suffer without a hand of help.
Finally, Meng’ is said to have run household chores back when she was young and learned to argue reasonably (pg 111). This could have brought her more problems because the society she was married in was not civilized. As Meng was unwilling to accept abuse, her problems must have increased from that, and her mother in law beat her thoroughly. Besides, Meng’s ability to argue reasonably could be clashing with that of the culture and customs since the civilization of their village was so much behind as compared to others. Since her thoughts could have been ahead of those of her marital society, Meng’ would obviously oppose bad cultures and suffer at the hands of her mother in law.

Work Cited

Hong, Zicheng, and Michael M. Day. A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2007. Print.