Question #3 Response

In Shanghai girls, there are many external factors that seem to conspire against one of the main characters, mainly Pearl, that seem to be out of her control. I would say that eighty percent of what happens to Pearl are due to external factors she has no control over. You could thank her father for selling his daughters. She had no control and did not know that her dad’s gambling problem would catch up to him so bad that he would have to sell his own daughters. That was an external factor that she had no control over. Pearl had no control in the decision to leave china. When you got Japanese Zeros dropping bombs on your home country, you really have no choice but to escape to safety. Pearl had no choice in the decision of Imperialist Japan to try and conquer the world. This was another factor of the external sort that she had no control over. It gets a little more complicated as the book progresses towards them living in Chinatown. Here, I think decisions that she makes contribute to difficulties that she experiences in her life, but have external consequences that cannot be avoided. One big decision she made however, was to take on May’s child as one of her own, just to save May’s reputation. Here she could have just easily had told May that she must be responsible for her own baby and continue on from there. Taking care of Vern and the family was just a responsibility Pearl took on. Both external factors and decisions of her own contribute to that situation, as well as being stuck working at the restaurant.

Many of our problems in our own lives can be attributed towards outside forces, but I believe the ratio is different nowadays when it comes to our own decisions and external factors that which we have no control over. I believe that some people are just dealt hard situations to live through, but there are many bad situations that come about our own reckless and just plain out bad decisions. In my life I believe a lot that I have experienced has come forth as a product of my own decisions; some good, and some bad. However for the most part, in our lives, we are fortunate enough to live in a country where we can make our own decisions, so a lot of the time our lives take direction mainly based on decisions we make on our own accord. Although, that does not mean we are exempt from the occasional hiccup in the road caused by outside forces. Sometimes, there are things that are out our control that we have no choice but to ride it through. Decisions you make afterward however, can potentially change that, and can be an opportunity to gain control of your direction once again. The best thing we can do is take pearl as an example, and take things for what they are, and accept what is not in our control.