Form 4 IGCSE English “Chinese Cinderella” by Adeline Yen Mah

• Characters

a) Adeline
i) She hides her embarrassment – “I had forgotten”
ii) She is respectful of her father / in awe of her father - "He looked radiant. For once, he was
proud of me"
"I had given him face."
iii) She agrees with her father almost without question to go to England
iv) She is surprised at being invited to enter the “Holy of Holies” – Her father’s room which in
the book she refers to as the “Holy of Holies"
v) At the start of the extract she was expecting that someone had died

b) Adeline’s father
i) Shows the characteristics of a typical/stereotypical Chinese father.
(1) Very strict with his children

• Themes

a) Detached Family
i) “How come you won” – Seems like father doubts his daughter’s achievements.
ii) “Don’t look so scared” – “scared” shows Adeline’s fear in turn suggesting there is a distance
between family members
iii) “See me in his room?” “I was overwhelmed by the thought that I had been summoned by
Father to enter the Holy of Holies”
v) She does not even know that the “elegant villa” is her home. “Our car stopped at an elegant
villa… “Where are we?”
b) Chinese Culture or Religion
i) “does it matter what you do after you go to heaven” – Religion (Catholic)
ii) “summoned”- Chinese religion/ culture

• Tone

a) Fear
i) “Foreboding” and “nightmare”
ii) “my heart gave a giant lurch”
iii) “Don’t look so scared”
iv) “uneasy when I wondered why he was being so nice, thinking, Is this a giant ruse on his part
to trick me? Dare I let my guard down?”

b) Excitement/ gratefulness
i) “Agree? Of course, I agreed.”
ii) “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”
iii) “Thank you very, very much”
iv) “My whole being vibrated with all the joy in the world. I only had to stretch out my hand to
reach the stars.”

• Literary Devices
a) Allusion – Reference to other poem – “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”
b) Rhetorical questions – “Study?...” and “Does it matter what you do after you get to heaven?”
and “Is it possible? Am I dreaming? Me, the winner?”
c) Metaphor – “I only had to stretch out my hand to reach the stars.”
d) Repetition – “very, very…” and “heaven.. heaven”
e) Alliteration – “replied rudely” and “warm wind”
 • Context
a) Setting: In her house, mainly in the “Holy of Holies”
b) She is having a conversation with her father about her winning the writing contest and
eventually leading up to the point where she agrees with her father to study medicine in
England