‘EXTRA’ by LI YIYUN

DEBATE;

After being ‘honourably discharged’ from the Beijing Red Star Garment Factory, Granny Lin sets out on a journey. Her life improves.

When composing your response to this statement, consider such things as material possessions, standard of accommodation, emotional richness, strength of character, Granny Lin’s impact on those she meets, worldliness and her moral standards.

EXTRA, by Yiyun Li

What’s the story about? THEMES include…truth, deception, responsibility, change, capitalism/consumerism, survival, culture, tradition, hypocrisy, honour, love, honesty, companionship, youth vs age, good intentions/bad outcomes, communism, corruption, nepotism

What do you think Li is saying? SOME SUGGESTIONS. Ideas, her perspective, her ‘angle’, her assertions for consideration; What themes/topics/issues are raised when the characters in ‘Extra’ collide? What HAPPENS to Granny Lyn’s life, in what ways does it change when she encounters each of these characters below?

What ideas does Li present about these themes or issues – what’s she saying about them? What’s the main contention in the story? (Li’s position or viewpoint)

Granny Lin’s plight opens her ideas and her heart, places her in peril, exposes her to the different (needy) people and communities (like herself). Is the whole country needy?

Old Tang’s family exposes both responsible but uncaring, reflect changing society…juxtapose old with new. Can we see the benefits of the old regime and the new? Old and new economic society?

Aunty Wang highlights a community desperate to survive, and it highlights the society/regime that dictates their lives – emphasises changing society, changing traditions and how they ‘meet’ or collide with the new

Older generation; vulnerable, left behind, discarded, not valued?

Younger generation shallow, obsessed with ‘stuff’, parallel with ‘The State?

Granny Lin – Unloved, isolated, ‘Barren’.

The past, what’s happening to society in new economy, urbanisation, dislocation, commercialism, capitalism

Empathy, compassion

Aunty Wang – progress, opportunity, changes, represent what you have to do to survive…matchmakers an OLD custom, but she uses it to adapt in the new economics.

Canny, shrewd, manipulative OR a survivor, helpful, a good friend

Aunty Wang – what does Aunty Wang do for Granny Lin; does she ‘save’ her? Does Aunty Wang represent ‘survival’, being canny/shrewd, staying abreast of change.

Old Tang – Old Vulnerable, an ‘extra’, the innocent ‘victim’, the pastA new life of intimacy (Old Tang), luxury (TV, bath). Leads to Kang. ‘A shooting star’.

Old Tang’s family – sees that they are happy to pay for someone to care for their father rather than care for him themselves – disposable income?

Kang – another victim?

What does Granny Lin want?

What happens to Granny Lin next?

Given the time, the culture and the politics of the country, what can Granny Lin expect?

What does the story mean to you?

Title; refers to what?

Main characters;

Granny Lin, Aunty Wang, Old Tang, Old Tang’s family, Kang

Setting: Where – Beijing

When – post Mao, change from communist rule to a more capitalist culture

POV ; 3rd person

Literary techniques; irony, proverbs, symbolism, metaphor

Key or turning points : not so important in this story since there’s no use of dramatic Irony the audience, and perhaps one member of the ‘cast’, knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know. Dramatic Irony EG Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. When Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet then kills herself. Situational irony an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected, the difference between what is expected to happen and what actually does

Language/style; Tell don’t show, Direct, few literary devices. No description. It’s the story itself rather than the ‘artifice.’ Show don’t tell…you had to search for the meaning, you were not told. You are not told to feel sadness, despair, how to feel about the politics or the Government companies…you must decide for yourself? Matter of fact, not obvious emotion, readers to ‘add’ meaning and emotion. EG; why is Granny Lin so without awareness of how others perceive her? Why is she so compliant?

Motifs; socks, cheeks, lunch pail, lies vs truth

What makes a good story?

What is good about this story?

Do you feel you know the characters? Do you empathise with Granny Lin, Old Tang, Yang, Aunty Wang? Are you concerned about their fate? Do you find yourself thinking about them?

Sense of journey and change, Highs and lows of Granny Lin’s life, against an inferred socio-economic change. ‘The specific examined to convey the universal.’ (change, older generation etc)