...Saving Nea In the short fictional story, “Saving Sourdi,” author May-lee Chai focuses on the bond and relationship between two sisters, Nea and Sourdi. Nea, the younger sibling in “Saving Sourdi,” looks up and admires her older sister, Sourdi. As the two sisters grow in age, Nea isn’t ready to face reality and watch her older sibling start a life without her. Throughout the story, Nea makes desperate attempts to “save” her older sister. In reality, Nea is the character in the story that needs to be “saved”, rather than her sister. Nea, the protagonist and major character in “Saving Sourdi,” is immature and dramatic. At the age of eleven, Nea stabs a man at the restaurant, after hearing him call Sourdi a “China doll.” While Sourdi manages to remain calm during this event, Nea reacts without thinking of the consequences. Toward the end of the story, Nea calls Duke and tells him that her sister is in danger. “Look, I don’t have time to explain. We have to go tonight. It’s an emergency. A matter of life and death.”(Chai 91). Here, Nea acts without thinking and makes it sound like Sourdi will die if they don’t go to Des Moines. Nea’s decision to call Duke for help leads to Sourdi’s husband getting punched in the face. Also, this episode results in the two sisters growing further apart, which is not Nea’s intention. The mother brings some light onto Nea as a character. She tells Nea: “You not like your sister. Your sister know how to bear things!”(Chai 90). What does the mother mean...
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...us have siblings. You want to care and love on them as much as possible. Saving Sourdi demonstrates the love one sibling can have for another sibling as well as the struggle it takes to care for a loved one. In Saving Sourdi, May-Lee Chai utilizes sibling love, family protection, and courage as the three themes that Nea demonstrates for her older sister. The first theme, sibling love, shows the relationship between Nea and her older sister. Their relationship goes back and forth between good and bad. “Uncle fired Duke… It was during the Saturday lunch rush when Sourdi and I were not working and could not witness what had happened” (May-Lee Chai 74). This is good because they get to see each other and spend time together. “Now when I crept into Sourdi’s bed at night, when she talked about running away, she meant Duke and her” (May-Lee Chai 74). This is not a good situation because her older sister talks about running away with Duke. If this happened, Nea would never get to see her sister anymore. Having sisterly love is important because you need that special connection if you have a problem. You may not want to talk with your parents right away about something but need someone to be there for you. A sister connection would be good in that situation. The next theme, family protection, shows what Nea would do to save her sister. “I grabbed the knife and ran back out to Sourdi” (May-Lee Chai 70). Nea grabs a knife and comes back out to the bar and protects her...
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