Ha Jin: The Bridesgroom

The Bridesgroom by Ha Jin is a story of three main characters: "Old Cheng", Beina, and Huang Baowen. Cheng is Beina's Father's close friend and caretaker after her father's death. Throughout the story, she is referred to as his daughter. Beina is not a pretty girl and remains an unmarried woman in China until Huang Baowen proposes to her, out of the blue. He works in the same factory as her and although surprised, she agrees knowing she is unlikely to have another.

However, Huang Baowen is caught with a group of homosexuals that meet on Tuesday nights and is arrested for Indecent Activity. Homosexuality is illegal and Huang would likely be sent to jail. Through Cheng's connections, the police send him to a hospital to be cured. After many months, Cheng still wonders when Huang will be cured so that he will not have to live in shame. Huang is caught at the end in homosexual behavior with his nurse. Cheng expects Beina to divorce him and search for another but she refuses. It ends with Cheng storming out telling Beina never to speak with him again.

This story is very much about the conservative culture of China. I couldn't help but chuckle when a man from a Middle School asked "What do homosexuals do?" (pg 95). With such a culture, the immoral and incurable tend to be hidden from the main population, ignorance is bliss. It was up until Dr. Mai reveals "Homosexuality isn't an illness, so how can it have a cure?" (pg 111) that Cheng had hope for Beina and Huang. This revelation brought great trouble to the man, uncertain of Huang's motives. Rather than look at society as the blame for Baowen's struggle to cure what needs no cure, he wonders whether Baowen is just a shammer. Close-mindedness is a natural trait among humans. Without a desire to see outside our beliefs, we ignore any other possibility for truth or right over our own.

Further thought brings new light on Cheng, curious how something so seemingly unnatural could be natural in the world, desiring someone to consult but afraid and uncertain.

"Compared to most men, Baowen isn't that bad. Beina isn't a fool." Cheng's wife explains on page 101. Beina likes Baowen even though he won't sleep with her because she doesn't have to "worry about those shameless bitches at the factory" (pg 101). It reminds me of a song by Garfunkel and Oates "Gay Boyfriend". The stereotypical gay man thinks and acts womanly, putting emotions before physical, being a sissy. Beina likely sees him this way. Free from the worry of him having sex with other women, cheating on her.

Like all stereotypes, it's wrong. The differences between gay men are just as vast as between straight men. Some romantic, some sex driven, some are Catholic priests. Because homosexuality seems so different from what we experience, it brings with it belief of immoral and unnatural. Many ignore how natural it really is. Wikipedia provides many great external cited sources, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals .

-Mark Todd

Reading: Chris Offutt Day 2

As the book went on, I liked less and less him writing about his present with his pregnant wife but realize that it is the only way to get out the good bits of interesting thoughts he has on things. For example, without the story for backing, this quote would seem silly and not necessary.

If childbearing were left to men, our species would have moldered because males could never accommodate the pain. We can barely get through hangovers and football games. (pg 75)

I couldn't help but laugh and agree with this quote.
As the story continued, it became extremely apparent not only his lack of belief in Christianity but strong disbelief.

Mother Earth became Papa Sun. Jesus performed the dream of many men--he broke the hymen from the inside out and took up with a hooker. (pg 75)

As I am reading this book, I am also reading another book from the same time period, another memoir of sorts by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine: Last Chance to See. In this book, Douglas mentions, "It's so bloody hard not to anthromorphise...I tried to imagine instead how [the gorilla] saw us, but of course that's almost impossible to do, because the assumptions you end up making as you try to bridge the imaginative gap are, of course, your own, and the most misleading assumptions are the ones you don't even know you're making." (pg 81). And this is exactly what Chris Offutt and the rest of the Animal Taming crew in the circus do. They antromorphize Gabe, the circus gorilla, assuming it feels and shows emotion the same way we do, and reacting due to these assumptions. "He glanced at us with an expression of terrible humiliation, then hid his face." (pg 101)
My favorite quote from this section is another from his present tense writings.

Taking life is as biologically grounded as giving life. Every animal kills to live. Eating fruit, vegetables, and grain is no escape; plants are living things. They have gender and home, suffer when hurt, and attempt to heal themselves. (pg 89)

It is a very interesting concept to believe the plants suffer when hurt, though he may mean suffer differently then the way animals do. When an animal loses a finger, (s)he will suffer with pain, while a plant will suffer with the loss of energy contributed by what ever is injured or torn apart. "I believe that like an amputee whose missing limb aches, the tree knows when a branch is gone." The tree notices the missing source of energy, the missing piece of the whole, regardless of how small.

-Mark