21 - Miss. Misfits

[Chaoxing G.]

Catherine, a female art history teacher with revolutionary preconscious who wants to change a group of smart girls considering marriage as their ultimate career, but leaves with unforeseen outcome.

Wang Cailing, a female music teacher who is obsessed with opera but limited in talent. She does not recognize her fate but hates her identity as a teacher in poor areas. She keeps her distance from the people around her sedulously by performing apathy and repeating the lie that she would enter Central Opera House.

I would rather to call them “Misfits”. We may not like people like them who are kind of cynic, mighty and always judging the lives of others with their own standards. But I admire their courage to fight against the established social order. They are Don Quijote of their period, with the same bravery and idealism.

Catherine pursues the construction of a new lifestyle and the spread of new ideas. She disdains the obedience, dependence, and those who do not push forward. She wants to challenge the tradition and make things work as she prefers. She tries her best to persuade Jone to enter Yale law school and chase her great future rather than end her life as a housewife; she introduces avant-garde paintings to her classes; she refuses marriage and hopes other girls to do so.

Wang Cailin shows another aspect of “misfits” – they struggle to leave when they cannot change others. She is disgusted with nearly every in that barren town except another “misfits” who is disgusted with her. She strain every nerve to escape from the desert of art. But the tragedy is that the place she yearned for most eventually refused her, ignoring her longing cry, ignoring her efforts regardless of dignity. But this woman always sticks to her so-called "difference". She would rather have one bite of fresh peach than a whole basket of rotten ones. She has been repeating her lies about going to Beijing, even preparing her dress for the performance at the Central Opera House. She lived in a world built by huge drops and tried to fill the ravines with lies.

These two failed at last. The smartest girl Jone gets married and gives up the opportunity to study in law school. People in Wellesley college continue to stick to the traditional dogma though some of them like Betty recognize other choices. But the change is not brought by Catherine but by the disastrous marriage. The woman warrior come to Wellesley for changing everything but leave with nothing changed. Wang finally kills the unique hope to go to Beijing by herself. Even the hope from charlatan disappears. She does not get love, honor, understanding and even sympathy in the small town. She is tied to it after years of struggling.

They are the most undisciplined persons among their world, but they have true responsibility for the world they love. But I do not think their desire is more valuable than others'. These two stories are about bigotry, the intolerance of the ordinary or even vulgar world. Catherine and Wang choose to become reconciled with the world. The compromise is not because of the identification but the disablement. Catherine leaves Wellesley and Wang leaves her dream of Beijing and opera.

Wang adopted a daughter. She names her “Xiao Fan’, which means “normal” in Chinese. This is the symbol of her transformation, and the symbol of the end.

The world has not changed after the struggle of Catherine and Wang, but the only change happens to themselves.

[Nadia B.]

Dear Chaoxing,

I thought you did a great job of showing the reader that both characters only achieved transformation in the form of conformity. You set up the reader with enough background information as well as opinion. However, there were some opportunities to provide the reader with more opinion to strengthen your essay. I think it would be extremely important to add a bit of more information on the importance of Wang naming her daughter Xiao Fan. Why do you think she did this? What message is that act sending the audience? In addition, I think you can add more opinion on why you think these women chose to conform to societal standards as opposed to keep fighting for their original argument. Lastly, you can do a bit more explaining on why you label them as misfits. What specific action or things did they say to incur this label? Overall, you did an excellent job describing the transformation that occurred. With more explanation and some grammatical corrections, your essay will be extremely strong and persuasive.

[Xiangling Q.]

Hi Chaoxing,

I really like how you structure your essay, and you did a good job in balance “Mona Lisa Smile” and “And the Spring Comes”. You show enough background information and your own opinion, which I think I could learn from you.
I like the word “misfits”, I think it’s suitable and means a lot. Both Wang and Katherine are struggling to fight the inherent bias, Wang failed and finally adopted a daughter, and it corresponds your opinion “the compromise is not because of the identification but the disablement”; Katherine chose to go to her dreaming Europe, it would be a new life, what would happen to Katherine is unknown, but change happens to everyone when the world is changing, so I think Catherine would have a brighter future.

[Mckenna K.]

Hi Chaoxing,

I really enjoyed reading your essay and like how you include a lot of strong opinions about what the choices the women make symbolize and also about what their eventual fates mean. I think that it is very interesting that you took the approach of saying that they were both misfits who ended up not succeeding in their quests for individuality and that they were changed by society instead of being the ones to change society like they had intended. I did not pick up on the fact that Wang Cailing's daughter's name, Xiao Fan, means "normal", and I think that the inclusion of that fact to back up your point that Wang Cailing ends up conforming to society is very strong. All in all, great essay and I liked reading about your opinion on the matter.