"Ribbons"

Picture yourself sitting on a chair, only five years old and your mom begins to curve your toes to the sole of your foot. As you screech in pain and plead to have her stop, she continues to bend. Your tears and screams mean nothing, almost like you’re not even there. To keep the pain away ribbons are put onto your feet to cut the circulation off and reduce pain. Never would you wish for this to come upon one of your loved ones. In the story “Ribbons” it explains that this happened often in China. “Ribbons” is a comedy containing symbolism and an interesting character development.
This story is a comedy. The beginning starts realistically and in normalcy with an average family living in San Francisco, with a mother a father and two children. A conflict starts to take place when their grandmother or Paw-Paw comes to stay with them for a while. When she first arrives Stacy notices that grandma is wearing these boot like slippers that cover her ankles. She wears these because she went through toe binding, so she would look beautiful in the eyes of wealthy Chinese men. Stacy finally realizes the conflict when she asks for help from grandma because she used to be a seamstress, when she sees the ribbons on the shoes quickly grandma assumes that Stacy is going through toe binding. Since her love is so strong, which Stacy doesn’t realize, she tries to take the ribbons away so she no longer has to go through the binding. Thinking that grandma is out of her mind, Stacy screams to her mom for help, no use. It finally comes to Stacy when she sees grandma’s mangled feet. The resolution to the problem is when Stacy shows grandma what the ballet shoes really are all about. Normalcy ends the story when they give each other a hug and grandma learns that she can’t be so quick to assume things.
Now proven as a comedy it’s time to flush out the symbols of the story. First of all it starts out as a nice bright and sunny warm day, right off the bat it has to be a romance or a comedy. However there is a symbol of a loss of hope in such a beautiful setting. It occurs when her dad is unsure if she can start back at ballet school right away now that grandma is finally here. Stacy obviously lives and breathes ballet from the description Yepp gives us. Another one that is at the way end of the story, is when grandma and Stacy hug each other. This is a symbol of affection and love for each other
After revealing the symbols of the story let’s breakdown who grandma really is. Grandma is a small, short, scrawny, miniature old lady. She has pulled back brown hair and disfigured feet. Obviously she has gone through a lot in her lifetime. Though some of her physical features may not be necessarily lovely her heart truly is. Just some of her attributes are love, care, bravery, courage, and wisdom. When she wanted to leave China and go to Hong Kong to be free she strapped Stacy’s mom to her back and carried her there. Now that’s a heroic effort on her part. Grandma is hard on the outside and soft on the inside.
This comedy with its symbols and character development all lead up to great story. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Although that may not always be effortless, but the result will always be better. Grandma also exhibits that being tough and being loving can both coexist.