Yumi's Past and Present: Rough Draft (paper 7)

Sydney Huff

ESem Paper #7 (draft)

October 24, 2014

 

Yumi’s Past and Present

QUOTE 1: page 68 and 69

“Now I lay down on my little bed and stared up at my starry ceiling, listening to my children breathe. Lloyd had raised these heavens for me….I remember a deep celestial bliss, a sense of galactic stability, which pretty well lasted until my nebula spun out of his control and a dark star crossed my firmament, eclipsing him entirely.”

*Yumi was in her childhood bedroom, an environment that was molded by her past self.

*Her father placed the stars on her ceiling for her. She was awed by their beauty and by her father’s power.

*However, the room does not only produce positive feelings. She notes that her relationship with her father worsened when she became more independent.

*Her life as an adult now is different, which is apparent because her children are sleeping in the room with her. However, this early in the novel, Yumi is still independent and resistant towards her parents who she hasn’t seen in years.

*Not only does this past environment remind her of her deteriorating relationship with her father, which is where the relationship is during this point of the novel, but it also reminds her of the happiness that she felt with her father when she was a young girl.

--Maybe this memory caused her to realize that because she at one time felt serenity when she was closer to her father, that she possibly should and can somehow fix their broken relationship.

QUOTE 2: page 284:

“It felt like Christmas Eve in the house, the way the holiday ought to feel but never had in our small, quiet family when I was growing up. I’d always wanted to belong to a big, happy family that felt like this. ‘Can I help?’ I asked. Lloyd looked up. ‘Why thank you, Yumi,’ he said, and when our eyes met, he seemed as startled as I was...I was aware that my heart still thumped like a bunny with the pleasure of pleasing Daddy.”

*Yumi was not very accepting about the Seeds and their idea for the festival at the Fuller’s house.

*The activity of everyone in order to prepare for the festival made her long for a for the same feeling that she longed for as a child.

*However, as a adult, Yumi feels more independent and confident in herself than she did as a teeanger, which is understandable. Because of this, she decided to give in to longing and set aside her resistance. She offered to help with the preparations, which surprised both herself and her father.

*Pleasing him in this small way made Yumi’s heart flutter. Because her heart “still thumped” implies that she always felt this way as a child as well.

The realness of an environment that she craved for as a child helped to spark envisions of the past environment that she craved for

 

QUOTE 3: page 298

When Lloyd retired inside after a day of the festival, he walked past Yumi’s bedroom. She lay there, staring at the ceiling. He said goodnight to her, and she responded, “‘Goodnight, Daddy.’ She spoke so simply...she hadn’t called him Daddy like that for as long as he could remember...She smiled, ‘Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.’ That was it. That was what he should have said. That he used to say when he tucked her in every night, and gave her a kiss, and nibbled her nose, pretending to be the bedbug biting.” This reminiscence flooded Lloyd with joy. “‘Oh Yumi!...It’s so much fun to be alive!’ HIs eyes filled with tears then, and this surprised him.

*This time, it’s Lloyd who experiences a shock from the past. Seeing Yumi lying on her bed as she had done many times in the past.

*Hearing her speak so simply and sweetly to him, he was reminded of how sweet she was when they were close years ago

*By hearing her say what he used to say to her every night, he feels overwhelmed by how *Yumi is so grown up, how they have missed so many years together, how he probably resented her for so long. Yet despite all of this, she is still the same Yumi that he raised

*His experience with the Seeds and his slow rekindling with Yumi has him feeling great to be alive

*Just as Yumi had felt in the other two passages, Lloyd experiences a familiar feeling that has been lost for so many years. Being in this past environment is causing him to realize *Yumi’s true character that is hidden beneath her sometimes harsh, flighty, and untrusting personality.

--Maybe his is understanding that why she felt the need to run away as a teenager

 

I chose these quotes because I think that Yumi’s childhood greatly affected who she is as an adult. I chose quotes that reminded her of something familiar from her childhood environment. They also had to do with her environment and her interactions with her father. I think that Yumi really respected him when she was younger. I also think that she fled from Liberty Falls in order to avoid being an embarrassment him. Because of this, I chose quotes that had to deal with her relationship with her father. I think Yumi struggled with being home most because she was aware of the tension between herself and her father. In order for her to survive in her old childhood environment that is so different from her current environment with her children in Hawaii, she must accept that she needs to understand how her past truly influenced the person that she is today.