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Topic: Analyzing the Confrontation with Death in 'The Gathered Wife'
Sample essay on Confronting Death in 'The Gathered Wife'
Written Assignment
The horror of the 1945 famine was truly staggering. It wasn't just hunger in a neighborhood or a village; it was hunger across half the country. From the North Central region to the spring-summer of 1945, over two million people lay down, victims of a devastating famine.
Kim Lan chose that backdrop for the story 'The Gathered Wife.' Not many direct descriptions, but rare lines in literature from then till now. The poverty in Ngo Tat To, the hunger in Nam Cao, evoke sympathetic tears. The hunger and death in Kim Lan's work are terrifying, haunting.
It manifests as color: the gray-green of the skin of those near death, pitch black sky filled with crows. It becomes scent: the pungent odor of human corpses, the acrid smell of things burning in houses with the dead. It turns into sound: the desperate cries of crows on rice fields, the wind carrying mournful wails into homes, echoing as if from under a lyre. Life everywhere, life in the settlement, is surrounded by those colors, scents, and mournful sounds. Those not yet dead are wilted, emaciated, breathing in despair. Even Trang, big and strong like a bear, walks slowly, head bowed forward as if weighed down by overwhelming anxieties. The quick, lively daughter, just a few days in, already looks listless, thin, and gray. Grandma Tu, Trang's mother, embodies the fullness of generational hunger, the ancestral death of the countryside. The space is desolate, ruined, death spreading everywhere. Life is barely hanging on, crawling.
So life took an unexpected turn: the marriage tale. Not following any rituals. The hungry girl, Trang invited her to eat a few bowls of rice cakes; Trang suggested if she came with him, she did. The situation was upside down: getting married is at least when life is normal, when one can afford to make a scene, like Trang's mother, not in the midst of this deadly hunger, where one might not survive themselves. But getting married is a major event, the act of giving birth and continuing the family line, perpetuating life. This significant event in their lives happens quickly beyond imagination, seemingly unreal. Life has weddings that turn into funerals, also very fast. This isn't running to death, though. But clearly, it challenges hunger and death. So hunger and death don't let go. Their way home is like passing through the underworld, faintly following them are the shadows of ghosts, welcoming them are a flock of crows and the dark cries of crows; echoing into their homes is the sound of mournful cries, whispering, becoming clearer as the night falls from houses with the dead; returning home, the scene is empty, desolate, dilapidated, withered, the meal is just thin porridge with a pinch of salt, stirred with bran.
Hunger and death cling relentlessly with all their destructive force. It seemed like this couple only led each other to death. But no, they still endure, more than that, they rise triumphantly with an extraordinary and powerful vitality that brings about a miraculous transformation. Everything is different. Children are different, adults are different. Trang is different, the old woman is different too. What about the girl? The author has infused that vitality into her. It emanates from her, as if she's been given a magic wand to create sudden and strange changes, standing out against the gloomy background of that hunger, that death, that bright, vivid dream of changing fate for everyone, for herself. She is the gathered wife, but she is also a radiant, representative symbol of the tenacious, powerful, and vibrant life.
Upon closer reflection, 'The Gathered Wife' is a poignant phrase with multiple painful meanings. It's not a name, but it still refers to that girl. Just a bit unusual and strange. The gathered wife sounds sad because she isn't married, not sought after, and no one accepts her. Yet, here is the gathered wife, no different from an object that was dropped or discarded and has now been picked up. It doesn't matter if it's the Year of the Rooster or the Year of the Mouse. She's just a girl, then a woman, and she's all messed up. Considering fleeing the distant land to seek reality, who knows tomorrow she might end up bent by the roadside, what's in a name. But that namelessness isn't meaningless. To show vitality, life doesn't need a name for them. Just knowing it's a woman, a lady. Unexpectedly, hidden within the horrifying term 'the gathered wife' is a traditional strength with a history of thousands of years. To pick up means nothing, but to be a wife is an honor. In Chinese characters, the word 'peace' contains the word 'woman,' meaning when a woman enters the house, there is peace and happiness. So that title isn't easy to reveal right away: hinted by children's teasing, speculated by neighbors, then whispered, murmured, and finally borrowed the excuse of borrowing oil bottles when short of it. Trang only dared to read it: a new wife.
It is from the way that woman, the girl, gradually transforms. Among her peers, she stands equal, comfortable, flexible, then plump, bloated, even after eating four bowls of rice cakes without any hesitation, she holds chopsticks vertically across her mouth, rustic and raw, very natural. Yet, after hearing Trang say, 'If you go to me, then come,' she really came back. So, from being equal and innocent, she transformed step by step on the way home with Trang. Joking is one thing, but going along together is another. Walking together, it's clear things will be serious, very serious. Walking three steps behind, head slightly bowed, hat shading the face. Not necessarily because someone is peeking. It's about facing oneself: the matter of destiny, not a game. No tears, but a subtle, shy demeanor, much like a bride stepping out of her mother's house, obedient, charming, very feminine. A few more steps and the girl elegantly demonstrates the role of a wife. She teases (very playful), scolds (just right, not too much), then discards all shyness and hesitation, playfully throws a tantrum, smacking Trang's back... that's when she set foot on the path of becoming a wife. However, entering the house, she sits quietly on the edge of the bed, holding the bucket hesitantly, with a downtrodden face. Apparently, up to this moment, she really thought about her situation. Here is the final decision for her fate. Because of hunger, she had to find a place to settle, but is this the place she hoped for? Grandma hasn't returned yet, unsure of her intentions. Sitting there hesitantly, swaying like a leaf, in the dim kerosene lamp, she suddenly felt that life was really a mystery. The gathered wife, who was just played with, now has to play her part.
Joking is indeed different. Walking back together, it's clear it will be serious, very serious. Walking three steps behind, head slightly bowed, hat shading the face. Not necessarily because someone is peeking. It's about facing oneself: the matter of destiny, not a game. No tears, but a subtle, shy demeanor, much like a bride stepping out of her mother's house, obedient, charming, very feminine. After a few more steps, she elegantly demonstrates the role of a wife. She teases (very playful), scolds (just right, not too much), then discards all shyness and hesitation, playfully throws a tantrum, smacking Trang's back... that's when she set foot on the path of becoming a wife. However, entering the house, she sits quietly on the edge of the bed, holding the bucket hesitantly, with a downtrodden face. Apparently, up to this moment, she really thought about her situation. Here is the final decision for her fate. Because of hunger, she had to find a place to settle, but is this the place she hoped for? Grandma hasn't returned yet, unsure of her intentions. Sitting there hesitantly, swaying like a leaf, in the dim kerosene lamp, she suddenly felt that life was really a mystery. The gathered wife, who was just played with, now has to play her part.
She, the wife, not only transformed herself, but more importantly, and more profoundly, she blew a refreshing breeze awakening warmth for everyone, everywhere, bringing life right in the midst of hunger, death.
When she appeared next to Trang at the beginning of the village, the whole village seemed to come alive. Dilapidated houses suddenly became lively. Sluggish children who weren't willing to move suddenly ran after Trang, and somehow they cheered with joy, making fun of the entertaining wife. The adults followed, their faces initially gloomy, suddenly brightened up. Some speculated, some sighed and expressed sympathy, bustling with how the woman was shy and tactful.
What's Trang saying! It started as a playful young farmer's way. Until he saw the girl after a few days, already gray, losing her vivacity, he invited her, and she ate eagerly, as if hungry for a long time. Half-jokingly, half-seriously, when he suggested if she came with him, she hesitated for a moment but firmly said: whatever. Everything started from this 'whatever.' The author says, 'In Trang's heart, there was only the affection between him and the woman'... Yes. First of all, it was a very human thought deeply from the bottom of his heart. That woman drew him from joking to a real relationship, injecting a new vitality into his heart. And in the nature of a young man who hadn't had a wife like him, how could he not secretly hope and gradually feel a certain excitement? So, forgetting to stir up worries, anxieties, darkness, forgetting even the months in front of his eyes. Trang chuckled ten times in the story, each time he laughed differently, and each time, it was extraordinary, his eyes shining brightly. And as usual, being beside a woman he knew was his, he felt something strange, it caressed all over his skin, it felt like a gentle touch on his spine. He felt the need to express his feelings with a gesture, a loving phrase, but he felt awkward and couldn't do anything. His great courage was urging his wife to go to bed and getting scolded for being dirty! The most profound change in him was after becoming a husband overnight; he felt strange with himself. Like something had entered him, he heard a gentle, soothing sound as if waking up from a dream. He smirked (counted 10 times in the story, each time different), looking unusually cheerful, his eyes sparkling. And just as usual, next to a woman who he knew was his, he felt something very strange, it flowed all over his skin, it was like a gentle touch on his spine. He needed to do something to be worthy of the status of a man with a wife... as if a new, lively energy was boiling within him.
