Do you gather your pearls?
“Women are like oysters. Just as an oyster takes an irritating grain of sand and creates a pearl around it, a woman can take a painful experience and enrich herself by creating something precious from that pain.”(Choi132) Have you ever heard about such motto? This is from the book Gathering of Pearls which is written by Sook Nyul Choi. It's a story about an international student's life in an American college. Sookan is a Korean girl, she went to American college alone for study. This book is like a journal, it includes everything of her college life, it includes happiness and difficulties in Sookan’s life. The cover of this book is impressive. A girl who wears a black dress is sitting on the floor and gathering pearls with background of pink flowers. The pearls in the image represent strength. The process of gathering pearls is like overcoming difficulties and becoming stronger when she is growing up. The flower represents Sookan herself. After a long and cold winter, flowers will blossom in the spring; same as Sookan, when she experiences a long and hard life, she will be enriched with enormous wisdom.
Sookan had a hard life in the college. She took many difficult courses in first year, "I signed up for world literature, world religions, Greek and Roman culture, and early European history."(Choi18) She studied early in the bathroom on everyday early morning and spend most of her night in the library."It was five minutes to four o'clock and I had to get up to study."(Choi 73) She studied hard to catch up others in the class. As an international student, I can understand why Sookan did this. Paper, essay, test, projects, those are what I work hard on every night. I need to spend much more time on the reader than my classmates do because of the language. Same as Sookan, we chose difficult class and try best to do everything as good as other students because we don't want to disappoint families and we want to show everyone that we can do it. Too much work brought her health disease. “Suddenly, my head starting spinning, and I felt a sharp pain in my stomach.”(Choi74) She was also under a huge pressure that is from her sister, Theresa. Because Theresa always can't understand her and wanted to control her life which is making her become a nun and work with her together. Sookan is struggling with the traditional Korean culture and desire of being independent. The most bitterness is her mom's death, she lost the most important person and even couldn’t stay with her at the last moment. These difficulties are challenging Sookan all the time in her life.
Although life is full with pain and bitterness, Sookan overcame difficulties and became stronger. Courses are never easy to Sookan, but she always keeps working hard instead of give up for its difficulties. To keep working is a long and hard process. Families are not always around her, she has to bear the huge load of study. Load can push a person to be better. For me, I have same experience. Under the load, I can find all of my potential, be used to difficulties; and then I won’t be afraid of them or give up anymore. I think pressure from family can destroy someone, but Sookan has begun thinking about her own future, "But now,I was slowly beginning to feel that I didn't always have to obey my sister. Just because she was older didn't guarantee that she had the right answer for me."(Choi130) She knew what she want. Sookan felt pain about being disobeyed to her sister, she couldn't agree with her sister in many ways; but with mother's support, she became acceptable to her sister. “It was my responsibility to try to understand her as a human being. I was older now. I had to realize that no one was infallible. I could respect Theresa without obeying her blindly.” This is a necessary process for someone to grow up; everyone has shortcomings, being acceptable to others is important in the society. And this will make Sookan become a mature woman who is full filled with wisdom and tolerance. Mother is the most important person to Sookan. Mother’s death hit Sookan a lot but this fact also forced her to be strong at that moment. “I would do as she wished for me. I would gather my pearls and forge ahead.”(Choi163) These are all tough times for Sookan, but she remember what her mother told her and follow it; she forges ahead instead of being depressed. The process of gathering pearls is like growing up, Sookan collect strength as pearls to overcome the tough time.
The cover of Pink blossomed flowers is not only a cover, flowers also represents Sookan. Flowers will blossom in the beautiful spring season after bear a whole cold and harsh winter. In that cold winter, some flowers will be died, but some flowers can fight with the chilly winter and finally show their beauty to the world. “Tough times are the times when one gathers one’s pearls.”(Choi163) Tough time is like that chilly winter. Some people will be stuck by the difficulties in their way and give up, but some woman can take in the misery and bitterness and then turn them into precious pearls instead of letting them hurt us. Sookan's mother always hope Sookan can become this kind of women. Difficult times will finally make the Sookan enrich with love, understanding and wisdom. That will be the time for beautiful blossoming.
Sookan has changed a lot and grow up during the one year in American college. Before, she had hard time on the study, obeyed her sister blindly, met a lot of difficulties in life and felt painful. Now, everything goes better; she do nice work on the study, has own goal, became independent and acceptable to her sister’s shortcomings and still forge ahead after bear the mother’s death. Sorrow and bitterness make Sookan get precious experience from life. These help Sookan to become a independent, kind, confident woman. There are a lot of people still fighting with the difficulties in life, gather your pearls, wait patiently for the blossoming, everyone can be strong and accomplish dream.
Citation:
Sook Nyul Choi, Gathering of Pearls, Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1994, Print.
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