Introduction
In What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang), is a podcast about a Chinese girl named Lulu Wang who lives in the United States. She has received the news that her grandmother Nainai is diagnosed with stage four cancer. Her parents and her relatives decide to not tell Nainai about her illness. Lulu is not agree with this decision, she wants to tell her the truth, but the only condition for to go to meet Nainai is to keep this secret hidden from her. So Lulu decides to side with her family and hide the truth. In this blog post I will provide my opinion if I agree with Lulu Wang's family's decision or not. I will also relate this story to a time I have made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth. Did you agree with the family's choice to deceive Wang's grandmother? During listening the podcast I didn’t surprise by the choice that Wang’s family took about grandmother’s serious illness because the same story has happened with my family when my mom’s father was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age 75. My grandmother and her daughters (include my mom) decided not to tell him about his illness and to not hospitalized him. They thought that the best decision for my grandfather at that age, it was to spend the last days of his life with his daughters and his grandchildren rather than wandering through the hospital corridors which affects the emotional state of the individual. Back to our story, I do agree with the family’s choice to deceive Wang’s grandmother because Nainai made the same choice to her husband a few years ago. She thought this was the best choice for her husband, and this is a clear indication that she would like the same solution for herself too. In my opinion when I find myself taking a decision for someone else’s good, I always put myself in his place and I choose what I would like others to choose for me. From a different perspective people have different personalities, some are strong and try to cope with every difficulty that life brings without stopping until the last moment, and some have weak personalities who, when faced with challenges and difficulties are demoralized, discouraged and surrendered (for this category of individuals such news would be deadly). Therefore, little Nainai knowing her sister’s character was worried that her sister would get overwhelmed with fear and depression., and that she would lose interest in life. At Nainai’s age it is easier to give up than to confront it. When have you made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth or you made an important choice to tell a lie that had a major impact on you and/or someone else? Many years ago, when I was in the fifth grade, for the first time the two middle schools of the city would arrange an excursion in a coastal town in our country. At that time, my father worked as an emigrant in a neighboring country as unemployment had occupied our country, and that was the only way my father found out to secure the necessary family income. Since the mobile phone technology wasn’t widespread (we didn’t even had home phone) the only way to communicate with him was through the post office 2 or 3 times a month. As a result of lack of frequent communication, my mom decided to not tell my dad about the excursion. It took a long time for the teachers to secure our parents’ approval because it was a long journey (about 4 hours) and in a coastal city (where we could swim). Since the most of the teachers were from the neighboring town, they decided to take the buses from their city because they knew them better, so the transport would be safer. I was very excited about this trip, so the night before it, I couldn’t sleep out of joy and the night seemed to have no end. The trip went very well visiting the most beautiful places of the city, the various games during the journey, and sun bathing under the warm rays of that late June. While we enjoyed our desired journey, someone in our town had spread the news that children’s buses had suffered an accident (later it was learned that a man of anger that they didn’t take his bus went out and spread the news). The news spread throughout the city and the screams of our parents had invaded the entire city. There were family that had more than one child in that journey. The men of the families who owned a car, but not only (the others had booked taxi) and they were heading towards the coastal city hoping that their children would be alive and they would need their help. We were seeing the string of the cars coming to us and we wondered what was going on. I will never forget the moment when we arrived in the evening, and the city square was full of crying people even those who didn’t have their children on this trip. I saw my mom with the tears flowing in her face, her legs bare by the rush to get out of the house as quickly as possible, her hoarse voice from endless screams, and her hands trembled touched every part of my body to make sure I had no wound. She shook my hand and she didn’t release it not even for a moment. The news spread out to the national televisions and my dad learned through them what had happened. Even though my mom got most of the blame, the consequences of that decision also fell upon me. For about four years my dad and my mom didn’t allow me to go on excursions until I got to the high school.
1 Comment
Sabatino
2/13/2018 09:56:00 am
Thanks for sharing such a detailed post. I appreciate that you connected your own life story with Wang's own story. This move provides us with context and perspective when you explain how and why you agree with the family's choice to life to the grandmother.
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AuthorHello my name is Oljada Zani. This is my blog for my English Composition 1 class. Enjoy! Archives
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