Relationships in Forty-Five a Month and the House
Strong and Weak Relationships in Stories Relationships in stories are very important, to who the characters are and how they act. In the stories that were read the relationships shown were both strong and weak. Depending on how the characters act toward each other, it determines their relationship. The stories, Forty-five a Month and The House on the Border, both have very weak relationships, whereas the story, The Ch’i-lin Purse, has a very strong relationship. In a relationship one person sometimes depends on the other, but if the other does not support the other, it becomes weak.
In the story, House on the Border, there was a very weak relationship between the main characters, the people that live in the house and the authorities. The relationship is weak for many reasons. The authorities are not helpful to the people that live in the house. After a thief has just broken into their house, the people that live there tie him up and go to the authorities. They go to different authorities, who just keep passing the responsibility of taking care of the situation on to the other one. Either all eight of us, my wife and I and the six thieves, will spend the remainder of the year here, or they will include the house in one of the areas, thus enabling me to complain to the authorities. ” This shows a weak relationship because the people that lived on the house were very dependent on the authorities, just like any other citizen. This relationship is foreshadowing the author’s take on the his country’s government and how they are not giving aide to the people in the country. That is also another example of a weak relationship, and a more simple example would be between two particular characters.
The story Forty-five a Month is a great example of weak relationship between two characters directly. Two of the main characters, Shanta and Venkat, represent a very weak relationship. Shanta is the daughter of Venkat, they have a weak relationship for a lot of reasons. In a daughter to father relationship, it is imagined that the two are to be considered “close” by spending time together. In this story the daughter to father relationship is broken apart because of the father’s work. The daughter cannot understand the father’s purpose for being devoted to work. I don’t know if it is going to be possible for me to take her out at all- you see, they are giving me an increment. ” The father wants to spend time with his daughter, but he cannot because his job supports his whole family. It is also weak because of the broken promises that Venkat makes to Shanta. Venkat promises to take her to the movies, but he lets Shanta down because she expected a great night out with her father, and is now asleep at home and all dressed up. The promises being broken make it very weak. The Ch’i-lin Purse is a perfect example of a strong relationship.
The relationship between Mrs. Lu and Hsiang-Ling in the Ch’i-lin Purse is very strong because it taught a lesson and saved the characters. It taught the lessons of sacrifice and good karma. The lesson of sacrifice was taught to Mrs. Lu when she gave up her purse to the crying girl at her wedding. Also she was taught to sacrifice when she got her soup after the storm and then gave it away. “If you have a chance to do something good, be sure to do it. Happiness will come back to you. ” The lesson of karma is taught when Mrs. Lu has sacrificed her things and was rewarded in return.
All of that could not have been done without the strong relationship of two strangers, who in the end are both saved and rewarded, because they found each other. The stories, Forty-five a Month and The House on the Border, both have very weak relationships, whereas the story, The Ch’i-lin Purse, has a very strong relationship. The stories had strong and weak relationships, and they all represented them in different ways. The stories showed good examples through characters, foreshadowing, and lessons. Many other stories have both strong and weak relationships.
