Structure

The short story “Gon-do-la” by Annemarie Neary is structured around a Chinese woman’s life as a worker in a Chinese factory. The story follows Zhang during her days in the factory and focuses on Zhang’s birthday when her sons take her to a luxurious resort which resembles Venice. “Gon-do-la” has an exposition, a rising action, a climax, a falling action and a resolution, so it follows the traditional short story plot pattern.

Title

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In the short story, small gondolas are produced in a Chinese factory and the main character, Zhang, is assigned to produce the Exquisite model, a gondola which can also play music and which looks far more beautiful than the other models. Zhang is the one who finds out about the use of the gondolas, about Venice and who dreams about visiting the city. The word is syllabised by the foreman of the factory, who becomes quite fascinated by the object:

Then the office worker handed up a smaller box, no bigger than a bar of soap. The foreman shook out a handful of plastic figures and tossed them on his palm. “Man, woman, boatman,” he said. “One, two, three. Simple,” he said. “Easy. Gon-do-la.” (ll. 21-24)

Beginning

The exposition of the story is a bit ambiguous, as not many details are given about the main characters. Instead, readers receive information about the main setting of the story: a Chinese production factory:

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Middle

The rising action offers readers information about Zhang and her life. She has never heard of Italy, Venice, and gondolas until now and she seems to be very interested in the Italian city. She also has two sons, Lian and Bo, and she despises the South American girls who work with her in the factory and which she calls “guava girls” (l. 40).

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Ending

The ending of the story is very short. The falling action presents Zhang being accustomed to the luxury resort,

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