Pearl

Outer characterisation

Pearls is the narrator's daughter in the short story “Where the Gods Fly” written by Jean Kwok. Her outer characterisation presents Pearl at various ages, from a small child to a 17-year-old teenager (l. 160). As a child, she is described as follows: “…she seemed so tiny when we first came to America, bundled into her red sweater and sent off to second grade alone.” (ll. 14-15);…Pearl had seemed so conspicuous in her foreignness: her shock of black hair and tawny skin in a classroom of pale freckled children. Even in China, she’d been an intense, quiet child, but here, she seemed to edge ever further inward. (ll. 47-50)

Pearl is presented as looking typically Chinese and being rather shy. Her appearance contrasts with that of American children. We get another physical description of Pearl as she auditioned for a ballet scholarship in the 8th grade:

Pearl had never looked more vulnerable to me, with her ribs poking through the thin material of the leotard, the number pinned to her chest like the sheet of magic paper the gods paste on a mountain to contain the demons within. (p. 127-129)

The depiction conveys the narrator’s subjective perspective, which makes Pearl seem frail and vulnerable. However, when she dances, she no longer looks vulnerable, but beautiful:

Every glance, every limb, the arch of her hand, curve of leg, was suspended in beauty and a terrible...