The Evolution of My Brother Renamed

Jenny Zhang's "The Evolution of My Brother" is a short story about the growth of Jenney's younger brother and the effect it has on her as the narrator. Zhang makes a point to show Jenney's lack of growth while demonstrating her brother's to the fullest. For example, in the opening paragraph, the two have a playful exchange that resembles that of siblings at a similar age. “Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.” I backed him into a corner with the coffee end of the candle pointed at his mouth.
“Stop it, Jen-naay,” he said, stepping back, “or I’ll enable my force shield to turn your bones into dirt” (Zhang 1). However, as readers, we know that the age gap between the two is about 9 years which is clearly not reflected in Jenney's behavior. These are common occurrences for her and there was even a time when her lack of maturity and patience caused her to lash out a hold a knife to her own brother's neck. 
Zhang's recurrence back to the theme of growth is why I believe that the title to be changed to "My Brother's Growth". It would be a perfect way to contrast his growth with Jenney's lack of it. Growth implies both physical and mental gain. The mental being one out of a newfound realization or the unveiling of a lie. On the other hand, evolution implies a predestined change born out of nature.
What do you guys think the story should be titled? Did you identify any other themes? Let me know down below!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Speech Speaks Louder than Violence

"I sat where I was, more depressed than ever, hating the whole hopeless, stupid business, and wondering whether the human species would ever grow up enough to learn to communicate without using fists of one kind or another," (Butler 110). This sentence marks the concluding lines of Octavia Butler's Speech Sounds. Its a part of the afterword, and describes how the short story came into fruition as well as the underlying theme of the text. Communication is the most important thing man has created, shown by two key scenes in the text.  Speech Sounds takes place in a time when an illness, perhaps a bioweapon from Russia, has ravaged America. Those who survived the symptomatic stroke were severely impaired in speech and communicatory function, almost becoming living zombies. The protagonist of this story is Valerie Rye, who remains one of the few people who can still talk embodying the voice who can put an end to the senseless fighting. If people could understand her. The fi...
Read more

2 Quotes from Girl

Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" is full of the Mother's intriguing and polarizing quotes. Kincaid emphasizes separation between the Mother's commands and her advice with a semi-colon. The entire work is basically a list of things that the Mother expects from her daughter, ranging from "don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun" to "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming". Her commands lie on certain days whereas her true advice is applicable on any day. I feel like Kincaid is getting at the true meaning behind what raising somebody really means. Barking commands and constantly telling an individual what's right and wrong will only stick with that person for one day. It requires no growth from the Girl if her Mother just tells her what to do. Whereas when given advice, such as covering your head when out in the sun is something that has no meaning if she never experienced the heat. Only if she had been sunbur...
Read more

Q&A in The Lottery

How does Shirley Jackson's The Lottery  embody irony? How is Jackson able to construct her story relying on such a theme? The answer to the latter question presents itself in the first few pages of the story. Jackson creates a seemingly innocent, communal setting that directly contrasts the ensuing horror of the Lottery. The very first sentence, "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full­summer  day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" (Jackson) is key. Jackson's use of words such as clear, sunny, fresh warmth, blossoming, richly green, all establish the happiness of the day and give no indication of how dark it would become. The people themselves at the beginning of the story perpetrate happiness. Children outside "broke into boisterous play and their talk was still of the classroom, and the teacher, of books and r...
Read more