Task 4 for White Tigers and the Ballad

Elizabeth Vasilyev

March 29, 2015

Task 4: Blog Post For Day 1 of Next Week:

•       “Who are you? What do you want? He said, encircling his profits with his arms. He sat square and fat like a god. “I want your life in payments for your crimes against the villagers.” (Kingston 43)
•       In this part of the dream, the swordswoman finds the nobleman as her last “battle” that she had to fight before she was able to return back to her husband, son, and family. The swordswoman claims that this lord has taken away her brother and her childhood. However, the man has no idea who this girl is and strongly believes that he has done nothing to hurt or disobey the villagers.
•         I believe that it’s very interesting because this scene appears to show the distinction and difference between White Tigers and the Ballad. In White Tigers, the swordswoman not only goes into battle for her father, but because women were meant to play the “men’s role” in society. She was supposed to me the one who protects the family and encounters anyone who hurts the people she loves. Meanwhile, in the Ballad, Mu Lan simply goes to battle for the reason to protect her father and also because she doesn’t have an older brother to take her father’s position in war. I also think it’s pretty cool how no one was supposed to know that the warrior is a woman but she clearly blurts out this secret to the baron.
•        This moment seems to serve as another battle that the swordswoman has to face before she is able to return to her normal life as a wife and mother.
•        I suppose that by adding such a significant detail to the dream really proves that the warrior woman is committed to what she is supposed to do and the fact that she is supposed to protect and keep her family safe and wealthy.