In English langauge arts this semester, we are investigating “Culture”.  We each had to choose a book and book I decided I wanted to study was The Serpent’s Child by Laurence Yep. I picked this book because the legend of the Serpent is quite fascinating. Since I started reading, a couple of questions came into my mind about the book which I will try answering in the posts I will continuously post.

The first question that came to mind was how the book is influenced by the writer’s background.  Laurence Yep was born in San Francisco, California. Most of the texts he has written have been based on his culture and childhood and the challenges he faced while moving to America. In the book, the protagonist feels like an alien and when Laurence Yep moved to America he felt like a stranger and an outsider as well. The book discusses how the villages have fights with each other and it also discusses gender inequality. At that time it was normal for women to have less human rights than men. In the book, the girl was treated the same way Yep was throughout his move to America. The girl and her brother were called ‘the serpent’s children’ which was meant as an insult. However, they looked at this ‘insult’ with a different perspective- they looked at it as a compliment. An example of gender equality is when they tie all the female’s feet so their feet don’t grow so they don’t handle any of the domestic work or at that time known as ‘men’s work.’ I think that being called the Serpent’s child is not a bad thing and people need to look at things from different viewpoints and change their thoughts and ideas about females and how they should be treated.