Journal 23: Sui Sin Far

Michelle Romero
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford

Sui Sin Far
"Tsen Hing, the son of the Government school-master, seems to be much in the company of your young wife. He is a good-looking youth, and pardon me, my dear cousin; but if women are allowed to stray at will from under their husbands' mulberry roofs, what is to prevent them from becoming butterflies?"

This passage contains the words written by one of the Mr. Spring Fragrance's older cousins, one of his bachelor cousins to be more precise, in a letter to Mr. Spring Fragrance warning him of his wife's supposed flirtatiousness.

Here is what I think: No wonder this cousin is still a bachelor! If he ever was married, thank goodness his wife was smart enough to butter-FLY away from him. Mr. Spring Fragrance should have knocked him hard for accusing his wife of such improper acts without any grounds.

This passage to me has "The Yellow Wallpaper" written all over it. In Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Jane hated the wallpaper, but after John (her husband) had initially "intended" to change the wallpaper, he decided not to after thinking of how she then would want to go around changing other things around the house. Like a new shade of paper is going to kill anyone!

The point in that part of "The Yellow Wallpaper" was that if you give a woman the freedom to choose or to do something of her own free will, she will want more freedoms and that was of more threat to the fabric of society.

Similarly here, the cousin is warning Mr. Spring Fragrance that by allowing his wife to run about San Francisco wild and without a chaperon, she may in fact turn into a butterfly. I like the word "butterfly" in this passage because it is a pleasant word which evokes pleasant thoughts.

By using this word, Sui Sin Far makes her message clear regarding gender relations. She does not write that the men are actually worried about someone taking advantage of this poor, defenseless woman, or that she may turn in to a slut, but instead they are worried that she will in fact become a more free and elevated, independent creature. The words suggest her innate power, separate from a man and I can respect that.