The Ancestor: Observations of Matricide & Cultural Assimilation in Chinese Literature
The Ancestor by Bi Feiyu is a short story that tackles the cultural differences between past and present generations and the uncertainty of tradition when one has assimilated into a culture that vastly differs from one’s origin. Concepts such as matricide and transitioning of time become apparent [unintentional pun] as the story develops, strengthening into a questioning of ethics and morality for the narrator, from whom the story is conveyed.
The story opens with the narrator reminiscing about his Great-grandmother, whom he last saw ten years ago. Using verbiage that defines her as a woman who transcends time, the narrator establishes his Great-grandmother as a living personification of life, death, and time. Never having bathed, the author compares Great-grandmother’s scent to that of a coffin, a clear allusion to her nearing fate.
In the present, the narrator returns to his home. Observant that the neighbors have moved, the landscape has changed, and the house is in physical chaos. Despite this, great-grandmother remains unchanged and unfaltered by time’s passing. This conservative, ironclad persona shows but a crack when introduced to the newest generation, the narrator’s son. Referred to as Old Ancestor by great-grandmother, the title befuddles the father while preserving itself as a reference to the future the child may hold. At the same time, we’re introduced to the narrator’s wife. While uninfluential to the story’s progression, she is a voice of reason for the reader, being the only character to question the family’s traditions.
For example, she questions why the narrator’s father sleeps in a coffin. Dismissive with his words, he states that every family is the same in that every family sleeps in the coffins of their soon-to-be deceased ancestors. Scared to death, she clutches her husband, a phrase that may come true through tradition.
The juxtaposition of assimilated culture vs. tradition is brought forth by the narrator’s father, who involves him in a conspiracy to stop his Great-grandmother from turning into a demon by pulling all her teeth. The narrator mentions himself wearing a western-style suit, which is a direct representation of his assimilation into western culture, which is a far cry from the culture the narrator was brought up in.
Their conversation is as follows:
”If a person lives to be a hundred and still has all her teeth, she’ll become a demon after she dies.”
”How can that be?” asked the narrator.
”Why shouldn’t it?” asked his father.
This brief conversation shows the father’s stringent belief in upholding cultural traditions while also presenting the reader with an opportunity to glimpse at the narrator’s reluctance.
To support the tradition, the father and his twelve brothers convene to prevent Great-grandmother’s demonization. Without hesitation, they settle they must pull her teeth, eventually learning that they will have to do so without an anesthetic. After the family decides, the father shoots a glimpse at the narrator. He states: His look made me feel that I couldn’t bear the weight of history. (Feiyu 47) This is another moment of weakness from the narrator, showing his inability to break free from the cycle of tradition that permeates his family tree. In contrast, the wife refers to the family as messy and points out an oddity that two pairs of shoes have gone missing: her husband’s and their son’s. The husband dismisses the wife’s notions and settles with his father’s decision.
The plan to go through with the forceful pulling of great-grandmother’s teeth goes as well as one may expect. With no medical supplies, great-grandmother succumbed to her wounds, the inherent blood loss being too much for her aging body to handle. Amidst the chaos of trying to keep great-grandmother alive, the narrator’s son cries in a distant room. As a result, the narrator’s wife (unaware of the situation) begins arguing with her husband, exclaiming that being in the house is equivalent to being in the eighteenth level of hell.
The story’s climax is not that of great-grandmother’s death but the expose of her mysterious room, which no one has entered except for her. Together, the narrator and his father explore her garret and find that she has been collecting several pairs of shoes, a pair for each generation of the family: including the narrator’s shoes and that of his son. The spiral association in which the shoes were arranged represents the dynasties and traditional wear of generations that have come and gone.
The dismissiveness of the narrator’s wife and his unwillingness to disobey tradition begs whether his son will have to accept the same fate as his father and great-grandfather when he comes of age. Should the narrator’s wife follow the path of great-grandmother, her husband, and her son will observe the tooth-pulling tradition, thus causing the cycle to spiral down to the next generation.
