Lost Sister Questions

Recently in class, we read the poem, “Lost Sister”. It’s about the Chinese immigrants that moved to America for a better life. My teacher, Mr. Watson, told us to answer the following questions:

1. Introduce and discuss a significant quote from “Lost Sister”.
2. Explain what the poem reveals about our essential questions. What does it say about how our “self” is created?

1. “In America, there are many roads and women can stride along with men.” This quote comes at the very end of the third stanza. The poem said earlier that daughters of Chinese ancestry never left their home in China. The girls would always obey what anybody told them. But, this poem tells of a girl that leaves China. The reason why she left is because there are more opportunities in America. I believe that the girl didn’t want to live the Chinese lifestyle and wanted to do more with her life. As this quote said, women are treated the same as men. A woman can be just as successful in America as a man. No one will tell a woman what to do in America, as well. This is why the girl wanted to move. She will have more choices and will be more successful.


2. This poem is trying to tell us that we will always be connected with the city we grow up in. The poem said, “You find you need China: your one fragile identification, a jade link handcuffed to your wrist.” This is located at the beginning of the fifth stanza, and means we will always have a little bit of the place we grew up in our hearts. Where you grow up will shape your beliefs and what you enjoy. For instance, since I live in Hawaii, I love the beach. I grew up around the beach and probably will go crazy if I move somewhere that has no beach in sight for miles. Where we grow up also shapes how we talk and the language we use. In Hawaii, many people talk pidgin. If we would go to the mainland, we would sound different from everyone else because we grew up in Hawaii. So, I think that where you grow up definitely influences how our “self” is created.