Characterization and Social Commentary in "Saving Sourdi"

Family Relations: An Honest Take in Nea's Tale

Have you ever argued with your parents? Have you ever empathized with your siblings or cousins when they are in tough times? A person will most likely answer “yes” to at least one of these questions. Positive relations with family members can boost overall well-being and cause many memorable moments, while negative relations with family members can lead to anxiety, separation and even physical or verbal fights. May-Lee Chai, the author of the short story “Saving Sourdi”, makes social commentary about family relations in her work. She uses the careful characterization of her dynamic character Nea, who changes from being self-centered, inflexible and overly anxious to being understanding, to show that one should let family members set their own courses in life and one should not always catastrophize worrying circumstances involving family members.

Chai presents the character of Nea at the beginning of “Saving Sourdi” as a young women with big dreams, but as the story progresses we learn that Chai's true purpose in creating the character is to show how one's inflexibility with dreams and self-centered attitudes can have negative repercussions. At the beginning of the story, Nea and her sister Sourdi dream of escaping their mundane lives in order to visit places around the world. The presence of these dreams makes it seem like Chai is characterizing Nea as one of many fictional women that are created in order to empower female readers. Although these characters are important to have in a world where women have limited social options due to sexism, Nea is not one of them. Chai's true purpose for Nea's character begins to be revealed when Sourdi begins dating a boy named Duke. Nea's reminisces: “When she first started seeing Duke, I used to think of him as something like a bookmark, just holding a certain space in her life until it was time for her to move on. I never thought of him as a fork in the road, dividing my life with Sourdi with Sourdi's life with men” (Chai 123). Nea's inflexibility with her dreams causes her to be, for a while, blind to the fact that Sourdi has the freedom to choose her own path. However, Nea is written in a way that she could have just not understood romantic love as a child, so this point is not entirely clear until more of the short story is read. Sourdi's relationship with Duke ends, and her marriage to an older man named Mr. Chhay is arranged by her mom and uncle. With Sourdi married, Chai develops Nea by having her be devastated and unwilling to accept Sourdi's settling down. Chai has Nea react in this way in order to show her self-centered attitude; her dreams of traveling with her sister, which can lead to her direct benefit, are so important to her that she cannot find at least some joy in a milestone in Sourdi's life. Chai shows that Nea is inflexible with her dreams by making her go to great lengths: she ends up driving a long way to find Sourdi's new house because she builds a false picture in her mind that Mr. Chhay is abusive. When she learns that this picture is not true and that Sourdi is relatively comfortable, she sorrowfully states: “She had made her choice, and she hadn't chosen me” (Chai 134). Nea ends up in a negative situation, as by the end of her visit she realizes that Sourdi and her are beginning to drift apart: Sourdi is an adult who is settling down into the life of a mother and wife, while she is still in many ways a child who has the amount of ambition for an exciting life that one would expect in a teenager. It is important to point out that Nea's realization is flawed because it ignores the fact that she has shared common experiences with Sourdi and is fueled by her inflexible dreams that place her as her sister's sole companion. However, Chai still adds this realization to her story in order to show that one's perceptions of family relationships can be negatively affected by one being inflexible with dreams regarding family members. May-Lee Chai characterizes Nea in order to show that being self-centered and inflexible with dreams regarding family can lead to unexpected consequences.

Chai characterizes Nea in a way that shows readers that being overprotective of family members can be an easy but unwanted habit to get into. The opening scene of the short story is used by Chai as foreshadowing regarding this main point, as in it Nea stabs a man in retaliation for him sexually abusing and holding Sourdi. Nea has good intentions in protecting her sister, but her extreme and impulsive reaction of attacking the man with a potentially deadly weapon makes the incident more about her violence than his sexist and aggressive doings. It is clear that Chai is showing in this scene that Nea overreacts in protecting her family, even during occurrences when concern is merited. Nea has another well-intentioned but extreme reaction that shows her overprotectiveness later in the story; worrying calls from Sourdi are the cause of her decision to drive to her sister's new home with the belief that Mr. Chhay is being abusive. Nea immediately becomes extremely nervous when Sourdi unexpectedly calls and says the words “Is Ma there?” (Chai 127), and the younger sister's worry grows even more when she hears these words from their mother: “It's always like this. Every marriage is hard. Sometimes there is nothing you can do--” (Chai 128). Although it can be inferred from these two statements that Sourdi is a victim of domestic abuse, abuse is not the most likely occurrence that could lead to them. However, Chai's building of Nea's anxious state makes it easy for readers to think that she is in fact correct in her assumptions. For example, here are Nea's reactions after she reaches and talks to Mr. Chhay while trying to call Sourdi: “I hung up. I couldn't breathe. My Chest hurt. I could feel my swollen heart pressing against my ribs” (Chai 128). The fact that Sourdi's first call came after an accidental eye injury caused by baby wipes and not an incident of domestic abuse comes as a surprise to many readers, as Chai's descriptive writing creates fear and tension in them. Overall, Chai makes Nea be worried about an occurrence as serious as domestic abuse in order for readers to clearly realize that it is natural for people to be overprotective in nerve-wracking incidents involving family. Nea eventually does realize that she was overprotective of Sourdi, and she comes out with an understanding. After giving background about a magic serpent, she writes: “But I have no magic powers. None whatsoever” (Chai 134). Nea is able to understand that she cannot quickly make everything better by driving a long way to “save” her sister. In fact, she learns that overprotective actions like this can negatively affect her. May-Lee Chai directs readers of her short story to not be overprotective of family members unless one is sure they are in real trouble, as she argues that negative effects can result from being overprotective.

Because “Saving Sourdi” has themes that necessitate a critical view of a female character who seeks independence and a critical view of being protective of family members in some cases, Chai writes her short story skillfully in order to make it clear that she is not against female empowerment or close family relations. In no way does Chai criticize the dreams of the future Nea has. However, she makes it inferrable that when those dreams become unfeasible, Nea is not willing to make them flexible or change them. In a similar manner, in no way does Chai express support for the practice of arranged marriage. However, she makes it clear that Sourdi's arranged marriage is not as bad of an experience as Nea thinks it is. Finally, her story includes moments of closeness between Nea and Sourdi to show that the sisters often have a positive, meaningful relationship. Nea fondly recalls: “I'd climb into Sourdi's bed, claiming that I couldn't sleep, curling into a ball beside my sister...Sometimes I'd stroke Sourdi's slick hair, which she plaited into a thick wet braid so that it would be wavy in the morning” (Chai 123). Showing that the connection between Nea and Sourdi has value to Nea is a subtle way that Chai gives a hint to readers that being concerned for loved ones is very important. May-Lee Chai provides evidence in her short story that disproves clams that she is against female empowerment or close-knit families.

In “Saving Sourdi”, author May-Lee Chai gives readers valuable lessons by expressing through a creative counter-example that there are benefits in having flexible dreams regarding family and not being too overprotective of loved ones. She successfully conveys these lessons to readers through the descriptive characterization of the thoughts and actions of the main character in her story, Nea. After reading the story, it is easy to imagine in the writer's mind the creation of anecdotes that give similar commentary to Chai's on family relations; the specific commentary present in “Saving Sourdi” is not common in classic literature, but it can be meaningful to a wide variety of readers and transferrable to many different fictional situations. Perhaps for some readers, Chai's commentary can even lead to the improvement of real-life family relations.