Text Connections

Text to Text: “The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something” (155). The mother in Peony in Love, written by Lisa See, felt the same way. She had a daughter, Peony, and she did not believe that Peony should be educated in school related subjects. Her mother was her professor and she only taught her the things that she should do in a household, and the way that she will be useful to her husband. In her culture, it was more attractive for women to have small feet, and it was what all the people in her society did. Therefore, the mother would bind her daughter’s feet and break her bones in order to reshape her feet, so that her husband will see her as beautiful. A women’s sole purpose is to be the most that she can be for her husband. In both cases mothers did not believe that girls needed to be educated for any reason other than the things that will make her a better wife towards her husband.

Text to World: The Olinka women “were promised to old or middle-aged men at birth” (166). Arranged marriages are still an arguable topic to this day, but still exist in many places. The practice of arranged marriage is still accepted in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, India, Bangladesh, some Islam countries, and some other countries. The women are forced to comply whether it defends or refutes their morals.