Loyalty concepts and applications

Loyalty

The narrator relates a story of the importance of loyalty, even in difficult situations. There are three types of loyalty in this story that the narrator must analyze and prioritize. The first is the loyalty to the new family. It would be dishonor both to her and to them if she simply rebelled. She instead endures tremendous hardship in order to maintain this particular loyalty.

The second loyalty is to her own family. Her parents made a promise that she would marry Tyan-yu. By the time the marriage takes place, she has essentially lost any hope of seeing her original family anymore, with the Japanese occupation and pending civil war. The distance and time are great. The loyalty to her family is a burden she carries on her own. Yet, it is a strong part of her connection to herself. Loyalty to her family helps her to maintain her own identity, knowing that she is not like Huang Taitai and her family. Honor is something that can be measured by ancestors and their spirits, so this loyalty must remain even when there is nobody present to notice or care. It is an internal loyalty and again, the narrator is willing to endure significant hardship to maintain this loyalty to family

The third loyalty is to herself. The narrator has a moment on the way to her wedding where she gains a strong sense of self. If she does not have this moment, this sense of loyalty will simply not exist. Therefore, it is critical to the story that she has this moment and builds a true sense of loyalty to herself. It is the most important loyalty, and the one that guides her actions. Her plan to extract herself from the marriage stems entirely from this sense of loyalty.

When these three different loyalties come together, the result is the plan to get out of the marriage. While the idea comes from loyalty to herself, and knowing where she needs to be in life, the methods used reflect her other loyalties. She cannot simply create conflict nor can she walk away. Thus, she needs to find a solution by which one of her loyalties is broken for her. Her family is not available to break that loyalty so she must then find a way for the new family to break the loyalty. This is what leads to the plan she eventually enacts.

The narrator is bound by a strong sense of loyalty. There is conflict, in that it seems each of these different loyalties provides a strong constraint on the problem. Yet, with time, the narrator finds a creative way to resolve the conflict without breaking any loyalty. It is interesting to note that each loyalty is given the same value to the narrator. To some, it would seem clear that there is a loyalty hierarchy that should be used to resolve this situation. Loyalty to the new family, for example, should be lowest according to many Westerners. However, the sense that the narrator has is that all loyalty is equal. Thus, the situation must be resolved without breaking any one loyalty.