Pre-Reading Fall 2023/Spring 2024
Pre-Reading Assignment:
Read Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. While reading, you will complete the following:
Keep a list of major characters (3-4) and their traits. Use quotes that support the trait.
Make a list of themes. Construct three thematic statements that encapsulates what the author is trying to say through her novel. Please use Theme Tracker Form to help you complete this.
Additionally, Mrs. Fansher, WHHS Media Specialist, has created a great informational guide for the novel. You can find it HERE.
Novel Preview:
In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.