The novel Chinese Cinderella, written by Adeline Yen Mah, and the original Disney film Cinderella, are examples of child-parent relationships. Both narratives are unsurprisingly similar, suggested by the name of both titles; but, relationships and bonds shown within the film/novel give great examples of the ugly sides within a family. Within these family relationships, there is child neglection, isolation and abandonment. In the two stories, they tell an account with themes such as family relationships that are abusive towards our main protagonists; both physically and mentally. This especially shows with their parents; Ella with her Stepmother, and Adeline with her Father and Niang. The parents are depicted as the main antagonists of the stories, …show more content…
However, within the family hides a dark secret secret that is hidden away from the public.
Chinese Cinderella explores five themes in the novel: self-esteem, abandonment, isolation, family/relationships and neglection.
In the story, Adeline's relationship with her parents is not all that good. She is shown to be used as a "tool" and something to relieve Niang's stress and anger into. Adeline is physically and mentally abused by her stepmother, and blamed for all the problems in the household. Her father never stops Niang's sick acts towards his own daughter and even seems to support them, shown by how he never question Niang's actions.
Niang and Father show an obvious bias toward Niang's biological children; Niang's reason being that they're her actual children, and Father just preferring them more because they evidently more "good-looking" and just better ("Though nobody actually said so, it was simply understood that everyone considered Niang’s “real” children better-looking and smarter than her stepchildren—simply superior in every way"). This causes the step siblings to be mistreated by their parents, but this mistreatment is especially expressed towards