Home Bird And Chu's House

Different literary works created by the same author often are similar, whether the main character is similar, or the settings are similar, etc. But how similar are Koly and Chu Ju, the main characters from Gloria Whelan’s novels Homeless Bird and Chu Ju’s House? Before jumping right into it, here’s a quick summary. In Homeless Bird, a young girl named Koly is sent off to marry a boy named Hari, who is sick with tuberculosis, unbeknownst to her. Hari’s parents then use Koly’s dowry to buy a ticket to Varanasi, where Hari can bathe in the Ganges to save him from death, but he then ends up dying in Varanasi. After Hari dies, Hari’s sister, Chandra, marries and leaves home, and shortly after, Hari’s father, Sassur, dies. Hari’s mother, Sass, seeing an opportunity to find another home, abandons Koly in Vrindavan, which is known to be the city of widows in India. However, she finds a boy named Raji who finds her a widow’s home, where she gets a stable job and food, and the book ends with Raji asking Koly to marry him. In Chu Ju’s House, a young girl named Chu Ju is about to get a sibling, but she hopes it to be a boy, as male children are highly valued in Chinese culture, and a single family may not have more than two children. However, when

There are various examples of this in the book, one of them being “I would do anything for her[Han Na]’s happiness”(134). This quote shows that Chu Ju would, well, do anything for Han Na’s happiness! No matter how risky or extreme anything would be, she would still do it if it made Han Na happy. Another example of this character trait could be “I would not let them take Hua. I would be the one to disappear”(39). This quote shows that Chu Ju would run away from home for her sister’s sake. Chu Ju’s family was planning to sell Hua so they could have another child(who would hopefully be a boy), but Chu Ju wouldn’t let that happen, so she ran away so they didn’t have to sell