How Does Su-Jen Change Throughout The Novel

As humans grow up, they experience a change from innocence to experience, as seen in a lot of literature. This change often happens to main characters and during major events. In Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, written by Judy Fong Bates, the narrator and protagonist, Su-Jen grows up having to experience many things for the first time while being new to life in Canada. This novel conveys a central theme, the transition that Su-Jen experiences from being an innocent character to a character that is more experienced with the world around her. Her transition is evident when Su-Jen begins talking back to her mother, when Su-Jen watches Charlotte die, and when Su-Jen sees her mother and Lee-Kung’s growing relationship. To begin, the transition from

You can’t understand” 207. Su-Jen is at the point in age, combined with how her mother is acting, that she no longer just listens. She begins to use her knowledge of English as a weapon against her mother, who cannot speak the language. Su-Jen’s understanding of English and the experience that she has with it, helps her towards the continuing trend of being less innocent with her mother. Secondly, Su-Jen’s innocence is quickly formed into experience when she witnesses Charlotte die in the lake. Su-Jen had been warned her entire life to stay away from water as it was her danger sign. Despite the warnings, Su-Jen and Charlotte have made the frozen lake their regular hangout spot. Su-Jen remarked, “As I watched in horror, the ice splintered and Charlotte crashed through into the water, screaming” (294). Su-Jen for most of her life had taken the warnings as false, unimportant, but after losing her best friend, she realized the mistake that she might have made and blamed herself for putting Charlotte in that position. Su-Jen blamed herself for the loss of Charlotte and was not herself after that. This shows that Su-Jen’s innocence to the world was quickly changed as she had to witness and go through losing

Ever since Lee-Kung arrived at the Dragon Cafe, Su-Jen’s mother became closer and closer to her Step-Son. They spent time talking together, sitting on the fire escape, and being very friendly with each other. Su-Jen exclaimed to herself while looking in Lee-Kung’s bedroom window, “Lying together in the moonlight on his bed, my long, dark brother on top of my pale, slender mother, their naked bodies coiled around each other like snakes” (110). This was a truly heart wrenching thing for a young Su-Jen to see, as now she had to keep the secret from her family to stay true to her family's beliefs. This is also the point where Su-Jen turns more away from her mother and towards her father, as she now sees the type of person that her mother is. The traumatizing nature of what Su-Jen saw between her mother and brother, as well as the secret that she had to keep, became one of the first major pushes from her overall innocence, to a higher grasp of experience. To conclude, having the transition from innocence to experience be the central theme of a book is clearly shown in Judy Fong Bates’ Midnight at the Dragon