Summary Of The End Of East By Jen Sookfong Lee

Published in 2007 in Toronto, Jen Sookfong Lee’s novel, The End of East, presents the multigenerational struggles of the Chan family in Vancouver. The novel intertwines the hardship of the first generation with the confusion and chaos of the third generation. The male dominance that is executed by Shew Lin in The End of East has a domino effect through the three female generations.

The gender preference is introduced through the first generation by Shew Lin. Shew Lin has expectations of what the role of a woman should be in a family. Shew Lin believes that the responsibility of whole house is put on her to help her son, as the daughter-in-law, Siu Sang, does not do any of the housework. “ I did not work so hard to keep my husband and son

Shew Lin is always calling Siu Sang useless as Siu Sang does not do any cooking which displeases Shew Lin and makes her believe Siu Sang will ruin the family, as it has been, “two months and [she] has proven to be completely useless” (133). Further, Shew Lin believes that the communication issue between Seid Quan and Pon Man can be solved only if Siu Sang would have a boy. “Something medicinal, to help my grandson grow strong” (137), Shew Lin did not even make a general statement of the sex of the baby; she demands it to be a boy. Shew Lin believes that Siu Sang is only brought to produce a boy and leading Siu Sang to believe the same, “She can call her daughter-in-law useless if she still has not done what they brought her out to do, if her husband and son still

The book’s title gives a hint as it shows that there will be an ending of some sort of east, and with the content of the book the east is the culture and past history of the family. The end is the male dominance that Shew Lin presented as to what women should do and the preference for boys, and Sammy does not share similar views, so that is the end part. Being a third generation who does not have any knowledge about what Shew Lin wanted from her family let’s Sammy do what pleases her and she does not care how it affects her family. Her mom does ask, “…Why you can’t finish school” (59), and that leaves Sammy explaining, “school means nothing” (59) Moreover, before Shew Lin had passed away she had a feeling that Sammy will be the different one type of girl. Sammy was different than her sisters and that was demonstrated when she left her sister’s wedding to go to a bar with a boy whom she just meant. It was mentioned that Sammy does stop to get her cigarettes or go to bars for drinks, and she does not have the fear of what her mother might think of her as Siu Sang did before. Siu Sang has given up on changing Sammy, as she does not scold her the way Shew Lin did or the way Siu Sang acted before. In addition, Sammy is also afraid of expressing her feeling most of the time. She does not tell Matt she is afraid, “I don’t tell him that I am afraid, that the years stretch ahead of me, seemingly