Hai and Di each have dreams for themselves. Do they achieve them? If not, was there anything different that they could have or should have done?
Hai achieved her dreams, which included her dreams for her children. Di? I suspect initially she settled but also suspect she continued to pursue her wants and desires. Unsure if she was successful.
I think Hai’s dreams were achieved. She was able to get an education and become a teacher.
Her marriage was one based on love and when her female baby was born she moved away from the tradition of male babies were the only ones to be nurtured. Di on the other hand made a bad decision ended up pregnant and unwanted by the father. She felt as if she lost a sense of herself. Her dream of being with someone she loved was crushed. She felt abandoned and heart-broken. Di did become a restaurant owner which was part of her dream.
Hai longs to get an education and imagines a future where she works and supports herself, a life beyond the domestic roles. By the novel’s end, Hai succeeds in continuing her education in Hong Kong. She enrolled in school and began to shape a future with academic and professional promise. Her dream of independence through education starts to come true. Hai makes the best decisions available to her. Her resourcefulness helps her achieve her goals. Given the oppressive conditions, she succeeds not by changing her dream but by fiercely fighting for it.
Di’s dreams are tied to marriage, love, and a stable domestic life—a traditional desire. She wants to be chosen and loved rather than discarded. Di does not achieve this dream. She ends up married to a man she did not choose and lives an unsatisfying life. Although her marriage provides security, it lacks the emotional depth she longed for.
Hai’s success is hard-earned agency, while Di’s is compromise and lost potential. Together, their arcs reflect the complex range of female experience during a time when girls were taught to expect little.