Sweeping Past
This short story by Yiyun Li is based primarily on the story of a photograph. What starts out as a somewhat cliché story, where the main characters are reflecting on a photograph from the past, works its way into a traumatic story. I found it imbalanced that so much of the story is spent focused on the photograph versus the shocking story that unfolds later.
Essentially, I walked away from this story pondering the idea of forgiveness and blame. How these two things coincide yet are fueled and reached by such varied circumstances. It reminds me of how easily we misplace emotions when trying to cope with trauma. The blame that falls on Ailin is an example of how we as humans, can make odd choices when dealing with tragic circumstances. The reactive decision to blame someone is often our first instinct and forgiveness takes time. It is surprising that in this story there is no resolve. This kind of irrational blame is taken on for the entirety of the story and presumably their lives. Li addresses this by having Ailin say, “to understand that hatred, as much as love, did not come out of reason but a mindless nudge of a force beyond one’s awareness.”
Yiyun Li does a wonderful job of creating a story that is jarring and memorable from a common thread and universal understanding of human emotion and displacement of anger, sadness and disappointment.
Coming to Age 