A Daughter of Han / Ning Lao T'AI-T'AI

 Word Count: 230

Parker Greene

A Daughter of Han / Ning Lao T'AI-T'AI

" The father of my children was good for a while, and I thought he had learned his lesson. He promised never to sell the child again and I believed him. Then one day he sold her again and I could not get her back that time." (pg. 634)

Ning Lao had suffered a lot throughout her lifetime, and this quote really shows just how much she had to endure. Ning Lao had many struggles in life, living in poverty struggling to find food, her husbands opioid addiction, and her husband selling their child twice before she finally left him. Ning had to live by begging for money while married, and after she spilt from him she just wanted to take care of her other child. Ning did her best to beg for food and just make ends meet, and all while being able to stay true to herself. While I think Ning knew she wasn't in the best situation/relationship with her husband at the time, she stayed around so that she would have companionship and her children would have their father. She got pushed to the last straw however by her ex-husband selling their daughter again, and was able to find a way out of her marriage, which had to have been difficult in itself due to the social standards.