Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses

Because of her Americanization, Olivia lives a life defined by externals--what other people think of her, how much money she and her husband make, material goods. Her childhood, however, is more contradictory: "For most of my childhood, I had to struggle not to see the world the way Kwan described it. Like her talk about ghosts" (55). Olivia goes on to describe seeing a ghost herself.

Olivia's life before Kwan was indeed fully Americanized: "We were a modern American family. . . . We lived in a ranch-style house in Daly City. My father worked for the Government Accounting Office. My mother went to PTA meetings" (6-7). All this changed when Kwan entered the picture. It could be argued that Kwan brought with her not only Chinese tradition, but also the possibility of an interior life, however bizarre. The American life of Olivia rests on the surface of life, while Kwan introduces a life beyond appearances.

Olivia is susceptible to Kwan not only because she feels som

. . .
s easy for Olivia to mock her in order to fend off the other world her elder sister offers, because that world is threatening to her own conventional, superficial reality. For example, when Kwan is trying to explain the death of a ghost who is offering marital advice to Olivia, Olivia quickly mocks her: "Someone without a head is now telling me what to do about my marriage?" (28). However, when the ghost apparently tells Kwan (who tells Olivia) about the fact that Olivia was balancing her checkbook, Olivia is quickly impressed. This shows that despite her mangling of the English language, Kwan knows mysterious ways of knowledge inaccessible, at this point, to Olivia. Tam tests the limits of this reader's ability to accept unique views of reality when she apparently in all seriousness has Kwan posit the entire reincarnation scenario with Olivia and her husband being reincarnated lovers. To make matters harder to swallow, Tam has Olivia accept this scenario and find happiness and a brand new philosophy of life suddenly, perhaps forgetting the earlier warning that "Too much happiness always overflows into tears of sorrow" (69). Perhaps an even better and more applicable warming would be, "Too much belief always overflows into doub
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Accounting Office, Olivia Simon, Kwan Yin, Instead Olivia, Olivia China, Chinese American, Kwan Nunumu, Tam Olivia, Yes Olivia, Americanization Olivia, special realm, hundred secret senses, love mother, yin eyes, ghosts intuition, olivia olivia, surface appearances, book reader, olivia susceptible, sister kwan, change olivia,
Approximate Word count = 1629
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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