Embracing Your Shadow (Notes)

Brief Summary

This short story focuses on the mental infidelity of a man torn between his fantasies revolving around a chance encounter with a captivating woman he has never spoken to and the reality he lives in.

Main Points

• The protagonist’s wife, Rose, confronts him about their failing marriage despite being married for 12 years and having a beautiful daughter named Luna. The protagonist does not put up a fight or protest against his wife’s statement that their marriage is no longer working. Instead, he walks out of the kitchen and passes by his daughter without saying good night. In the guest room where he sleeps in, he imagines what his neighbor, Mr Wong and his family are doing. He envies the life of the intact, secure and content family living next door.

• The protagonist blames himself for his failed marriage because he has been mentally unfaithful towards his wife. He is constantly thinking of the stranger whom he had a chance encounter with for not more than ten seconds before he met Rose.

• **He recalls his wedding night when he saw this stranger again. On that night, he had spotted the mystery woman – who was wearing a svelte white evening gown with dark waves of hair cascading down her shoulders – standing at a table in the back between a big man and a middle-aged lady. Although his attention should have been focused entirely on his newly-wedded wife, the protagonist had pulled aside his best man, Woon, to inquire about the mystery woman in hopes of finding out who she was. However, he felt guilty after seeing his beautiful wife beside him. His guilt temporarily overpowered his curiousity but it did not stop him from being mentally unfaithful to Rose over the course of their 12-year marriage.

• There are several incidents brought up by the protagonist in which he fantasizes about this stranger during the most inappropriate times. For example :

1. He thought that his new-born daughter, Luna, would look even more beautiful if she had a nose like the stranger’s.
2. After meeting Rose a year after the chance encounter with the stranger, the protagonist continually benchmarked Rose against this mystery woman. He compared Rose’s eyes against the stranger’s and the shape of Rose’s body against her as well. He even compared Rose’s whinny laughter to this stranger’s imagined voice.
3. The protagonist also fantasized about the stranger when making love to his wife. The thought of this mystery woman plagued his thoughts constantly – when he is walking the dog, watching a movie, having lunch or during a meeting.

• The protagonist tries to justify his actions by bringing up his granduncle’s own unrequited love story. His granduncle had fallen in love with the daughter of a rich merchant in Gongzhou when he was still a lowly coolie, but even after five decades, two wives and seven children, his granduncle continues to pine after someone who was not even aware of his existence.

Character Analysis

The protagonist is an ungrateful and unappreciative man. He chases after a fleeting shadow while he lives in the light. Despite having a loving wife and a beautiful daughter at home, he pines in vine after a woman he does not even know who may not even be aware of his existence. When he finally embraces his “shadow” (i.e. the mystery woman), he loses everything and gains nothing except for the selfish comfort of being able to dream of thismystery woman without feeling guilty. He ruins his marriage, tears apart his family and breaks his wife and daughter’s hearts for a mere “shadow”.

*Note : Remember to add sufficient and detailed examples to prove how he has been mentally unfaithful and ungrateful as well as the consequences of his actions. For example, you may bring up the incidents where he thought his new-born child would be more beautiful with the stranger’s nose or the part where he constantly compares Rose with the stranger. [Refer to Main Points.]

Quick Fact Check

1. The protagonist’s wife is Rose whereas his daughter is named Luna.

2. They have been married for 12 years.

3. The protagonist sees the mystery woman 1 year before he met Rose and 6 years before he married her.

4. The best man at his wedding was Woon.

5. There were 50 tables at their wedding dinner.

6. Their neighbor is the Wong family.

7. The beverage Rose makes for the protagonist in the beginning is Milo.