It's a cycle

“I persisted in the negotiation, and Snow Flower’s granddaughter came under my protection. I personally bound her feet. I showed her all the mother love I could possible give as I made her walk back and forth across the upstairs chamber of her natal home. Peony’s feet came to be perfect golden lilies, identical in size to my own. During the long months that Peony’s bones set, I visited her nearly every day. Her parents loved her very much, but her father tried not to think about the past and her mother did not know it. So I talked to the girl, weaving stories about her grandmother and her laotong, about writing and singing, about friendship and hardship. ‘Your grandmother was born of an educated family ,’I told her. ‘You will learn what she taught me-needlework, dignity, and, most important, our secret women’s writing.’” (251) The process of foot binding is passed on from generations to generations, like an unbreakable repeating cycle. Fate plays a role, determining which family, either wealthy or poor, a girl is born into. Being born into a wealthy family would provide people with a good education and a better possibility of finding a good mate. This was not true in Snow Flower’s life however, since she was born into a privileged family, but ends up marrying a poor butcher. Snow Flower’s grand daughter also has to go through this process and, although Lily and Snow Flower’s friendship went sour, Lily still helped out Peony. This shows how deep their bond was. Lily manage to negotiate her way to be the one to mentor Peony through the foot binding process, although she was below in social status. She stresses that the most important thing to learn is the secret women’s writing. By ng a mentioning this writing along with the basic essentials of being a women, it further highlight the importance of the writing to a woman.