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1-Page Summary of Snow Flower And The Secret Fan
Overall Summary
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a story within a story. The narrator Lily reveals that she’s telling this story to Peony, her grandson’s wife, as part of her confession to Snow Flower who has passed away.
Lily was born in China to a poor family, but they were respectable. At the age of six, she had to go through a matchmaking process that would determine whether her feet could be bound. If this happened, it would improve her marriage prospects and social status. The process required that Lily’s parents pay for training so she could have high-quality feet and be more competitive among other women who wanted to get married. A diviner determined if Lily was ready for the process by evaluating her birth date and time in addition to her place in the family hierarchy (birth order). This information helped find another girl named Snow Flower who had similar traits with Lily so they could become lifelong friends through lautong matches.
Snow Flower introduces herself by writing a message on a fan. She and Lily will use the fan to communicate with each other in secret using nu shu, which is women’s language. While Lily thinks she knows everything from Snow Flower at first, it turns out that her family isn’t as well-off as she thought they were. However, when Snow Flower says that it’s Lily who has taught her how to do household chores, she believes that Snow Flower is just being nice because of their different social statuses. It isn’t until after both girls get married that Lily learns more about what happened to Snow Flower’s family after her father died of an addiction and left them broke. Now they have nothing while Lily marries into a wealthy family.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a book about two girls, Lily and Snow Flower. They are best friends who write letters to each other that are hidden in fans. The story follows their friendship throughout their lives until they become adults with families of their own. Lily has many children, so she feels fulfilled as a woman. Her husband is kind to her, but it’s more out of duty than love because he doesn’t show much affection towards her or his children. On the other hand, Snow Flower suffers from abuse at the hands of her mother-in-law and husband. She gives birth to three sons and one daughter who live beyond birth; however, two of them die when they’re still young boys due to severe beatings by her husband. She also loses another child during pregnancy because she was beaten so severely by him that she miscarried the baby inside her womb. As time goes on, Snow Flower becomes increasingly depressed while Lily remains happy with what life has given her despite all its hardships for both women over the years (births/deaths).
Lily was frustrated with Snow Flower’s complaints about her life. Lily tried to help by telling her that she should accept her role as a wife and mother, but it only made things worse. When Lily found out that Snow Flower had joined a group of women who were going to listen to the problems in their lives, she felt betrayed and cut off all contact with Snow Flower. Furthermore, when Lily wanted to make herself look good after the breakup of their friendship, she told everyone about Snow Flower’s secrets so people would think less of her.
Eight years after they meet, Snow Flower is dying. Her daughter begs Lily to reconcile with her mother and she does so. Lily remembers the love she had for Snow Flower and spends time with her until she dies. The three sworn sisters who befriended Snow Flower explain to Lily that there was a misunderstanding between them and what Snow Flower meant by her message. After this reconciliation, Lily serves as a caretaker of the remaining children until she dies in old age while taking care of these women’s stories through writing down their lives on paper because they are unable to do it themselves.
