Maxine Kingston On Mortality Essay

There was a lot of rich literary material written by Maxine Kingston in China men but I think On Mortality is one of the most interesting stories I have ever read because it’s so short, yet so adventurous, so rich in plot, characters and scenery. The story is a about an ancient character named Tu Tzu-chun who supposedly lived during the Chou and Sui dynasties. Tu was in debt to a Taoist Monk that gave him wealth a couple of times over several lifetimes. Tu used his money for charity by housing and taking care of the poor, the widowed and the orphaned. In a sense he was a guy driven by high morals. In the end not only did Tu end up suffering for doing a great deed, but is also blamed for ruining the making of elixir of the human race. The
One of the characteristics of the Toa is that it’s characterless or indefinable which is displayed in illusion in the story where scenes and situation change from one to another continuously. . The monk tells Tu his debt can be cleared he passes a test. The monk proceeded to give Tu illusion pills and tells him everything you will see is not real but don’t speak or scream. And Tu replies with “How easy, why I should scream if I know they’re illusions”. This reminds me of the Matrix movie where everybody lived everybody lived in illusion created by a computer program, particularly the scene where Morpheus gives Neo the pill that reveals the Matrix illusion. The Matrix incorporated a lot of philosophical, social and religious ideas similar to the On Mortality story. The narrator goes on to describe the most horrific description of hell that she refers to as the nine hells Tu had to endure. Tu witnessed everything from heads of people including his own being decapitated, to his wife mercilessly being tortured.. He was even reincarnated in this realistic illusion first as a baby and later as deaf-muted woman. A walk through and climb up on mountains of knives and forests of swords, yet Tu did not utter a sound keeping in mind