Discussion Posting - Assignment Example

Setting of The Story of the Stone The Story of the Stone is an intriguing Chinese story ed by Cao Xueqin. Due to its richness and the intertwining of fiction and reality, the story is well known across the globe attracting an audience from other cultures. The novel relies on a domestic setting focusing on two families. All the drama depicted in the story surrounds the two families who form clans. The two clans comprise of extended family names the Jia family. The author gives the readers a glimpse into the ancestry of the family highlighting that the ancestors belong to the upper class in the society because of their outstanding favor of the emperor.

The Jia family is supposed to depict standards of an upper-class society, but the dramas depicted illustrate that they fail to meet such standards. The author focuses on the household sphere bringing into the light all the characters participating in different household activities such as holding banquets, exchanging gifts, writing poems, and other activities that define the Chinese culture. The author intertwines such household activities with the tension and conflict existing between the family members and the servants.

As the author depicts the household activities, he places emphasis on the protocols, mannerisms, expectations, and consequences that define the Chinese culture. The reader can see the contemporary Chinese culture, by becoming familiar with the two clans, the Ning-guo and Rong-guo. The two clans live in an urban setting specifically the capital city. For this reason, the author depicts two upper-class clans residing in a contemporary capital city. The presents a fictional story and allocates virtual spaces to all the characters among human beings.

From the introduction, the reader recognizes that the main character was a stone in a different world. They are placed in Beijing where the story is retold (Cao and Hawkes 52).Work CitedCao, Xueqin, and David Hawkes. The Story of the Stone: A Chinese Novel by Cao Xueqin in Five Volumes. London, England: Penguin Books, 1974. Print.