The Tragedy of Leila in Bone Essays -- Bone Essays

The Tragedy of Leila in Bone      Ã‚  Ã‚   How much responsibility should any child have over their family? In "Bone," by Fae Myenne Ng, a character named Leila is born the daughter of a loving mother, Mah, and a run-out-on-the-family father whom cursed Leila with a last name Fu. As Leila said herself, "Fu in our dialect sounds like the word for bitter" (18). She became the oldest with two other sisters, Ona and Nina, whom both came from Mah's second husband, Leon. Leon loves his biological daughters like a true father should; meanwhile, Leon also loves Leila, his daughter only by marriage to Mah. Leon expresses how much he loves his daughters by saying "Five sons don't make one good daughter" (3), causing a scene in front of people who think that he is unlucky for not being blessed with a single son.    At a very young age Leila was forced to be the sister-in-charge and make decisions that a young girl twice her age would not normally be expected to produce. Mah began working as a seamstress before the girls would wake up, and continue working until after they would fall asle...