Seventh and Final Step to Analysis: SYNTHESIS and Reflections

Finally, we have reached the final step of literary research analysis: Synthesis. We have accumulated many important facts that support what we initially noticed in patterns in Water Ghosts.

In the last post, as I found relevant evidence after sifting through hundreds of documents, I took the information a step further by connecting it to a large pattern I noticed in the novel. This “step further” is what I mean by synthesis. It is when you bring all of your ideas together into a pattern that you support using textual and resourceful evidence. As the analyst, if you found enough information to support your argument, synthesis will come easily because the arrival of evidence will spark further questions and thoughts regarding your topic.

Reflections during finding evidence stage:

I found information regarding a Chinese-American woman (Lei Jieqiong) that entered the field of academia during a period when even Chinese-American men were discriminated against. That was very interesting especially after reading Water Ghosts because the most of the Chinese women were in very traditional roles as homemakers. Lei and her other Chinese-American colleagues were a glimpse into the future (present day) where academia is filled with people of many ethnicities and cultures. I myself am an example of that given that I am an Indian-American in field of computer science.

The information about Lei brought up very interesting questions about how she was able to escape the traditional role of a woman in a society, as by the novel, limited women. Also a key theme I came across when reading the analysis of her thesis was that she advocated Americanization but remaining Chinese at heart. She wanted the new generations to keep hold of Chinese culture and values while assimilating into society that was predominantly white. This theme was addressed, but in an opposite way, with Corlissa and Chloe living as white women in a community run by Chinese people. That also brings up questions about assimilation in America during the 1920s when immigration was becoming a national issue.

What I realized after completing this research project was that as I was trying to answer questions about gender roles in Chinese-American communities, more questions arose than answered. That should not be seen as discouragement; personally, the discovery of culture and context for novels and stories we read in class or on our own puts a lot of things in real life in perspective. After completing this project, I have a lot of respect for my parents coming to a foreign land to have a better life and raise a family on the same values their ancestors raised them. At the beginning of this semester, no one would have caught me saying this, but I really enjoyed myself reading this novel and looking deeply into the lives of these characters through the lens of factual history.

As this research endeavor comes to a close, I would like to invite comments from my readers on their personal experiences of discovery in literary research or just reading in general.