Bound
52 pages • 1-hour read
Donna Jo NapoliBound
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, gender discrimination, sexual violence, mental illness, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, enslavement, illness, and death.
The Struggle for Female Autonomy in a Patriarchal Society
Set in the strictly patriarchal society of Ming dynasty China, Bound interrogates how historical beliefs and practices impact women’s identities and agency. Just as Xing Xing occupies a subordinate role within her family structure, the dominant teachings of Confucianism position women as inherently inferior to men: “There is an order to guidance. A ruler guides a subject. A father guides a son. A husband guides a wife” (78). As this teaching illustrates, women’s subservience to men is assumed as one of the basic tenets of this society’s structure. These limiting cultural norms directly impact Xing Xing’s life in the wake of her parents’ deaths. The socioeconomic status of Xing Xing, her stepmother, and her half-sister declines after Wu’s death because women are forced to depend upon men for their economic survival. Because “[w]idows of decent families do not remarry” (35), the stepmother hinges all her hopes for the family on finding a husband for her Wei Ping.
The dominant culture within the world of the novel actively discourages the female characters from acquiring skills that could make them more independent. The people of Xing Xing’s province believe that “[A]n educated girl would be harder to marry off” (12). The novel’s cultural backdrop reveals the tight restrictions on the characters’ freedoms. Wei Ping grows up within the same patriarchal culture as her half-sister but internalizes the misogynistic messaging she receives instead of challenging it, positioning her as a foil to Xing Xing. Wei Ping is literally and figuratively bound by gendered cultural traditions that restrict her autonomy.
Wei Ping endures the agony of foot binding to become more desirable to a hypothetical future husband, and the physical violence inflicted on her warps her sense of worth and identity. Her mother conditions her to believe that her pain as transactional. As Wei Ping asserts” “‘I’m going to get married. I’m going to have sons.’ Wei Ping’s eyes glistened. ‘So it’s worth it’” (34). She doesn’t hope for anything for herself beyond the fulfillment of her culturally assigned function as a wife and mother, and she sees her pain as an acceptable trade for a life of security and respectability. However, the novel’s resolution leaves Wei Ping’s future precariously unclear, reflecting how patriarchal norms deprive women of their agency without guaranteeing anything in return.
In contrast to Wei Ping, Xing Xing moves from a downtrodden Cinderella figure to a confident young woman who embraces her identity and defends her autonomy. Napoli positions art as essential to Xing Xing’s sense of self. Through her calligraphy and poetry, she creates beauty to relieve the drudgery of her circumstances, demonstrates remarkable skills usually mastered only by men, and develops her own unique voice even though she’s been treated like “hardly more than […] a slave girl since Father’s death” (22). The stepmother’s murder of her “fish mother” kindle Xing Xing’s determination to break free from her restrictive existence and decide her own path. Napoli notes that Xing Xing “was determined to be no one’s fool anymore. She felt strong. A strong woman in a world that tried to deny the very existence of such a thing” (176), defining her newfound sense of agency as expressly countercultural.
At the end of the novel, Napoli emphasizes the protagonist’s autonomy by presenting the happy ending as the result of Xing Xing’s decisions rather than the prince’s wishes: “If she wanted, she could marry this prince. [….] All she had to do was produce the other shoe” (177). The author also frames the prince as someone who respects Xing Xing’s intelligence and facilitates her escape from her stepmother’s abuse rather than someone whom she falls in love with at first sight, subverting the traditional fairytale trope. In doing so, she roots Xing Xing’s happy ending in her personal empowerment rather than in finding romance. Xing Xing’s journey encourages readers to challenge restrictive norms by demonstrating how the she protects her identity and autonomy despite the limitations of her patriarchal society.
The Violence of Beauty Norms
Napoli examines the violence of beauty norms within a patriarchal society primarily through the historical Chinese practice of foot binding—the process of breaking and tightly bind their daughters’ feet with cloth—as smaller, more dainty feet were considered more attractive and more suitable for marriage. Across the novel, Napoli intrinsically links the practice to the entrenched misogyny of patriarchal norms as the same cultural restrictions that make women financially dependent on men pressure parents to subject their daughters to beauty norms such as foot binding that cause severe pain and lifelong challenges with mobility. In Bound, the family’s social and financial precarity after Wu’s death leaves the stepmother desperate to arrange an advantageous marriage for Wei Ping, believing it is the family’s best hope for survival. Napoli’s novel also references the fact that “no one was allowed to talk about” the pain that foot binding causes (7), a taboo that reinforces the idea of women as objects subject to male approval rather than human equals whose voices and well-being should be valued.
Wei Ping’s experiences with foot binding influence the novel’s tone and help raise the dramatic stakes and suspense. Napoli uses visceral language to describe Wei Ping’s “excruciating pain” and the “foul-smelling yellow liquid” that seeps from her broken, infected feet. This diction and imagery paint a stark picture of the violence of beauty standards in the novel’s historical context. In contrast to the gruesome realities of the process, the characters’ culture often compares a bound foot to “a golden lotus blossom” (7), a description that reflects how ancient Chinese society prioritizes men’s aesthetic pleasure over women’s well-being. When the girls’ pet raccoon bites off two of Wei Ping’s toes, the stepmother cuts off two of the toes on her daughter’s other foot to ensure they are equally small—a decision Napoli frames as monstrous: “Stepmother’s face appeared transformed into a monster face twisted with this monstrous idea. Stepmother turned to Xing Xing. ‘Get me the cleaver’” (42). The brutal, suspenseful scene offers an extreme example of the internalized misogyny that leads women to perpetuate violent beauty standards from which they themselves have suffered.
The contrast between Wei Ping and Xing Xing’s character arcs emphasizes the damaging, arbitrary nature of gendered beauty standards. At the end of the novel, Wei Ping has nothing to show for her suffering, while Xing Xing joins the province’s royal family. In this way, Napoli subverts the stepmother’s assertion that Wei Ping’s pain will be “worthwhile” in the long run because it will allow her to secure a suitable marriage. While Wei Ping remains trapped in the cave, Xing Xing becomes engaged to a prince. The irony that the protagonist’s unbound feet fit the golden shoes when Wei Ping and the stepmother’s don’t offers a clear message on the arbitrary nature of beauty standards. The irony increases when, despite the cultural mandate that bound feet are the only way to secure a suitable husband, the prince doesn’t care that Xing Xing’s feet have never been bound.
The Importance of Familial Support and the Harm of Neglect
The novel’s Ming dynasty setting places the importance of familial bonds at the center of Chinese life, highlighting cultural practices like ancestor worship and arranged marriages designed to strengthen the wealth and prosperity of a family legacy. Confucianism demands that individuals “place family above all” (55)—a belief system built on a gendered hierarchy that grants men governance over women and elder relatives governance over younger ones. In a society in which husbands are legally allowed to sell their wives on a whim and “[y]oung people who married without it being arranged by their parents could even be put to death” (156), strong and supportive familial relationships can ensure one’s survival.
While the importance of family is a prevalent theme in literature for young readers, Napoli takes a solemn approach to the subject by exploring the damage of abuse and neglect. Xing Xing’s stepmother subjects her to physical and emotional abuse, including beatings with willow switches and verbal attacks, calling her stepdaughter “Lazy One” and constantly berating her. Napoli’s extensive depictions of the abuse that Xing Xing suffers presents her hardships as a realistic critique of the harm of neglect rather than as the necessary prologue a Cinderella figure must endure before reaching her happily ever after. The stepmother’s mistreatment extends to Wei Ping, even though the stepmother claims she “care[s] about her more than anything else” (138). The stepmother’s possessive favoritism keeps the girl isolated and dependent instead of helping her to grow. The stepmother also goes to extreme lengths, inflicting physical and psychological suffering on her daughter by maiming her feet to secure financial stability through her daughter’s marriage. Although the half-sisters’ circumstances differ, both experience the harm of abuse and neglect.
In contrast to the abusive, controlling stepmother, Xing Xing’s mother and father demonstrate the importance of parental love and support. The protagonist’s late father is a formative influence on her life who ensures she receives an education, teaches her how to find beauty in simple things and models a commitment to “basic virtues, like loyalty” (170). The confidence and skills that he helps her acquire, such as calligraphy and poetry, empower her to express herself and chart her own course in life. Through Xing Xing’s mother, the author frames aspects of the traditional Chinese Cinderella story as symbols of familial support. The carp becomes Xing Xing’s “fish mother” and offers a vital source of connection amid the girl’s loneliness and grief. Her mother’s reincarnation fulfills the promise she made in her letter to Xing Xing: “My spirit will always be with you” (149). Xing Xing’s mother also leaves her the gift of golden shoes that lead to her meeting with the prince. By posthumously helping their daughter claim her happy ending, Xing Xing’s parents portray familial love and support as a vital force even stronger than death.
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