Nea's Characterization and Sisterly Relationship in "Saving Sourdi" by May-lee Chai

Saving Sourdi is an intriguing short story detailing the challenges and strive that one of the characters, Nea, had to deal with in her interactions with the sister, Sourdi and the revellers in their family owned restaurant. The two sisters who are the main characters in the story have a close relationship, having grown up together the whole of their life. This close relationship is depicted in various episodes of the story. The focus of this article is illustrating the character of Nea and her close relationship with a view of highlighting how she has been depicted as a caring sister. Through this character, the author managed to bring out the strong familial connection and the changes that are likely to come about as members grow mature.

The author of this story, May-Lee Chai, made Nea the main narrator and a leading character in the narrative of ‘Saving Sourdi’ throughout her childhood with the sister, Sourdi. Despite growing up together with her sister, the character of Nea is notably different from that of her sister, Sourdi. This disparity is noted in the lag in maturity where Sourdi seemed to be continuously maturing at a faster rate than Nea. The fall back in Nea’s maturity has been attributed to her aggressive nature and nervous character being manifested throughout the story.

Notwithstanding the fall back of Nea in maturity as compared to her sister, it is evident that she consistently demonstrated her desire to save her sister, though with limited success in several occasions. The actions of Nea demonstrates her perseverance in several attempts and aggressiveness. Even with this noble character, Nea did not grow up to become young woman that her sister was. This slowness in maturity is shown in her non-enthusiastic and too plain approach as she attempts to save her sister from various predicaments or feelings of insecurity. The author makes an indirect comparison of the two sisters by painting Sourdi as more beautiful and endearing to men than Nea. Nea interprets these differences to be a threat to what she cherishes the most, the warmth of sisterhood. She perceives this as an attempt by the men to snatch away her sister, a case that is not necessarily correct.

Although the nature of Sourdi has been depicted as mature and attractive, Nea remains domineering over her. She seemingly plays a role that should naturally be by the elder sister. The differences in maturity is further supported by her failure to comprehend the relationship of Sourdi with Mr. Chhay, her husband (Chai, 143). With all her naivety, Nea fights for closeness with her sister who she believes that the husband has taken her away from the previously enjoyed sisterhood. This mind-set drove her into assuming a role of a heroin in the brawl with Mr. Chhay, whom she is convinced that he is bad. However, this perception is later proven wrong when Sourdi’s husband is shown as a good person. The behaviour of Nea in this case indicates her protective character that she intends to deploy in fighting against anything that may come in between her and the sister. However, her protective character is sometimes taken too far when she drags Duke into the family matters in Sourdi’s marriage without concrete evidence. The wrong involvement is taking Duke to the house of Sourdi to assist in saving the sister whom she was convinced was being attacked by Chhay.

The aggression, naivety, and aggression in the character of Nea informs all her unpopular decisions in the entire story. The embarrassing experience meant nothing to her, despite the expectation being that she should have had a character change from the previous wrong actions. Her actions come before thinking as alluded to by her mother who says that Nea acts without thinking. She said, “…You not thinking. That your problem. You always not think...” (Chai 282).

From her childhood through adulthood, Nea remained hard-headed, flat and stubborn character. The author of this short story did not show the other side of Nea deliberately so as to show what a protective and non-reasonable person can do in the interest of keeping the close familial relationship. Other analysts have termed this character as a strong-willed and rash adolescent who has not outgrown her age. In demonstration of her fearlessness and strong will, Nea stubbed a drunken man who was about to mess with her sister (Jago 56). This is just one of the episodes where this character has demonstrated her willingness to physically protect her sister.

In conclusion, the author managed to use only one character, Nea to bring out the theme of strong family relationship, specifically between sisters who grew up together. It shows that by creating many episodes in one short story, the theme can be effectively brought out by one character as it was the case in the character of Nea. Finally, from these two character, Nea and Sourdi, the author highlighted that it is possible to have close sister with diverse personalities. Thus, coming from the same family does not prescribe behaviour in a certain manner but the innate characters do.