Yee+Bow+(Mat)

"Yee Bow" Read by Mat Photo; Shenzen City by Robert Lio media type="custom" key="11207780" Yee Bow: Racism At It’s Worse

My character from the Spoon River anthology by Edgar Lee Masters is Yee Bow. Yee Bow was a good kid, all he wanted to do was fit in. He was bullied and made fun of because of his Asian background and his peers never let him forget that. Despite his conversion to Christianity the kids at Sunday school still did not except him, and caused him to be bullied by his peers which eventually led to his death. How did he die? Was it intentional? Who killed him? Was it suicide? These next few paragraphs will answer these questions and show how he is defiant, cultural, and peer pressured into being something he is not, in a poem of racism at it’s worse. Yee Bow is defiant because he goes through a lot just to try to fit in, but still is not accepted by his peers. He looks away from his own religion, and tries to adopt Christianity to gain the approval from the kids in Spoon River. “They got me into the Sunday-school / In Spoon River / And drop Confucius for Jesus / I could have been no worse off / If i tried to get them to drop Jesus for Confucius,” (Yee Bow 1-5). This quotation shows that he did not want to turn to Christianity, but his peers practically forced it on to him. It also shows that either way he knew that the kids there would not accept him. Yee Bow is also cultural because even though he betrays his religion he still would have liked to follow his customs. He never wanted to look away from Confucius, but like i said in the first paragraph the kids at Spoon River practically forced it on him. You know this because he says “I could have been no worse off / If i had tried to drop Jesus for Confucius.”(Yee Bow 4-5) Another reason I say He is cultural is because he would have liked to follow the customs they do in China. You can tell because as you read along with it you can almost feel the regret and sorrow the last two lines bring to the story. “Now I shall never sleep with my ancestors in Pekin, / And no children shall worship at my grave.”(Yee Bow 10-11) If u do not know where Pekin is, it is in China, so that means that his customs are really different from most of ours. These lines show some of those customs. When he says “ I shall never sleep with my ancestors in Pekin...” because he is physically on the other side of the world, but i also interpret this at a religious matter. Right before he died he had converted to Christianity which prevents him from going with his ancestors because he is not in their religion which means he can not go into their sort of heaven. The second custom also involved his family except it is about the children that are yet to come not the people that have already lived their life. the poem says “And no children shall worship at my grave.” In China the children go to the cemetery, and honor the dead by showing praise for the good things they did in life. Yee Bow is under tremendous pressure, much more than a lot of people can handle. He was pretty much the only Asian kid in Spoon River, so the people there were not used to it. “That i was purer blooded than the __white trash__  here... of Spoon River” (“Indignation” Jones 3,5) This proves that there is mostly Caucasians in Spoon river because he did not even mention any other races. this means that the kids at Spoon River did not know how to react to someone of a different race, and they saw him as an outsider. Yee Bow thought that if he traded part of his culture,in this case his religion, and adopt theirs they would accept him and his life would be a lot easier. Unfortunately, these things did not happen, and the bullying got so bad that it ended up killing him. How did it kill him you ask? Well, while at Sunday School the minister’s son came behind him and “as if it were a prank... the minister’s son caved [Yee Bow’s] ribs into [his] lungs, / With a blow of his fists.” (Yee Bow 6,8,9) this racial issue in Spoon River is what caused Yee Bow’s death. This shows the things that come out of racism.  Although Yee Bow was defiant and very cultural he gave into peer pressure which does not help him at all, but causes his tragic death. If there is one thing you learn from this poem is that racism may have MANY consequences, and to prevent another kid from dying, committing suicide, or just suffering from the cruelty of racism is to not do it at all. Next time when you think about making a racist comment or joke don’t because you might get everyone else to do it, and make that person just like Yee Bow.

Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters:  New York: MacMillan, 1946 Pg. 23, 101 "Yee Bow" "Indignation Jones"