Author's Purpose - Worksheet 3

At school, she was Melody. She wore jeans, ate pizza with her friends at lunch, and cheered for the school basketball team. At home, she was Mei-Lin. She wore silk slippers, ate dumplings with chopsticks, and practiced calligraphy with her grandmother every Sunday afternoon. For as long as she could remember, she had kept these two lives carefully separate, like two books on different shelves. None of her school friends knew about Mei-Lin. None of her family's friends from the Chinese community knew about Melody. She worried constantly about what would happen if her two worlds ever collided. In November, the school announced an international heritage fair. Every student would share something about their family's culture. Mei-Lin dreaded it. On the day of the fair, she set up a small display of Chinese tea cups and paper fans, hoping no one would ask too many questions. Then she heard a familiar voice echoing across the crowded gymnasium. "Mei-Lin! Mei-Lin!" Her grandmother had arrived early, waving cheerfully and calling her Chinese name in front of everyone. Heads turned. Her classmates stared with curious expressions. "Who's Mei-Lin?" someone whispered. Mei-Lin's face burned with embarrassment. She wanted to disappear into the floor. After the fair ended, Mei-Lin was quiet in the car ride home. Her grandmother noticed her discomfort and didn't push her to talk. That evening, while they sat together in the kitchen folding dumplings, her grandmother spoke softly. "Mei-Lin, do you know why I chose your name?" She shook her head. "Mei means beautiful, and Lin means jade, the most precious stone in Chinese culture. Your great-grandmother had the same name. It carries three generations of our family's hopes and love." Grandmother paused and placed her flour-dusted hand over Mei-Lin's. "Never be ashamed of who you are. Your name is a gift, not a secret." Mei-Lin thought about her grandmother's words all night. The next morning at school, her heart pounded as she raised her hand during morning meeting. "I want to share something," she said. The room went quiet. "My name at home is Mei-Lin. It means beautiful jade in Chinese, and it was my great-grandmother's name too." For a moment, the room was silent. Then her friend Jasmine said, "That's really cool. Can you teach us how to write it in Chinese?" Soon the whole class was asking questions about her family, her grandmother's dumplings, and the calligraphy she practiced on Sundays. Walking home that afternoon, Mei-Lin smiled. She realized that her two names weren't two separate worlds at all. They were two parts of one whole person, and together they made her who she was.