The Conversion of Sum Loo

The Conversion of Sum Loo is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in "Library" in August 1900 [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, page 331] .

Plot summary

Sum Chin, who grew up in China and now lives in San Francisco, decided to get married to the daughter of a friend of his from China after his first wife died without giving him progeny, which his recently late father would have objected to. They have a child together, Sum Wing, and get his baptised. The child dies, and Sum Chin becomes very mournful; this was his last chance of living up to his patronym. His wife also keeps away from other people. Once Sister Hannah follows her into a joss house and sees her tear away pages from the Bible.

Characters

*Sum Chin, a trader of 'Chinese bronzes and bric-a-brac in San Francisco'. He grew up in Nanjing, where he likes to read Chinese literature.
*Sum Loo, Sum Chin's wife.
*Sister Hannah
*Norman Girrard, a theological student at the Mission of the Heavenly Rest. He likes to do charcoal drawings in his youth. Later, he took to drinking absinthe and doing profane paintings.
*Te Wing, a 'purchasing agent' from Canton. He is Sum Loo's father.
*Sum Wing, Sum Chin and Loo's child, who dies soon after getting baptised.

Literary significance and criticism

"The Conversion of Sum Loo" is a rewriting of "A Son of the Celestial" [Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxxv] .

References

External links

* [http://libtextcenter.unl.edu/cather/writings/shortfiction/sumloo.html Full Text]