Review of the Short Story Called "Prosthetic Daughter"

Reflective Essay on ‘Prosthetic Daughter’‘Prosthetic Daughter’ by Nin Harris is a short story about identity theft set in a distant future filled with sophisticated technologies and a society capable of modifying their bodies cybernetically. The three main literary devices that I found in the short story would be the theme, characters, and point of view. Before I attended the talk with the author, I made a few literary analysis on my own without any of the author’s influence. The theme that I had chosen to central my idea from in the story was The Importance of Identity. I was aware that memories were a pivotal role that sets the progress of the novella and how it relates back to our identity as a person. I felt like it was confirmed when Nin Harris raised the question of how much does our memories define who we are as human beings. Although she never answered the question, reading back the ‘Prosthetic Daughter’, I found a line where Zhen Juan said, “We make our own identities” and I interpreted it as saying that we may possess many identities, but we own only one-self. Personally, reading the novella, and hearing Nin Harris’s talk has changed my views on the topic. The story relates back to the author herself, whose grandfather succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Due to that, Harris, during the talk, raised the question that “if your memories are erased, would you be the same person? ” and “are we who we are because of how we’ve been brought up or are we who we are because we basically are that person? ” This has prompted me to believe that nowadays, the idea of identity is not how we view ourselves internally but how people identify us in our everyday lives. For instance, our heritage defines our cultural background, our nationality defines where we come from, and our aptitude tests defines what career fields we should take. Yet, rarely do we have the chance to define ourselves. Because of this, I share Nin Harris’s views on our sense of identity through the words of Zhen Juan that we, as an individual have the capabilities to create our own identities. Nin Harris’s characters were probably the most interesting issue that I found in the short story especially Yun Li. In the story, I viewed the antagonist, Yun Li as a bitter person who was greedy for power and prone to put others down as proven when Zhen Juan said “Yun-Li always made sure [they] understood [they] were far beneath her. ” I would argue that this line was somewhat referring to Harris’s own personal experience as she confirmed this by referring to Yun Li as a ‘middle-class monster’ that has been Harris’s ‘nemesis’ for a long time.

Essentially, this has let me to believe that Yun Li was the embodiment of Harris’s feelings towards the aforementioned ‘nemesis’. Due to this, my previous views towards Yun Li had somewhat been challenged because of the knowledge of Harris’s prejudice towards her. This has caused me to be on the fence in terms of acknowledging Yun Li as a ‘middle-class monster’ because of her actions towards Zhen Juan or defining her as a ‘misrepresented’ character because of the author’s predisposed feelings towards her. I feel like it would be unfair for me to lean towards only one side when I possess the information between Yun Li as the character and Nin Harris as the writer. The point of view of the novella was written entirely in Zhen Juan’s perspective. The first person point of view is already considered as unreliable. Additionally, the fact that the story is composed of what seems to be random vignettes throughout Zhen Juan’s life after her identity has been stolen makes it even more undependable. It would have been interesting to know what the other characters were experiencing through the whole story instead of just receiving information from one perspective only especially Zhen Juan.

For instance, despite being described as emotionless, Yun Li’s eyes still ‘flickered’ with ‘hurt’. Why was she hurt? It was never explained. Or why wasn’t there any clarification as to why Yun Li wanted to steal Zhen Juan’s identity? There were too many, dare I say, plot holes in the novella because of the limiting point of view. Knowing Harris’s personal recounts and outlook has in no doubt changed my view of ‘Prosthetic Daughter’. It has morphed from just a short story that I have to learn in class into something more personal, or rather philosophical. It has definitely helped me understand more about the novella especially in terms of why identity is important and also in regards of the characters, especially Yun Li. After much deliberation, I would say that Yun Li was created the way that she is to not only set the novella going, but she was there to prove Nin Harris’s bias towards a certain group of people that she dislikes, thus at the same time using the first person point of view to prove only her points.