Value, "Without Wood"

In the story "Without Wood", the daughter is going through a divorce with her husband and is hearing her mother tell her to stand up for herself, that she too often stoops down to listen to others. It seems important in Chinese culture that you should listen to your own heart and let it lead you, rather than listen to what others have to say. The mother, in this situation tells her daughter that she listens too hard to the phyciatrist, not to her mother at all, and doesn't talk with her husband

The daughter stops listening to all the little things that are not really thoughts at all. She comes to the decision that she is not going to role over meekly and let her soon to be ex-husband run over her. She returns the papers he gave her unsigned and tells him that she is keeping the house, something he wanted so that he could move himself and his soon to be new wife in.

She seems to live up to the qualities by taking her own stand against her almost ex-husband. She stops letting him tell her that she is still special to him, that everything is sorted out, and that he deserves to have the house. She listened to her own heart and lead herself into independence.