A Thousand Steps into Night

As early as the first chapter of A Thousand Steps into Night, Traci Chee highlights how ill-fitted Miuko is made to feel within the Confucian-inspired patriarchal society that dominates the land of Awara and underscores the toxic effects of internalizing its values. Miuko is the opposite of society’s feminine ideal: “[G]irls of the serving class—and indeed, girls of all stations in Awara—[are] expected to be soft-spoken, helpful, helpless, and in every respect weaker and more feebleminded than men” (7). Miuko, in comparison, is born loud: “Miuko […] screamed so violently that the foundations shook, the bells rang in the nearby temple, and a respectable chunk of the dilapidated bridge spanning the river […] slid, fainting, into the water” (6). This division of who Miuko innately is and who society desires her to be is the primary conflict for Miuko. She internalizes the societal values and awkwardly transforms into a lesser version of herself, one that is perpetually restrained and constantly chaffing against societal impediments.

The author highlights this internalization through Miuko’s relationship with her mother. Though Miuko often romanticizes the life her mother must lead after leaving her and her father behind, she publicly holds a disdain for her because her mother goes against the societal norms that Miuko herself struggles with. Despite holding to the beauty standards of the day, Miuko’s mother fails to be the ideal “tamed” and demure woman and the idea of being like her is cause for disgust.

A female demon in Awara society is the most expressed rejection of a woman’s societal role. In her slow descent into becoming a shaoha, Miuko wears trousers, rides a horse, speaks for herself, travels without a chaperone, and demands to be heard. She lies and outsmarts a man, just as she enacts violence and proves herself more powerful in many respects than the doro yagra. Though Miuko accepts herself as she is by the end of the narrative, there are many times where her acceptance and embodiment of patriarchal values impede or shame her. When she helps the crane spirit escape, Miuko’s bravery is couched in self-doubt and self-hatred for being anything other than her ascribed role. Miuko acted with heroism when she saved the crane spirit, but she is aware she would be judged negatively were her actions discovered by the town. It is also implied that the crane spirit would be found at fault for disobeying her father and escaping him. Chee crafts her narrative to showcase how much a woman is asked to sacrifice in a society that would not value her and how they can be made to believe that their own personhood should conform to fit a patriarchal society’s standards.