Framing Statement

This final paper serves as a wrap-up of our whole ENG course. All semester we learned about the roles of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in the American West throughout history. In this paper, I discuss these themes in one of our texts, A Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, and compare it to an AI Chatbot’s ability to analyze them.

Paper

Sydney Fye

ENG-237-A

Professor Tuttle

4 December 2025

Can AI Analyze A Thousand Pieces of Gold? 

In the novel, A Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, there are multiple repeating themes that are important to the overall story. These themes are very successfully executed by McCunn in the form of metaphors and symbolism. These metaphors expose both the underlying and obvious objectification of women in this time period. The primary metaphors include gold, identity, and value, both of which play a role in describing characters as objects of trade. When prompted with the directions to write a two hundred word analysis of the use of metaphors to describe the objectification of women in this novel, A Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, ChatGPT provided the following: “In A Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn uses metaphors to powerfully expose the objectification of women, particularly through the portrayal of Lalu Nathoy’s transformation into “Polly Bemis,” a name and identity commodified by men. McCunn repeatedly likens Lalu to an object of trade, her humanity fragmented by a patriarchal and colonial system that values her only as a possession. The title itself—A Thousand Pieces of Gold—serves as an extended metaphor for this commodification, equating Lalu’s worth to a literal currency rather than intrinsic human dignity. When McCunn writes that Lalu was “sold like a pig in the market,” the metaphor starkly collapses the boundary between human and animal, underscoring the violence of being reduced to property. This language not only reflects Lalu’s personal dehumanization but also critiques the broader social structures that normalize such transactions of women’s bodies. Through these metaphors, McCunn transforms economic imagery into a feminist critique: each reference to gold or trade highlights the cruel irony of value—how something as lifeless as money defines a woman’s fate. Ultimately, McCunn’s use of metaphor deepens our understanding of objectification as both literal enslavement and symbolic erasure, turning Lalu’s struggle into an indictment of systemic misogyny and racial exploitation.”

The chat bot’s analysis is unfortunately rather spot on. It acknowledges McCunn’s use of direct metaphors comparing her main character, Lalu, to an object as a way to demonstrate the objectification of women during this time period. The bot also discusses how McCunn uses gold as a symbol in order to show Lalu is an “object of trade”(OpenAI, 2025) and force the reader to understand why she cannot realistically earn any gold for herself. AI has successfully found the primary metaphors, but it becomes abundantly clear that it can’t analyze them in the same way humans can. 

In the paragraph written by ChatGPT, the bot claims that Lalu Nathoy’s transition into “Polly Bemis” is the first identifiable metaphor for the objectification of women in this novel. This is the first correct point it makes, considering Lalu’s entire identity has been stripped by men at this point. In fact, the first interaction between Lalu and her master, Hong King, consisted of her being forced into a role she did not want. As she fought to share her name with the demons, Hong King stepped in to say “A slave does not choose her own name.”(McCunn, 78). When she is forced into being Polly during this scene, it is clear that she is simply nothing more than a toy to these men. They are under the belief that they can customize her like a doll and change her entire identity, starting with her name. Taking her identity from her is a prime example of how Lalu is reduced to an object because the demons simply don’t view her as a human. To them, she is a slave for chores and sex, but who she is doesn’t matter to any of them. If a literal robot provided the same things, the demons would consider the two of them equals. The chatbot may be able to identify this metaphor, but it could never understand the deeper, more concerning issue at hand. 

The chat bot then goes on to acknowledge what I would consider to be the most prominent metaphor for the objectification of women. Comparing Lalu to an item waiting to be bought is by far the most disturbing but important metaphor. ChatGPT stated that “ McCunn repeatedly likens Lalu to an object of trade, her humanity fragmented by a patriarchal and colonial system that values her only as a possession,” (OpenAI, 2025). This statement is correct, and the novel shares a relatively graphic scene that agrees with this claim. “On the auction block, Lalu closed her eyes against her own nakedness and the men who milled around, poking, prodding, and pinching. Bids fell like arrows.” (McCunn, 70). In this scene, Lalu is quite literally being sold, and men are paying people to have ownership over her. In this moment, she is reduced from a human to an item, and essentially defines the term “objectification”.  The AI Chatbot briefly touches on another metaphor that is worth going more in depth on. With the comparison of Lalu to literal currency, the gold, there is plenty more to explore regarding the objectification caused by this. ChatGPT claims that “The title itself—A Thousand Pieces of Gold—serves as an extended metaphor for this commodification, equating Lalu’s worth to a literal currency rather than intrinsic human dignity.” (OpenA1, 2025). Considering the title of the novel is A Thousand Pieces of Gold, as the bot pointed out, gold is a symbol worth focusing on. Throughout the majority of Lalu’s arrival in America, all she wants to do is earn gold in order to return home and achieve her filial piety. She believes that if she does, her father will accept this gold and allow her back as a part of the family. She so badly wants to buy her freedom one way or another, but unfortunately in her case, the gold represents her worth as currency. Although the suggestion of this metaphor was always lingering in the first half of the novel, it becomes very clear when Lalu finds herself on an auction block as an item for sale. “Gold pieces, cold, hard, and heavy, dropped into her outstretched palms.” (McCunn, 70). This turning point, where the gold is literally described in a relatively negative way, is the turning point where Lalu and the reader understand what the gold really represents. Lalu appears to realize the actual reason her father referred to her as “Qianjin”, because her purpose was to bring money to her family by being sold. Considering what a major slap in the face it is to Lalu that she is being handed gold (which she so heavily desired) as a representation of her being bid on while completely naked on an auction block, it is definitely worth paying attention to the metaphor gold holds in this story. Reminding ourselves about the significance of “Qianjin” when discussing the theme of gold is incredibly important because the bot didn’t even reference it once. There is depth to that term in relation to Lalu, and the chat bot would have had a stronger argument if there was mention of it. 

There is one more metaphor that the bot points out, and that is the comparison of Lalu and an animal. While in theory this could be an interesting metaphor to acknowledge, the quote used by ChatGPT actually does not exist. The line “sold like a pig in the market,” was never written by McCunn, and the bot’s comparison is no longer usable in this context. This is where the AI does a poor job at analyzing. In an attempt to come up with multiple examples to fit the prompt, there were hallucinations that could easily be believable created. 

There is a line provided by the bot that does summarize the objectification of Lalu pretty successfully. “Through these metaphors, McCunn transforms economic imagery into a feminist critique: each reference to gold or trade highlights the cruel irony of value—how something as lifeless as money defines a woman’s fate.” (OpenAI, 2025). Value is a heavy theme in this novel, and AI captures how it demonstrates the disgusting system that our main character lived in. Considering the prominence of gold in this novel, acknowledging the “cruel irony of value” in relation to the gold is a pretty fair point to make. The bot is clearly able to connect some of the metaphors and how they relate to each other, but it doesn’t go any deeper than this obvious connection. 

Overall, ChatGPT does a pretty solid job in creating some understanding of how McCunn uses metaphors to paint the picture of objectification in her novel. Every comparison, whether subtle or outright, is important to acknowledge. Although unfortunate that a bot was able to make a correct claim with relatively strong evidence, its obligation to create false quotes to strengthen the argument is a reminder of why human literary abilities can never be replaced. No bot can deeply analyze text the way humans can, and that will always be its downfall.

All of this paper was written solely by the human author except for a distinct and clearly identified section written by ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI. I affirm that all content has been reviewed by the human author.

Works Cited

Works Cited

“In a paragraph of 200 words, analyze the use of metaphors to describe the objectification of 

women in the novel A Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn referring to a 

specific example with a quotation.” prompt and verbatim answer. ChatGPT, 4o-turbo 

version, OpenAI, November 3rd, 2025, https://chatgpt.com/. 

McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. Thousand Pieces of Gold. Boston, Beacon Press, 1981