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THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Eunike Indriani Poedjianto Student Number: 06 1214 109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Eunike Indriani Poedjianto Student Number: 06 1214 109
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010 i
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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declared that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, June 17th, 2010 The Writer
Eunike Indriani Poedjianto 06 1214 109
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIK
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
Nomor Mahasiswa : 06 1214 109
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE EFFECTS OF THE CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER- DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin ataupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: ……………………….
Yang menyatakan
Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
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ABSTRACT Poedjianto, Eunike Indriani (2010). The Effects of the Cultural Conflicts on the Mother-Daughter Relationship as Seen in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University. This thesis discusses two Amy Tan’s novels, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. This thesis is about six mother-daughter relationships to be discussed, Precious Auntie and LuLing, LuLing and Ruth (Luyi), Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei (June), Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and Ying-Ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. The mothers in these novels are Chinese born, while their daughters were born and grew up in America. This different culture causes cultural conflicts in their relationship. In doing this research, there is one research question: what the effects of cultural conflicts are on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. Library research was used in this study. A collection of articles, journals, critical essays, and other available printed matters were gathered from libraries as well as electronic resources. Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club serve as the primary or main data. Other sources were collected to gain data and facts on Chinese culture. Some of the secondary sources are mostly taken from the books of culture (especially Chinese culture) like Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times by Marvin Harris and Under the Ancestors’ Shadow by Francis L.K. Hsu and the books of sociology. In order to answer the question, I used the sociocultural approach because this cultural conflicts deal with society and culture. The theories I refer are theory of conflict, theory and reviews on the mother-daughter relationship, and some reviews on Chinese culture. After analyzing these novels, there are two points that can be concluded. The first is the causes of conflicts. The causes of the conflicts between the mothers and the daughters in these novels are individual differences, cultural differences, and social change. Meanwhile, the second cause concerns the cultural conflicts and the effects on the mother-daughter relationships as seen in the novels. The cultural conflicts and the effects are divided into two most problematic problems here, namely the problem in communication and the problem in attitude. Meanwhile, the problem in attitude has been divided into four parts, namely: being superstitious, boasting habit, the conflicting response on marriage’s different perception, and the conflicting response on mother figure’s different perception. This thesis also gives suggestions for future researchers and for English teaching. The other thing the future researchers can analyze is LuLing’s sickness, Dementia, Alzheimer. I also suggest a part of The Joy Luck Club as the materials for teaching reading for the students in English Education Study Program.
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ABSTRAK
Poedjianto, Eunike Indriani (2010). The Effects of the Cultural Conflicts on the Mother-Daughter Relationship as Seen in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas dua novel karangan Amy Tan yang berjudul The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club. Kedua novel ini menceritakan enam buah hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya yakni antara Precious Auntie dan LuLing, LuLing dan Ruth (Luyi), Suyuan Woo dan Jing-mei (June), Lindo Jong dan Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu dan Rose Hsu Jordan, dan Ying-Ying St. Clair dan Lena St. Clair. Masing-masing Ibu adalah kelahiran dan keturunan Cina murni, sedangkan anak-anak mereka lahir dan dibesarkan di Amerika. Perbedaan latar belakang budaya ini menyebabkan permasalahan-permasalahan timbul di antara mereka. Dalam mengerjakan analisa ini, terdapat satu buah masalah yang dinyatakan dalam rumusan masalah, yakni apakah akibat-akibat dari pertentangan budaya dalam hubungan-hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya seperti terdapat dalam kedua novel Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club ? Studi pustaka digunakan dalam menganalisa data. Koleksi artikel, jurnal, esai, dan materi-materi lainnya yang dapat diperoleh di perpustakaan, sama halnya dengan bahan-bahan dari internet digunakan dalam menganalisa data. Kedua novel Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club menjadi sumber utama. Selain itu, saya juga mengumpulkan data dan fakta tentang budaya Cina. Sumber-sumber lainnya kebanyakan terambil dari buku-buku tentang budaya (khususnya tentang budaya Cina) seperti Theory of Culture in Postmodern Times karangan Marvin Harris dan Under the Ancestors’ Shadow karangan Francis L.K.Hsu dan buku-buku sosiologi. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan dalam rumusan masalah, saya menggunakan pendekatan sosial-budaya karena pertentangan budaya dalam kedua novel yang saya analisa ini berkaitan dengan lingkungan dan budaya. Sedangkan teori-teori yang saya gunakan adalah teori-teori mengenai konflik, teori dan resensi tentang hubungan ibu dan anak, dan beberapa resensi tentang budaya Cina. Setelah menganalisa kedua novel tersebut, ada dua hasil yang bisa disimpulkan. Yang pertama adalah penyebab-penyebab konflik. Penyebab- penyebab konflik dalam hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya tersebut adalah perbedaan individu, perbedaan budaya, dan perubahan sosial. Sedangkan yang kedua adalah konflik-konflik budaya yang terjadi dan akibat-akibatnya. Konflik- konflik budaya dan akibat-akibatnya terbagi menjadi dua masalah utama, yakni permasalahan dalam komunikasi dan permasalahan dalam tingkah laku, yang terbagi menjadi empat bagian: kepercayaan dalam takhyul, kebiasaan untuk menyombongkan diri, respon yang mengakibatkan masalah dalam perbedaan persepsi tentang pernikahan, dan respon yang mengakibatkan masalah dalam perbedaan persepsi tentang sosok ibu. vii
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Skripsi ini juga memberikan saran-saran kepada peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya dan dalam pengajaran bahasa Inggris. Hal lain yang bisa dianalisa oleh peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya adalah penyakit LuLing, yakni Dementia. Selain itu, saya menyarankan salah satu bagian cerita dalam novel The Joy Luck Club untuk digunakan sebagai materi untuk mengajar reading untuk mahasiswa- mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris.
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I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. . . ☺
PHILIPPIANS 4 : 13
Yk170510
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sometimes I see something as a bad thing and ask God, “Why, God?” and
not thanking God for what happened. Then, one by one, slowly but surely, God’s
plan comes up and becomes clearer everyday. Then, I realize that something that I
called as a “bad thing” is a part of God’s plan. In this great and wonderful
moment, I would like to give my biggest and greatest gratitude to my beloved
Savior, Jesus Christ who always bless me, guide me, and give me the greatest
spirit and knowledge that could make me finish this thesis right now.
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs. Henny Herawati,
S.Pd., M.Hum., as my thesis advisor, for her time, support, suggestions, kindness,
patience, knowledge, and everything she had given to me.
Then, I would like to give my gratitude to Mrs. C. Tutyandari, S.Pd.,
M.Pd., as the Chief of English Education Study Program and my RELT’s lecturer
and to Mr. Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., for the knowledge both of
them had given to me.
I also would like to give my gratitude to all my lecturers in PBI for their
guidance during my study in Sanata Dharma University. I am nothing without all
of them. I would like to give my gratitude to Mba Tari and Mba Danniek in PBI
Secretariat for helping me in everything I needed.
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I would like to express my deepest love and my deepest gratitude to my
beloved father in heaven, papi Pdt. Andreas Poedjianto, for always “watching”
me from above, for helping me to make me strong in this hard life, and to my
beloved and wonderful mother, mami Yohanna Haryanti Setyawan, for the
prayer, the love, the hope, and for being a strong Mom that makes me strong too.
I would like to give my gratitude to all of my family especially for Oma
Sing Gie and Om Budianto (Om Boen), and to my wonderful Junior High School
headmaster, Mrs. Lis Setiatin, for the prayer and the support. I would like to
express my deepest gratitude to my very best aunt, Iik Eli as my best proofreader
who gave so many suggestions and much time to read my thesis.
I would like to give my special thank to Rizki Sambodo (Ariz). Thanks
for the spirit, for helping me in making me more mature, for every laugh, every
tear, and every smile we shared together. I have learnt so much from the beautiful
chance that God gave for me to know him.
I would like to give my best appreciation and thanks to all my best friends
in college: Lance, Anes, Fance, Entiw, and Ade, for the great relationship we
have in this college time. May our friendship last forever!
I would like to give my gratitude to all of my best friends since I was in
Junior High School: Iyaw, Iphay, Why-why, and in Senior High School: Tika,
Chela, Thata for the support and the prayer.
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I also would like to give my best appreciation and thanks to Lance (again),
Angga, and Ce Patty for being my proofreader, for the time and their suggestions.
I also would like to give my gratitude to PBI 2006’s students for encouraging me
and for every best wish.
Last but not the least, I would like to give my gratitude to every single
person who often asked me, “How is your thesis? When will you have your final
exam?” every time we met. For all my friends in Junior High School and in Senior
High School who already graduated, thanks for “encouraging” me to finish it as
soon as possible. At last, I would like to give my gratitude to everyone who also
included me in every prayer and had shared beautiful moments with me. God
bless them all.
Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………… i
APPROVAL PAGES…………………………….………………………. ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY..……………..…………... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN...…………....……………… v
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………..… vi
ABSTRAK………………………………………………………………….. vii
PAGE OF DEDICATION ……………………………………………...… ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..…………………………………...…………. x
TABLE OF CONTENTS.…………………………………………………. xiii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1
A. Background of the Study.………………………………………….. 1
B. Problem formulation………………………….……………………. . 4
C. Objective of the Study………………………………………………. 5
D. Benefits of the Study…………………………………..……………. 5
E. Definitions of the Terms.………….………………………………... 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 8
A. Review of Related Studies…………………………………………. 8
B. Review of Related Theories………………………………….…….. 8
1. Theory of Sociocultural Approach……………………………… 9
2. Theory of Conflicts……………………………………………... 10
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a) The Causes of Conflict………………………………...….. 10
b) Theory of Mother-Daughter Relationship…………………. 13
1) Meaning of Mother-Daughter Relationship……..……… 13
2) Conflicts in Mother-Daughter Relationship………..…… 14
C. Review on Chinese Culture in Contrast with American Culture….... 16
D. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………... 21
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 22
A. Objects of the Study………………………………………………… 22
B. Approach of the Study...……………………………………….…… 24
C. Method of the Study………………………………………………… 25
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS 26
A. The Causes of the Conflicts………………………………………… 26
B. The Cultural Conflicts and The Effects on the Mother-Daughter
Relationship………………………………………………………. 31
1. The Problem in Communication..……………………………. 32
2. The Problems in Attitude …….………………………………. 36
a) Being Superstitious .……………………………………….. 38
b) Boasting Habit ..……………………………………………. 42
c) The Conflicting Response on Marriage’s Different
Perception ………………………………………………….. 45
d) The Conflicting Response on Mother Figure’s Different
Perception …...……………………………………………… 51
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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 58
A. Conclusions………………………………………………….……… 58
B. Suggestions ………………………………………………………… 61
1. Suggestions for Future Researchers.………..…………………... 61
2. Suggestions for English Teachers: the Implementation of
The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club to
teach Intensive Reading II………………………………………. 62
REFERENCES 64
APPENDICES 66
Appendix 1: Summary of The Bonesetter’s Daughter……………………… 67
Appendix 2: Summary of The Joy Luck Club…………………………..….. 69
Appendix 3: Biography of Amy Tan……………………………………….. 71
Appendix 4: Lesson Plan…………………………………………………… 75
Appendix 5: Implementation of The Joy Luck Club to Teach Intensive
Reading II…………...………………………………………… 77
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of five parts. The first part is the background of the
study. It explains the reasons for choosing Amy Tan’s novels, The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. The second part, problem formulation,
concerns with the problem that leads to the analysis of the study. In the third part,
the objectives of the study, the aims of conducting the study are stated. The forth
part mentions the benefits of the study. Finally, in order to avoid
misunderstanding, there are definitions of some terms.
A. Background of the Study
A family as the smallest unit in the society is the basis of people (children)
behavior. A mother and daughter relationship in a family is very important. The
bond between a mother and a daughter is very strong. Noller and Fitzpatrick (267)
state that the bond attachment between mother and child is formed to maintain
proximity between a mother and an infant. They also state that the maintenance of
proximity is mutual endeavor of both the mother and the child and is sometimes
initiated by the mother and sometimes by the daughter (267).
A mother has a special role, especially in the life of her daughter, who
usually has very close relationship with mother. However, a relationship between
mother and daughter does not always go well. Something can always go wrong.
Mother and daughter may sometimes have big problems when the daughter is in
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her adolescent year. When the daughter is in her adolescent year, usually she tries
to find her self identity. The mother usually has bigger expectation of her daughter
in her daughter’s life that is hard to understand and to fulfill for her daughter.
The problem is not only from that misunderstanding side, but usually
culture plays an important role in a mother-and-daughter relationship, especially
when there is a cultural gap between them. For example, a daughter lives
separately from her mother in a place of different culture from her mother’s.
Culture can influence and develop the family relationship, especially mother-
daughter relationship. Cultural differences may raise conflicts between individuals
or between groups in the society, even in the family. Different cultures can
produce different points of view or perception. For example, Chinese people see a
mother-daughter relationship in a different way from the way American people
see it. A mother in the Chinese culture is usually stricter than a mother in the
American culture. While a Chinese mother treats and teaches her daughter strictly,
an American mother usually gives more freedom to her daughter.
Two novels would be the source of discussion here. The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club were both written by Amy Tan, a Chinese-
American novelist who wrote about a Chinese-American mixed marriage and a
mother-daughter relationship. The first novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, talks
about relationships of two mothers and their daughters. The first main character is
Ruth as Chinese-American young woman whose life is very much influenced by
the Chinese culture and who has a bad relationship with her strict mother, LuLing.
They find difficulties in understanding each other and encounter many problems PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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as described in the novel. The second main character is LuLing herself, who has a
very close relationship with her mother, called Precious Auntie.
Meanwhile, the second novel, The Joy Luck Club, talks about the
relationships of four mothers and their daughters: Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei
(June), Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and
Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. Suyuan is a Chinese woman who strongly
holds on her culture and although she and her daughter have moved to San
Francisco, the United States of America, Suyuan brings up her daughter in such a
strong Chinese culture, which sometimes causes misunderstanding between them.
Problems occur when mother and daughter do not “know” each other.
The other three mothers in this novel also hold the strong Chinese beliefs
that sometimes cannot blend with what the daughters’ want (because the
daughters have already been influenced by American culture). It causes many
problems and misunderstandings. The problems derive from the different
perspective and how they cannot talk openly one to another as mother and
daughter.
The main problem is communication. They cannot understand one to
another and there comes problems of attitude that mothers approve but daughters
do not like. Because of the problem in communication, these conflicting attitudes
could not be shared. It raises more and more conflicts. This novel also describes
the relationships between the mothers (Suyuan Woo, An Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong,
and Ying-ying St. Clair) with their mothers. In the novel we can see that most of
them have bad experience and bad example of family, which could be the cause of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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the bad relationship between them and their daughter. Each mother and each
daughter in this novel has different perception about mother and family which is
unshared too.
Amy Tan’s novels are very rich of cultural conflicts. She presents a very
wonderful bound between family relationship and culture. The explanation above
shows how The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club contain so many
problems of mother-daughter relationships. Amy Tan beautifully presents the
conflicts in the relationship and also presents the readers real examples of family’s
problem. In analyzing these novels, I focus on the effects of cultural conflicts on
the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and
The Joy Luck Club.
B. Problem Formulation
In doing this research, I have one problem formulation as follow,
What are the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in
Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club ?
C. Objective of the Study
In doing this research, I have one objective. The objective of this research
is to reveal the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in
Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.
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D. Benefits of the Study
There are some benefits we can acquire from this research. They are
divided into two parts as follows.
a. The benefits for the education field
Hopefully, the result of this research can give benefits to senior high
school and college students and those teaching literature. For students in
Senior High School and college, they will have deeper understanding in
novels, especially in Amy Tan’s works. They can learn from a unique
culture and gain some new knowledge. Meanwhile, for lecturer, these two
novels could be one reference to be used in some courses, like in Reading
Course, Introduction to Literature and also in Prose. By using novels,
lecturers can encourage their students to develop their reading habit. These
novels broaden not only our knowledge, but also our imagination and
understanding toward different cultures. Besides, it also can be a variation
to make lectures more interesting. For both lecturer and students, they can
appreciate literary study as something valuable.
b. The benefits to readers in general
There are two benefits to people in the society. First, they can get better
understanding of mother-daughter relationship. Hopefully, through this
research, we can gain more insights into problematic relationships between
a mother and her daughter from different cultural perspectives. Second, we PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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can also learn the value of mother in one’s life. No matter how strict she
is, she always tries to give her best to her children as she loves them.
E. Definitions of the Terms
In this research, I work in literature and talk about the effects of the
cultural conflicts on the mothers-daughters relationship. To avoid
misunderstanding, below are definitions of some terms used in this study:
The first is culture. According to Kane (162) culture refers to ways of
thinking and doing passed down from generation to generation. In this study,
culture refers to the ways of thinking and doing passed down from mothers and
daughters from two different cultures which are Chinese and American.
The second is conflict. Noller and Fitzpatrick (98) said that conflict occurs
in a family because the family members hold a difference between them. Noller
and Fitzpatrick (99) included that when the members of the family do not agree
about the situations in their lives such as one’s behavior, one’s opinions, etc; there
is a conflict. In this study, conflict refers to the disagreement between the mothers
and the daughters about the situations in their lives in one’s behavior, one’s
opinions and conflict occurs in their relationship because the mothers and the
daughters hold culture differences between Chinese culture and American culture.
The third is mother-daughter relationship. The strongest parents-children
relationship is the relationship between mother and her daughter (Noller and
Fitzpatrick 267). According to them too, there is often conflict between mother
and daughter because woman sees her mother as a critical, controlling, and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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demanding person while man usually idealizes his mother (267). In this study, the
strongest parents-children relationship is shown by the relationship between six
mothers and their daughters, they are: Precious Auntie and her daughter, LuLing;
LuLing and her daughter, Ruth (Luyi); Suyuan Woo and her daughter, June (Jing-
mei); Lindo Jong and her daughter, Waverly Jong; An Mei Hsu and her daughter,
Rose Hsu Jordan; and Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter, Lena St. Clair. Each
of them has conflicts inside their mother-daughter relationship. There are often
conflicts between the mothers and the daughters because the daughters see their
mothers as a critical, controlling, and demanding people. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter contains four parts: the review of related studies, the review
of related theories, the review on Chinese culture in contrast with American
culture, and the theoretical framework that explains the contribution of the
theories in the problem solution.
A. Review of Related Studies
There have been two separate studies conducted on these two novels of
Amy Tan. First, Yosepha Respati (981214068), who studied The Joy Luck Club,
talked about the influence of mothers’ background on raising their daughters. She
used sociocultural-historical approach. Second, Vini Sunadi (991214188), who
studied The Bonesetter’s Daughter, analyzed the characterization on the character
of both mother and daughter and how mother-daughter relationship was described
in the novel by using the psychological approach. Unlike these two separate
studies on the two novels, I made a comparison of the two, The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club, and analyzed the cultural conflicts’ effects on
the mother-daughter relationship by using sociocultural approach.
B. Review of Related Theories
The review of related theories discusses some aspects of literature that
provide important information in analyzing the novels. In this study, some 8
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theories are employed to analyze the problem: the theory of critical approaches,
the theory of conflict, and the theory of mother-daughter relationship.
1. Theory of Sociocultural Approach
According to Culler (32), literature is a self-reflective context where
people can reflect on what they had done in their life. Culler (32) states that
novels are about the problems and possibilities of representing and giving shape
or meaning to every experience people had.
Literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and meter are social in their very nature. They are conventions norms which could have arisen only in society. But, furthermore, literature represents ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’. (Wellek and Warren 94)
As Wellek and Warren state that literature is a social institution, literature
deals with society and literature cannot be apart from society. Literature
represents ‘life’ as social reality. Literature also talks about the problem in the
society and all the cases people can find in the real life.
In this study, I used theory of sociocultural approach in order to analyze
the cultural conflicts and the effects those conflicts on a family relationship.
According to Rohrberger Woods Jr. (6 – 15), sociocultural approach deals with
the reference of social and cultural background of literary work. It is necessary to
investigate the social milieu in which a work was created and which it necessarily
reflects on. The critics of this approach believe that it is necessary to investigate
the society and culture in which a work was created. The approach insists that the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization of which the attitudes
and actions of a specific group of people become the subject matter. It means, in
order to analyze a literary work, we need to analyze and understand the social
background when the literary was produced. The proponents of this approach
analyze the sociocultural background that can be found in the story itself or
outside the story in order to get the meaning of the study and give the esthetic
response to it.
2. Theory of Conflicts
There are several theories of conflicts which were used in this study. They
are the causes of the conflicts, theory of mother-daughter relationship which
includes the meaning of mother-daughter relationship and conflict in mother-
daughter relationship.
a) The Causes of the Conflicts
Everything in this world has a cause and an effect. When we do
something, we have to know the consequences of doing this. In conflict, there is
also cause and effect. Conflict does not exist if there is no cause. Gillin and Gillin
(260) state, “Conflict is a social process in which individuals or groups seek their
ends by directly challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of violence.”
There are four roots of conflict which Gillin and Gillin (633 – 644) state. The first
is individual differences. Gillin and Gillin say, “Individual differences give
different point of view and provide disparities which lead to clashes.” Everybody PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11
has unique characteristics that are different one from another. These different
characteristics may lead to different points of view of almost every thing.
Different perceptions then may lead to conflicts or clashes. This is where
problems emerge.
The second is cultural differences. They do not only prevail within our
own society, but they also prevail outside our society. People live in society and
there are so many cultures we can find in our society. Every culture has its own
characteristic too. These cultural differences often make people misjudge another
culture so that it may form conflicts between individual and also between groups.
The third is clashing interests. Because everyone has different and special
characteristic, he or she can have interests on different thing too. Because
everyone has different interest, it may be a source of conflict.
The fourth is social change. Social change may change and separate
people into group which can cause competition. It can cause conflict. For
example, if there is migration, economy change, trend, heredity status, social
mobility, and frontier society, they can cause conflict.
Besides, the elements of culture are developed by the society. Baron and
Byrne (9-13) state that social behavior is shaped by a seemingly endless list of
variables. They added some number of major specific cultural factors influencing
someone’s behavior that have possibility to raise conflict and clash between one
to another. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
12
The first is the behavior and characteristics of other person. The
importance of one’s position in the society can strongly affect his/her behavior.
For example, an employer will easily influence his/her servant by considering that
the employer has higher position than the servant. The behavior and
characteristics, which are not everyone have, could raise conflict if there is no
understanding.
The second is the social cognition (one’s thoughts, attitudes, and
inferences about other people around him/her). It is the aspect that affects one’s
thoughts, attitudes, ideas, and judgments on other people. If someone has a good
judgment on other people, then he/she may follow or imitate others’ behavior. If
there are different thoughts and each person stands on his/her own thought
without receiving others, there will be clash.
The third is an ecological variable. The term ‘ecological variable’ refers
to the social ecological circumstances around an individual such as the condition
of the environment, the house, the city, etc. For example, if a person lives in a
place where he/she feels comfortable, he/she will likely have an unchanged
behavior. On the other hand, if a person lives in the place where he/she feels hard
to live, then he/she may have certain behavior that leads him/her to change the
condition to be better. If a person cannot accept where he/she is, it can be a
conflict inside and outside him/her.
The fourth is the sociocultural context in which a social behavior
occurs. Such factors as cultural norms and regulations will affect one’s behavior.
Social standards or values shifting can influence one’s behavior. If people can PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13
accept the norms and regulations and be fair, everything can be alright, but if
people cannot accept the norms and regulations, it can raise conflict.
The fifth is the aspect of one’s physical condition in relevance with
social behavior. The last is the physical condition of the person him/herself.
His/her ability to accept any social information will help him/her to change his/her
old behavior and subsequently imitate or adopt another behavior from the society.
However, if he/she does not have the ability to accept any social information, it
can raise clash.
Conflict can also happen in family relationship. Noller and Fitzpatrick (98)
say that conflict occurs in a family because the family members hold a difference
between them. It can be different opinions, attitudes, needs, and also goals. Noller
and Fitzpatrick (99) add that when the members of the family do not agree about
the situations in their lives such as one’s behaviour, one’s opinions, etc, there is a
conflict. Disagreement can raise clash and conflict. That is why agreement is
needed in a family relationship, as simply between mother and father.
b) Theory of Mother-Daughter Relationship
The theory of mother-daughter relationship is divided into two parts. They
are the meaning of mother-daughter relationship and conflicts in mother-daughter
relationship.
1) Meaning of Mother-Daughter Relationship
The strongest parents-children relationship is the relationship between
mother and her daughter (Noller and Fitzpatrick 267). Deutsch (222) says that the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
14
daughter’s identification with her mother is important for her emotional and moral
development. The mother plays a role as a model for her daughter’s later feminity.
In Chinese, a woman is expected to be closer to her mother than her father (Hsu
63). As a matter of fact it would be regarded as unusual if a woman is closer to
her father than her mother. A mother would have much more to teach the younger
woman than a father.
2) Conflicts in Mother-Daughter Relationship
Deutsch (322) states that a daughter’s identification with her mother is
important for her emotional and moral development. A mother will play a role as
the source of identification of her daughter, who later will likely develop her
mental and moral according to her perspective toward her mother. Mother-
daughter relationship is not always in harmony. Sometimes there may be some
misunderstandings and conflicts which may affect the relationship and create a
gap between them.
Noller and Fitzpatrick (267) say that woman is more likely to see the
relationship with her mother as a negative one. Woman sees her mother as a
critical, controlling, and demanding person while man usually idealizes his
mother. This different exists because of the mother’s attitudes towards her
daughter and son. The mother expects more from her daughter but shows less
appreciation on her daughter’s efforts. In contrast, the mother expects less from
her son and appreciates more the thing her son does. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15
Furthermore, they describe the mother-daughter relationship as complex,
ambivalent, and ambiguous (268). The relationship is characterized by love and
hate, high expectation but low appreciation, and high stress. However, the
daughter still concerns about her mother although their relationship is not close
and warm.
Nadeau states that there are some causes of conflict that make the daughter
feel not comfortable and want to live separately with her mother. First is the
unclear individual boundary between a mother and her daughter. Second is
the freedom that the daughter wants but the mother does not agree with. A
daughter usually has wants that sometimes different with what her mother wants.
It can raise clash and it can result bad attitude from the daughter to her mother.
Third is the different view in their life. A daughter and a mother have different
view in their life and as the younger generation, the daughter does not want to
listen to her mother. She thinks that her mother does not understand what she
wants. Forth is the teachings from the mother. A mother teaches how to behave,
how to dress, how to talk, how to walk, and many good things but not all these
good things are accepted by the daughter well. The daughter usually hates it and
wants to do it by her own way.
Besides, Deutsch (222) also explains the causes of conflict between
mother-daughter relationships. First, the conflict arises because the daughter
considers her mother as rival in getting her father’s attention and love. The
daughter feels that her father loves her mother more than to her. It can be seen
more if the father is a strict person or if he often criticizes the daughter. For the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
16
daughter it can be a symbol that her father does not love her and love her mother
most. Second, the conflict arises because of the mother’s authoritarian power
over her daughter. When the daughter finds her freedom and becomes
independent, her mother feels abandoned and is afraid of losing her daughter. As
the result, her mother uses her authoritarian power over her daughter and it causes
the conflicts between them become more complicated.
C. Review on Chinese Culture in Contrast with American Culture
Culture is the socially learned ways of living found in human societies and
that it embraces all aspects of social life, including both thought and behavior
(Harris 19). Culture is learned automatically. When people were born, they
already had their own culture and it cannot be denied.
Culture is not a thing, even a system. It is a set of transactions, processes, mutations, practices, technologies, institutions, out of which things and events are produced, to be experienced, lived out and given meaning and value to in different ways within the unsystematic network of differences and mutations from which they emerged to start with (During 6).
Culture cannot be programmed as a system because it is granted. Culture
refers to ways of thinking and doing passed down from generation to generation
(Kane 162). Generation to generation means father and mother and their children
and then the children and their daughter and son, and so on. For example, if the
grandmother is a Chinese, the grandchild usually has the same culture as a
Chinese person too. A Chinese person cannot be Americans if he or she does not
have the ‘blood’ from American person. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17
According to Hsu (257), culture in Chinese thinks about personality.
Culture must be considered the dominant factor in establishing the basic
personality types for various societies and also in establishing the series the status
personalities which are characteristics for each society (Hsu 257). Nanquin and
Warski (80) state that woman in China is inferior than man. Since they are
children, Chinese women have been bearing lots of expectation from the society.
For example, at the age of five or six binding of young girls’ feet begin and it
brings suffering to Chinese women, and also the cultural idea in China remains
the isolation of women in the inner apartment as much as possible.
As Kearney (20) states that in America, women have the same right as
men. Especially in education, there is no sex discrimination. Women have the
same right to get good education. This is as well as people with low social status
have the same right as people with high social status in many life parts in
America. According to McClosky and Zaller (123), people in America have the
same chance and opportunity in any aspects of life.
In Chinese, mother supervises every movement of the infant and freely
feeds it whenever it demands. The father’s authority over male and female
children functions differently. With the son the disciplinary relationship is direct,
while discipline over his daughter is applied by his wife, acting as his agent. As
Anshen (83) states, “The mother-daughter relationship has always been a close
one in China.”
According to Kearny (20), individual freedom is believed as the most
important value of all American values. The individual freedom is also applied in PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
18
the family life. In an America family, no one is in control of. When the children
are younger they are usually controlled by their parents, but when they are
considered as mature, they have their own right to have their own decision. In
America, children speak with confidence in front of adults. They do not have any
fear or shyness but they enjoy the relationship because they are brought up in
American liberal ways. Children in America are free to develop themselves.
Americans are equal in their relationship with people, regardless of their age,
wealth, or social position.
Marriages in China are arranged by the matchmaker. The matchmaker has
a hard job to arrange the engagement for the two families. Here, the matchmaker
has to consider the social status of the two families, economical, and personal
factors such as family wealth and individual character. According to Smith (255),
Chinese marriage is literary ‘made in Heaven’, and therefore the eight characters
that marked the time of birth for the bride and groom has to be compliable.
Ancestors are consulted at various diviners whose prosperous days for various
virtual acts connected with marriage. About marriage, Anshen (75) says that in
traditional China, marriage might be determined even before the prospective life
partners were born. It began with no courtship but with an agreement between two
pairs of parents.
In comparison with American culture, Anshen (84) also states that though
romantic love in marriage has been emphasized by a majority of the younger
generation, most Chinese marriages seem to lack the warmth, the feeling of sexual
intimacy, and the demonstrativeness which are familiar to husbands and wives in PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19
the United States. According to Sirjamaki (57), in America, when a man and a
woman marry, they form an association unlike any other society. The relationship
is close and full of intimacy. They fashion a life together marked by constant
companionship, mutual loyalty, and sexual gratification. Sirjamaki (57) also states
that marriages in America should be based on mutual affection and free choices of
spouses. Sirjamaki (67) states that in America, persons have to meet and know
each other before they can marry. In America, boy and girl meet somewhere in the
places and events of their community, and date each other. Dating is important
way to know each other and to develop between the unmarried persons (Sirjamaki
61). By dating, persons can know the character each other and decide what they
should do in the next step. If the dating matures into courtship, finally, they decide
to marry and become formally engaged (Sirjamaki 65).
Meyer (42) states that the Chinese is considered as superstitious people,
for supernatural things influence their daily life. The Chinese has never made the
separation between myth and reality as Westerners do. They believe that
everything that happens is the result of their obedience to their ancestors or gods
in the past.
Chinese people believe that ghost could help them in anything (137).
Ghost will tell any best thing they should do in their life. Nanquin and Rawski
(81) add that in China, after death, the spirit of deceased relatives (representing by
wooden tablets) are cared for by their descendant on a daily basis supplemented
by offering at the grave at regular intervals, and given special anniversaries of the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
20
death. In Chinese, the superstition has become a part of the culture. Most of
people who live in modern way lost their traditional way of life.
Bloomfield (187) explains more that Chinese people have so many ways
to understand their future. It can come from fortune-teller or many other things
like the ghost of great-grandparents, etc. They may know what job is suitable for
them (229), what way to avoid bad luck, what food should be eaten and not to be
eaten to make good harmony in their life (269), and many more. By believing the
myth, the way of worship, the way of connected with died people, and many other
spiritual things, they believe that their life will be easier and comfortable. There
are none who are able to disturb them and their house is clean from bad things.
They keep their tradition to keep their balance in life and keep happy.
According to Bloomfield (85), comparing with Chinese people, it seems
that there are no other communities, including American, which strongly connect
with dead people and ghost. Chinese people strongly keep their belief and their
traditional practice and they can bring it until this century in Australia, England,
even Canada. Kearny (26) states that one of the American values is hard working.
American people tend to be hard working to achieve their wealth and their
economic development. American people do not believe in superstitious or
supernatural things as Chinese people but they believe in hard working, effort, and
many logical things. Americans tend to have modern thought.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
21
D. Theoretical Framework
There are some theories applied in order to answer the problem formulated
in this study. First, theory of critical approach which is theory of sociocultural
approach is used to analyze the problem. In analyzing mother-daughter
relationships and their conflicts, I use some theories and reviews from Noller and
Fitzpatrick, Deutsch, and Hsu. These two novels are about mother-daughter
relationships and their conflicts, so it is important to know the basic theories of
mother-daughter relationships and why conflicts raise in order to get better
understanding.
In analyzing the cultural conflicts, I use some theories from Gillin and
Gillin, Baron and Byrne, Noller and Fitzpatrick, Deutsch, and Nadeau. This study
concerns on the effects of the cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter
relationships as seen in the two novels. It is important to know the basic theories
of conflict in culture, in family, and specifically in mother-daughter relationship.
In analyzing the culture, I apply several theories and reviews from Harris,
Kane, During, Hsu, Smith, Anshen, Meyer, Nanquin and Rawski, and Bloomfield.
These reviews on culture helped me analyze the effects of the cultural conflicts on
the mother-daughter relationships. Moreover, these reviews on culture are
expected to help the readers to understand the novels because Chinese and
American culture have special role in these two novels. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains three parts. They are objects of the study, approach
of the study, and method of the study. The objects of the study concern the novels
analyzed namely The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. The
approach of the study deals with the approach used in analyzing these two novels.
The method of the study presents the steps in doing this research.
A. Objects of the Study
The objects of the study are The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck
Club written by Amy Tan. The Bonesetter's Daughter, published in 2001, is Amy
Tan's fourth novel. It consists of 403 pages. This novel deals with the relationship
between an American-born Chinese woman and her immigrant mother. The
Bonesetter's Daughter is divided into two major stories. The first part of the novel
tells about Ruth, a Chinese-American woman living in San Francisco. LuLing, her
mother, seems to be increasingly forgetful, and often makes bizarre comments
about her family and her own past. Ruth has “neglected” her mother for a moment
because she thinks that her mother was so different even in their perception about
life. Ruth feels that they cannot go along as mother and daughter. In many things
they do not understand each other and Ruth herself cannot understand her mother
and how she thinks. However, in the end of the first story, Ruth tries to understand
her mother, to know more the background of her mother and why her mother 22
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
23
becomes so strange. She becomes aware because of her mother’s sickness and she
feels that she loves her mother.
The second part of the novel is about LuLing herself, as written for Ruth.
Several years earlier, LuLing had written out her life story in Chinese. She told
about her experiences and all things she experienced in Chinese language. Ruth
arranges to have the document translated into English and learns the truth about
her mother's life in China. World War II in this novel split between the “then” of
1930s and 1940s China and the “now” of 1990s San Francisco.
The second novel, The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989 as the first novel
of Amy Tan, consists of sixteen interlocking stories. It consists of 332 pages. It is
about the lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four American-born
daughters. The stories told in this novel revolve around the Joy Luck Club (mah
jong games group) women and their daughters. There are Suyuan Woo and Jing-
mei Woo, Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and
Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. One series of stories focuses on Suyuan
Woo, who comes to America in 1947. She had lost her family, including her twin
daughters, during war. She does not know that her daughters were rescued. She is
remarried and settles in San Francisco. She has a daughter, Jing-mei (June) and
starts a Joy Luck Club similar to the one in China with three other women. The
four form strong friendship.
Actually in 1949, the four women immigrants meet at the First Chinese
Baptist Church in San Francisco and agree to continue to meet to play mah jong.
They call their mah jong group the Joy Luck Club. Each of the four Chinese PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
24
women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in China and
wants to share that vision with her daughter. As she grows up, Jing-mei and her
mother often struggle to understand each other.
Not only Jing-mei but all of the daughters (Waverly, Rose, and Lena) try
to understand and appreciate their mothers' pasts, adapt to the American way of
life, and win their mothers' acceptance. Jing-mei and her mother never completely
resolve their differences and problems, and Suyuan dies unexpectedly. At the next
meeting of the Joy Luck Club, her mother’s friends tell Jing-mei that Suyuan’s
twin daughters have been found. They give her a check so she can visit them.
As the novel ends, she meets her twin sisters in Shanghai. This novel also
describes how the relationship between the mothers (Suyuan, An Mei Hsu, Lindo,
and Ying-ying) with their mother. It tells their past experience about family
(especially with their moms). Most of them have bad experience and bad example
of family, which could be the cause of the bad relationship between them and
their daughter.
B. Approach of the Study
In analyzing the work, I apply the approach that helped me found out the
answer to the problem. In this study, I used sociocultural approach. Acccording to
Rohrberger Woods Jr. (6 – 15), sociocultural approach deals with the reference of
social and cultural background of literary work. The critics of this approach
believe that it is necessary to investigate the society and culture in which a work
was created. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
25
Every people have their own culture. Cultural conflicts happen in the
society. Because sociocultural approach is approach which deals with society and
culture, it is appropriate to use sociocultural approach in this study. Sociocultural
approach is used to analyze the effects of the cultural conflicts on the mother-
daughter relationships.
C. Method of the Study
I used some procedures. Library research was used in gathering data. A
collection of articles, journals, critical essays, and other available printed matters
were gathered from libraries as well as electronic resources. Amy Tan’s The
Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club serve as the primary or main data.
Other sources were collected to gain data and facts on Chinese culture. Some of
the secondary sources are most on the books of culture (especially in Chinese one)
like Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times by Marvin Harris and Under the
Ancestors’ Shadow by Francis L.K. Hsu and the books of sociology.
There were some steps that I did in doing this research. First was reading the novels, which are The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Second was deciding the subject would be discussed (mothers-daughters relationship which affected by Chinese culture). Third was formulating the problem formulation. Forth was finding the theory and preferences. Fifth was deciding the method. Sixth was analyzing the problems related to the theories, preferences, and evidences from the two novels. Seventh was answering the problems using the method. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is the analysis of the novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter and
The Joy Luck Club. In this part, I tried to analyze the question formulated in the
problem formulation section. There are two steps in analyzing the problems. They
are the causes of the conflicts and the cultural conflicts between the Chinese and
American cultures described in the novel and the effects of the cultural conflicts
on the mother-daughter relationships. Because the novels compared here were
written by one person (Amy Tan), I used TBD as the abbreviation for The
Bonesetter’s Daughter and TJLC as the abbreviation for The Joy Luck Club.
A. The Causes of the Conflicts
Gillin and Gillin (260) state, “Conflict is a social process in which
individuals or groups seek their ends by directly challenging the antagonist by
violence or threat of violence.” The conflicts found in these novels are cultural
conflicts that give effects to the mother-daughter relationships. There are four
roots that Gillin and Gillin state that conflicts have. In these novels, there are three
causes or roots why cultural conflicts happen.
The first is individual differences. Gillin and Gillin say, “Individual
differences give different points of view and provide disparities which lead to
clashes.” Every individual has unique characteristics that differ from one another.
26
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
27
These individual differences result in different point of view of each thing for
each person and this different perception of things that can ignite clashes.
Basically they have different ways of communication, resulting in conflicting
attitudes.
Communication is not always easy between mothers and daughters. When
the mothers think they are doing the right things for their daughters, their actions
are often perceived as wrong in the daughters’ eyes. No matter how good the
mothers’ intentions are, misperception occurs, which often leads to clashes
between them. In The Joy Luck Club, Jing-mei experiences it with her mother,
Suyuan. She thinks that her mother “pushes” her to do this and that and she fed up
with it.
“You want to me to be someone that I’m not!” I sobbed. “I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!” “Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” “Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother,” I shouted. (TJLC 153)
While the mothers think that their daughters turn rebellious, the daughters cannot
understand their mothers’ actions and see those actions as strange.
The second is cultural differences. Not only from inside, differences
could come up from outside of us. People live in society with various unique
cultures. For example, there is a culture of a community who speak in a high tone
and a loud voice, but there is also another community who speak in a low tone
and a soft voice. Miscommunication can occur when the two are meeting each
other. The one with the soft voice might regard the other with the loud voice as PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
28
rude or impolite. This misjudgment can lead to conflicts between individuals or
even groups. In these novels cultural differences are the basic problems that lead
to many other problems. Different cultural backgrounds that exist between the
mothers—who have been brought up in the Chinese culture—and their
daughters—who have been brought up in the American culture—become the
source of the problems as they have completely different ways of thinking. This
makes them unable to understand each other.
Ruth feels that she is American but she is not allowed by her mother to do
what she wants in her country, America as stated in The Bonesetter’s Daughter,
“I’m an American,” Ruth shouted. “I have a right of privacy, to pursue my own
happiness, not yours!” (TBD 158). This belief makes Ruth angry with her mother.
She thinks that her mother cannot understand her.
The third is social change. Social change may separate people into groups
which can cause competition and conflict. This social change problem happens in
the mothers’ side. The mothers who are Chinese but live in America keep their
Chinese culture and do not try to adapt to the new culture—American—of the
country where they live, while the daughters who are American-born and live in
America live with American culture. It indirectly separates them into two groups.
Both of them keep their culture strongly and it causes conflicts.
The society was composed of a group of white-haired American missionary ladies from the First Chinese Baptist Church. And because of their gifts, my parents could refuse their invitation to join the church. Nor could they ignore the old ladies’ practical advice to improve their English through Bible study class on Wednesday nights and, later, through choir practice on Sunday mornings. This was how my parents met the Hsus, the Jongs, and the St. Clairs. My mother could sense that the women of these families also had unspeakable tragedies they had left behind in China and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
29
hopes they couldn’t begin to express in their fragile English. Or at least, my mother recognized the numbness in these women’s faces. And she saw how quickly their eyes moved when she told them her idea for the Joy Luck Club. (TJLC 6-7)
Besides, the elements of culture are developed by the society. Baron and
Byrne (9-13) state that social behavior is shaped by a seemingly endless list of
variables. They added five specific cultural factors influencing someone’s
behavior that have possibilities to raise conflicts and clashes between one to
another. However, in this novel there are only four things that exist in the society
that the mothers are not aware of and do not try to adapt to.
The first is the behavior and characteristics of American people. The
importance of one’s position in the society can strongly affect his or her behavior.
On one hand, the daughters do not understand their mothers’ behavior and
characteristics. On the other hand, the mothers, who keep their Chinese culture
strongly, do not try to adapt to the new culture that affects their daughters’
behavior and characteristics. Their refusal to adapt might be the result of their
inability to understand the behavior and characteristics of American people. In
this context, the mothers are not aware of the behavior and characteristics of
American people. However, they even think that what American people do is
strange and Chinese is the best. They keep their culture strongly without trying to
adapt.
The second is the social cognition (one’s thoughts, attitudes, and
inferences about other people around him or her). It is the aspect that affects one’s
thoughts, attitudes, ideas, and judgments on other people. If one has a good
judgment on other people, then he or she may follow or imitate others’ behavior. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
30
However, if one cannot accept the other’s thought that is different from his or
hers, there will be a clash. There are different thoughts and person stands on
his/her own thought without accepting others’ thoughts, there will be a clash. The
mothers in these novels do not try to understand the thoughts or attitudes of
American people. They are aware of the American culture, but they do not want to
adapt. The mothers should be able to see good values which exist in the American
culture which not only affect American people’s thoughts and attitudes, but also
affect their daughters’.
The third is an ecological variable. The term ‘ecological variable’ refers
to the social ecological circumstances around an individual such as the condition
of the environment, the house, and the city. The mothers do not accept the
American circumstances. They behave as if they were in China. They speak in
Chinese most of the time and they make the daughters feel that they are strange.
The fourth is the sociocultural context in which a social behavior
occurs. Such factors as cultural norms and regulations will affect one’s behavior.
Societal standards or values shifting can influence one’s behavior. If people can
accept the norms and regulations and be fair, everything can be alright, but if
people cannot accept the norms and regulations, it can raise conflicts. The mothers
cannot accept the American norms and regulations. In America people have more
freedom. However, the mothers do not try to tolerate this freedom value. They
strongly hold their Chinese culture such as their belief in superstition, their
boasting habit, their perception on marriage, and their perception on mother PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
31
figure. Their intolerance of the American freedom leads to disagreement with
their daughters.
Conflict can also happen in a family relationship. Noller and Fitzpatrick
(98) say that conflict occurs in a family because the family members hold a
difference between them. It can be different opinions, attitudes, needs, and also
goals. Noller and Fitzpatrick (99) conclude that when the members of the family
do not agree about the situations in their lives such as one’s behavior, or one’s
opinions, there is a conflict. Disagreement can raise clash and conflict. That is
why agreement is needed in a family relationship, as between mother and
daughter. The mothers and the daughters in these novels completely disagree with
each other. They have different opinions, attitudes, and all of these make them
live in conflict with each other.
B. The Cultural Conflicts and The Effects on The Mother-Daughter
Relationship
Culture is the socially learned ways of living found in human societies and
it embraces all aspects of social life, including both thought and behavior (Harris
19). As according to Gillin and Gillin (633), there are four kinds of conflict. The
first root of conflict is individual differences. The second is cultural differences.
The third is clashing interests. The forth is social change.
There is only one major conflict in these novels. It is cultural differences.
The cultural conflicts between Chinese and American culture could be seen from
two things that show the differences, namely the problem in communication and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
32
the problem in attitude. The problem in attitude includes four things, namely
being superstitious, boasting habit, the conflicting response on marriage’s
different perception, and the conflicting response on mother figure’s different
perception.
1. The Problem in Communication
The first problem of cultural conflict here is in communication.
Communication has important role in a relationship. Without good
communication, the relationship will not work well. If one person tries to talk
with his or her will without considering other people’s ability to understand, there
will be miscommunication. Communication cannot be “pushed” to someone. We
cannot expect that other people can understand our language or understand what
we want without understanding what we talk about or share.
In this context, the daughters, who live in America and use English,
sometimes are confused with their moms’ language and their moms’ wants.
Chinese mothers usually cannot speak English fluently and very often use Chinese
language at home or wherever they are. Problems are still raised as seen in these
two novels. Problems in communication occur between mothers and daughters
and also between mothers and other people (community). Problems of
communication can be raised because of some differences such as different
languages, different backgrounds, different ways of thinking, different characters,
different perceptions, which caused by different cultures. The other reasons are
because no one who has the initiative to yield, or to try to understand. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
33
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, LuLing is so different from her daughter,
Ruth, in terms of their educational backgrounds, ways of thinking, characters,
perceptions, and ages. She tends to speak Chinese with her daughter wherever
they are. The problem is Ruth speaks English fluently while her mother doesn’t.
Ruth then becomes the “interpreter” and “translator” for her mom. LuLing likes to
speak Chinese in front of other people whether it is to ask or to talk about bad
things of the persons they are with.
Ruth remembered how she felt when she was their age. She too has resented LuLing’s speaking Chinese in front of others, knowing they couldn’t understand her covert remarks. “Look how fat that lady is,” LuLing might say. Or, “Luyi, go ask that man to give us better price.” If Ruth obeyed, she was mortified. And if she didn’t, as she now recalled, even more dire consequences followed. (TBD 76)
People should not talk about someone else behind his or her back and the
polite way to talk is by using the language everybody knows. Although LuLing
cannot speak well, she can speak English a little. She is able to speak English
because she has lived in San Francisco for some time and her ex-husband is
originally from America. What LuLing does as stated above “disturbs” Ruth. She
does not feel comfortable with her mother’s ways of saying things or expressing
herself. Ruth also feels angry and uncomfortable with her when she speaks
Chinese in front of her American friends. Ruth feels that her mom just wants to
embarrass her by doing that kind of thing.
But then a familiar voice, loud and shrill, rang across the playground: “No! Luyi, stop! What are you doing? You want to break your body in half?” Ruth stood at the top of the slide, frozen with shame. Her mother was the busybody watcher of kindergartens, whereas Ruth was in the first grade! Some of other first-graders were laughing down below. “Is that your mother?” they shouted. “What’s that gobbled-gook-gook she’s saying?” (TJLC 77) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
34
Because of this problem, they do not have good relationship. Ruth and
LuLing have different ways of communicating that makes it difficult for them to
say what they really want to. They do not realize that this communication problem
actually becomes the basic problem and it raises more problems. Ruth remembers
that when she was eight years old, she told LuLing what the right way to say
something and LuLing became so angry.
“It’s ‘grapefruit,” eight-years-old Ruth once said, exasperated, “not ‘grapefoot.’ It’s a fruit, not a foot.” That night, LuLing started teaching her the mechanics in writing Chinese. Ruth knew this was punishment for what she had earlier. (TBD 57)
The punishment and the reaction her mother does when she tries to teach
English to her mother correctly makes Ruth aware if she should talk with her
mother. Ruth and LuLing have difficulty in communication one to another.
Ruth wanted to know right away, but she could not ask her mother. She knew from experience what happened whenever she asked her mother to render Chinese characters into English. First, LuLing scolded her for not studying Chinese hard enough when she was little. And then, to untangle each character, her mother took side routes to her past, going into excruciating detail over the infinite meanings of Chinese words: “Secrets not just mean cannot say. Can be hurt-you kinda secret, or curse-you kind, maybe do you damage forever, never can change after that…” And then came rumbling about who told the secret, without saying what the secret itself was, followed by more rambling about the person had died horribly, why this had happened, how it could have been avoided, if only such and such had not occurred thousand years before. (TBD 14)
Ruth is not fluent in Chinese and LuLing is not fluent in English. This
difference makes them cannot understand each other. Ruth even thinks that her
mother’s lack of ability in English is one of the causes of the problem between
them as stated in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, “But the way Ruth saw it, LuLing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
35
got into fight mainly because of her poor English. She didn’t understand others, or
they didn’t understand her” (TBD 49).
In The Joy Luck Club, Lindo and Ying-ying seem to be very proud of their
Chinese culture. Lindo likes to commend the Chinese culture and criticize the
American culture as stated in The Joy Luck Club, “Chinese people do many
things,” she said simply. “Chinese people do business, do medicine, and do
painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture” (TJLC 92).
Besides, Ying-ying always talks in Chinese to everyone, even to her husband
(Clifford) who is not a Chinese (English-Irish) (TJLC 112-117). What Clifford
does just guesses what his wife does or asks Lena (their daughter) what her Mom
does or says. It is strange and seems funny but it really happens in this novel.
I could not tell my father what she had said. He was so sad already with this empty crib in his mind. How could I tell him she was crazy? So this is what I translated for him: “She says we must all think very hard about having another baby. She says she hopes this baby is very happy on the other side. And she thinks we should leave now and go have dinner.” (TJLC 117)
This is one example how Lena used to translate what her mother said to
her father. Lena’s Chinese language learning helps the communication between
Ying-ying and Clifford (TJLC 112). June, Suyuan’s daughter admits that she does
not know her mother very well because of language problem. As stated in The Joy
Luck Club, “My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated
each other’s meaning and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my
mother heard more” (TJLC 27).
Ruth, Waverly, Lena, and June cannot understand what their mothers
want. They feel something is quite wrong and are fed up with their mothers. They PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
36
cannot find the right way to speak with their mothers and it makes them feel there
is no use talking with their mothers. If they force themselves to talk, they could
“fight” and cannot end this problem. Besides, they are not open to each other. The
mothers still keep some parts of their past because of shame. If there is a problem,
the daughters do not talk or say that this communication problem “disturbs” their
relationship. Thus, this problem makes them farther from their mothers. Each of
them keeps their personal problem in their heart and mind and chooses not to talk
with the others. This keeps them in silence, which makes them unable to
understand each other. How they could understand each other if there is no good
communication. The mistakes from the past are the fruit that people cannot run
away from and they can be something meaningful if they are used as a learning
process. They can be an example for the children so that they will not be repeated
in the future.
Good communication will take place if one side tries to be humble, patient
and yield with the other side. There must be one side to have the initiative to try to
understand and not ask to be understood. The most important thing is they should
accept the differences.
2. The Problems in Attitude
The problem in communication rises and develops into problems in
attitude. As Noller and Fitzpatrick (267) said that the mother expects more from
her daughter but shows less appreciation on her daughter’s efforts. A Chinese
mother likes to “push” her daughter to do something without considering if she PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
37
does not want or unable to do it. For example, Suyuan “pushed” her daughter,
June, to look like Shirley Temple. “Soon after my mother got this idea about
Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school in the Mission district
and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without
shaking” (TJLC 142).
Suyuan also “pushed” her daughter, June, to join a piano course. “Three
days after watching The Ed Sullivan Show, my mother told me what my schedule
would be for piano lessons and piano practice” (TBD 146). Even she forced June
to show her ability in front of everybody (including Lindo and family) that at last
just made their family embarrassed because of June’s inability in playing the
piano (TJLC 150). The daughters think their moms embarrassed them in public.
The daughters feel embarrassed of their mothers and their attitude. They
like to speak Chinese in front of other people. For example, Ruth feels
embarrassed because LuLing likes to speak Chinese in front of others as stated
above (TBD 76). The mothers also rebuke their daughters in front of their friends
by using Chinese words—an attitude that their daughters do not like.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, LuLing rebukes Ruth in front of her friends
by using Chinese words. Not only Ruth hates being rebuked in front of her
friends, but she also hates to be addressed by their given name or Chinese name
(Luyi) in front of their American friends (TBD 77). There are several parts which
will be explained further, namely being superstitious, boasting habit, the different
perception of marriage, and the different perception of mother figure.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
38
a. Being Superstitious
Chinese culture is identical with superstition. According to Bloomfield
(85), in comparison with Chinese people, no other communities, including
American, seem to have a strong connection with dead people and ghosts. In
contrasting with American people, Chinese people seem to maintain a strong
connection with the dead or their spirits. They also believe in luck, yin and yang,
shio, feng shui, and so forth. Superstition then becomes part of their culture.
There is another problem with the way the daughters in these novels build
a concept of a mother. They often see American mothers and they see that a good
or ideal mother is a mother like American mother. This perception makes them
have a wish. They wish that they have a mother like what American mother is.
They do not realize that Chinese mother and American mother have different
characters. They do not realize that between their mothers and them there is a big
difference: their culture. Their mothers are still conventional and hold the Chinese
tradition, while the daughters hold the American modern tradition.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, LuLing is very connected with ghost. She
believes that the ghost of her mother is there and always reminds her to something
good or bad. In China there is a common way to ask the spirits to know the best
thing people should do in their life. It can be written by anyone (with or without
skill) by doing some rituals to honor the spirits at the beginning. It is popular both
in the highest class and the lowest class of Chinese people. It is often being
practiced in every house. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
39
In this novel, LuLing tries to make her daughter believe this “magic” too.
Because Ruth is more knowledgeable than her, she always asks Ruth to talk to or
ask the ghost of Precious Auntie about everything they have done or what might
happen (TBD 85 – 88).
Ruth, who actually did not understand how to talk with ghost, thought her
Mom is “crazy” and she made this “talking to the ghost” a game. She asked what
she wanted by saying that it was Precious Auntie’s wish. For example is their
moving to San Fransisco is one thing that Ruth had wished for but she said that it
was Precious Auntie’s wish. She used it to outsmart her Mom.
An hour later, while LuLing was knitting and watching television, Ruth took down the sand tray by herself. “Precious Auntie wants to tell you something,” she told her mother. “Ah?” LuLing said. She immediately stood up and turned off the TV, and eagerly sat down at the kitchen table. Ruth smoothed the sand with the chopstick. She closed her eyes, then opened them, and began. You must move, Ruth wrote. Now. “Move?” her mother cried. “Ai-ya! Where we should move?” Ruth had not considered this. Far away, she finally decided. “Where far?” Ruth imagined a distance as big as an ocean. She pictured the bay, the bridge, the long bus rides she had taken with her mother that made her fall asleep. San Francisco, she wrote at last. Her mother still looked worried. “What part? Where good?” Ruth hesitated. She did not know San Fransisco that well, except for Chinatown and a few other places, Golden Gate Park, the Fun House at Land’s End. And that was how it came to her, an inspiration that moved quickly into her hand: Land’s End. (TBD 148-149)
Ruth underestimates her mother and thinks that her mother’s belief can
help her to gain advantages or take chances to get what she wants. She does not
think about it seriously. Sometimes it makes her fed up and makes she thinks that
it is easy to deceive her mother. Ruth even admitted that she wished that she did
not have a mother like LuLing. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
40
While in The Joy Luck Club, Ying-ying and An Mei Hsu are the example
of two Chinese women who live with superstition. Ying-ying believes in good
luck and bad luck, soul mate, and prophecy.
To this day, I believe my mother has the mysterious ability to see things before they happen. She has a Chinese saying for what she knows. Chunwang chihan: if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. Which means, I suppose, one thing is always the result of another. (TJLC 161)
While An Mei Hsu holds the Chinese belief that particular birth dates
might bring dangers. Rose explained it in the story, “My mother had a
superstition, in fact, that children were predisposed to certain dangers on certain
days, all depending on their Chinese birthdate” (TJLC 131).
Ying-ying said to her daughter Lena, “Aii, Lena, your future husband have
one pock mark for every rice you not finish” (TJLC 164). Lena feels that what her
mother says very much influences her life. She tries to follow what her mother has
said. Besides, Rose, An Mei Hsu’s daughter, is very amazed with the belief or the
faith that her mom holds. When Rose’s little brother, Bing, is lost in the beach,
she does what her mother has done although she feels confused with what her
mom wants to do as stated in The Joy Luck Club, “This will go where Bing is. I
will bring him back,” she said fiercely. “I had never heard so much nengkan in my
mother’s voice” (TJLC 138).
This belief makes Lena and Rose feel confused and strange. Both of them
and also Ruth think that their mothers are exaggerating. Their mothers are beyond
their reach.
All of this is because the mothers do not try to teach the daughters from
the beginning and only talk about this and that easily. According to Nadeau, one PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
41
of the causes of the conflicts between mother and daughter is the teaching from
the mothers. In this context, the mothers do not try to teach or explain what the
meaning of this belief and why they should believe it. The mothers seem to
“push” the daughters to believe it. The daughters who live in the modern time feel
that the mothers are strange and this belief is nonsense. The mothers only think
that the daughters have Chinese blood which signifies that they are Chinese
people and they will accept this information naturally. The mothers do not aware
that the daughters are living in American culture that is very different from their
Chinese culture—a situation that can explain why their daughters cannot easily
understand the Chinese superstition.
What the daughters should do is not trying to change their mothers. They
cannot force someone to be what they want. However, they should share the
problems they face, what they like and dislike each other.
As Baron and Byrne (9 – 13) state that there are five things that can
influence someone’s behavior. The first is the behavior and characteristics of
other’s person. The second is the social cognition (one’s thoughts, attitudes, and
inferences about other people around him/her). The third is an ecological
variable. The forth is the sociocultural context in which a social behavior
occurs. The fifth is the aspect of one’s physical condition in relevance with
social behavior. The mothers should try to learn American culture where they
live now and try to have social intercourse with American mothers. It is not
effective as if in The Joy Luck Club they only befriended with Chinese mothers.
They should think about their daughters’ social intercourse too. The mothers PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
42
should try to observe what their daughters like and what their daughters’ habits. It
can help them to connect and then have a good sharing moment.
b. Boasting Habit
Not all Chinese people have boasting habit. However, sometimes when
people in general have something precious, they tend to be proud of it and want to
show this to their family and friends. In America, if people do it, they will just
laugh on it. Americans are usually more selfish to listen to other people say about
their good house or new jewelry. The problem is that Chinese mothers I found in
this novel have boasting habit and it bothers the daughters.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, LuLing is very proud of herself. She likes
to talk that she is fine, and her memory, which is actually sick, is also fine; she
could do anything alone and no one can understand her.
LuLing sniffed, “Hnh! Nothing wrong with my memory! I ‘member lots things, more than you. Where I live little-girl time, place we call Immortal heart, look like heart, two river, one stream, both dry-out . . .” She continued talking as Ruth went to the other side of the car, got in, and started the engine. “What he know? That doctor don’t even use telescope listen my heart. Nobody listen my heart! You don’t listen. GaoLing don’t listen. You know my heart always hurting. I just don’t complain. Am I complain?” “No— “ “See!” (TBD 108)
She hates to be thought as a weak person, despite the fact that she is old.
She does not like doctor and she thinks that she is greater than the doctor. Besides,
she also likes to be very proud of her daughter in front of other people. Although
she likes to say bad words and be angry to her daughter, Ruth, she loves her PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
43
daughter very much and she likes to show it. Her protests represent her desire of
getting Ruth’s attention.
It is as Deutsch (222) states that the second reason why conflict happens
between mother and daughter is because of the mother’s authoritarian power over
her daughter. When the daughter finds her freedom and becomes independent, her
mother feels abandoned and is afraid of losing her daughter. As the result, her
mother uses her authoritarian power over her daughter and it causes the conflicts
between them become more complicated.
In The Joy Luck Club, Suyuan and Lindo have boasting habit. Lindo is
very proud of her daughter, Waverly, who always won chess championship (TJLC
100). While Suyuan did not want to look as a looser, she always “pushed” her
daughter, June, to be look like Shirley Temple (TJLC 142), to join piano course
(TJLC 146), etc.
“She bring home too many trophy,” lamented Auntie Lindo that Sunday. “All day she play chess. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings.” She threw a scolding look at Waverly, who pretended not to see her. “You lucky you don’t have this problem,” said Auntie Lindo with a sigh to my mother. And my mother squared her shoulders and bragged: “Our problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. It’s like you can’t stop this natural talent.” And right then, I was determined to put a stop to her foolish pride. (TJLC 148-149)
Even Suyuan “pushes” June to do it in front of everybody (including
Lindo and family) that finally just makes them embarrassed because of the
inability of June in playing piano (TJLC 150). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
44
Waverly is very disturbed by her Mom’s attitude. Waverly said to her
mother in high tone, “Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to
show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?” (TJLC 101)
Waverly feels embarrassed and she does not understand why her mom
does that. In her mind, she just thinks that her mom is different from her friends’
mom and her mom is more arrogant.
June feels being forced by her Mom too and does not know the meaning of
such things her Mom does (TJLC 151) which actually wants June to be the best.
June never understands it. She had long way of confusion to her mom from the
beginning why her mom “pushed” her to do such things that she knew she could
not do it and why her mother has boasting habit. Finally, she finds out that her
mom (although it had passed so many years ago) was still sure that she can do it
and her mom is not angry to her for what she had done.
It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn’t get straight As. I didn’t become class president. I didn’t get into Stanford. I dropped out of college. For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could be me. And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unspeakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable. (TJLC 153-154)
June never understands that her mother just wants her to try. Suyuan
believes that June could do many things if she tried. June gave up easily and
because of the problem in communication, Suyuan never talks her thought easily
to her daughter. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
45
“You pick up fast,” said my mother, as if she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You could been genius if you want to.” “No, I couldn’t.” “You just not trying,” said my mother. And she was neither angry nor sad. She said it as if to announce a fact that could never be disproved. (TJLC 154)
June realizes it later. She finds out why her mom was so sure and “pushed”
her in very strong way because her boasting habit is the sign that she believes that
June can do anything she wants, that she does not want her daughter being
insulted by other people, and that she loves June very much.
And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called “Perfectly Contented.” I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. “Pleading Child” was shorter but slower; “Perfectly Contented” was longer but faster. And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song. (TJLC 155)
These two same songs actually represent what really happen in June’s life.
She gave up easily while if she wanted to try, she would know that the songs had
the same rhythm. Both of the songs are not difficult as she thought about and they
have different ending. If she gives up, the effort is shorter and there is no result,
while, if she tries, the effort is longer and it has a beautiful ending.
c. The Conflicting Response on Marriage’s Different Perception
In China, a woman knows who her husband will be from a matchmaker.
The matchmaker here has a responsibility to “read” the lines on the woman’s and
the man’s palms to see if they are matched according to the zodiac, shio, feng
shui, etc. After the reading, the matchmaker reports to the parents of the man and
the woman, and then they will arrange the marriage. They marry not because of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
46
love but because of what the matchmaker has said. That what Chinese women
mostly experience.
This experience is very different from the modern way that happens in
America. In America, a woman and a man will go on some dates after their first
meeting. Some might decide to live together; some others might just keep their
relationship. There is no need of consulting a matchmaker, let alone listening to
the matchmaker’s words in order to make a relationship.
As for marriage, Anshen (75) said that in traditional China, a marriage
might be determined even before the prospective life partners were born. It began
with no courtship but with an agreement between two pairs of parents. In
comparison with American culture, Anshen (84) also states that though romantic
love in marriage has been emphasized by a majority of the younger generation,
most Chinese marriages seem to lack of the warmth, the feeling of sexual
intimacy, and the demonstrativeness which are familiar to husbands and wives in
United States. Chinese perception and American perception about marriage are
completely different. They have different mindset of what they call “marriage”.
The daughters do not realize that different traditions or ways in having a
relationship exist between their mothers and them.
As Nadeau states that one of the reasons there is conflict between mother
and daughter is the freedom that the daughter wants. In this context, the daughters
who live in America feel that they should have more freedom to choose someone
they love and what they should do. The mothers actually agree. They are just
afraid if they will not get much attention from the daughters later. However, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
47
because there is no good communication, they never talk about this and they never
understand what actually is in their mind.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Precious Auntie (the mother of LuLing)
experienced the marriage which is arranged by a matchmaker. In The Bonesetter’s
Daughter, it is stated, “Baby Uncle went to a fortune-teller in the Mouth of the
Mountain, an old lady with a face more wrinkled than her palm. She saw nothing
but calamity” (TBD 192). Baby Uncle is the father of LuLing. The marriage was
not arranged by their parents. However, if they want to get married, Baby Uncle
still did the custom, that is to come to the matchmaker or fortune-teller to find out
if he and Precious Auntie can make a good couple. He would listen to the fortune-
teller’s suggestions and did whatever he was suggested to as stated in The
Bonesetter’s Daughter, “But just to make sure the marriage went well, the fortune-
teller sold Baby Uncle a Hundred Different Things charm that covered bad dates,
bad spirits, bad luck, and hair loss” (TBD 193).
The second generation, LuLing (the daughter from Precious Auntie and
Mom from Ruth) also experienced the same when she was proposed by the
fourth’s son of Chang.
The letter continued: “I wish to humbly suggest that your number-one daughter’ ” –she was speaking of me, and my heart swelled—“ ‘come to Peking and accidentally meet a distant relation of mine.’ ” GaoLing threw a scowl, and I was pleased she was jealous. “ ‘This relation,’ ” GaoLing went on reading in a less enthusiastic voice, “ ‘has four sons, who are seventh cousins of mine, three times removed, with a different surname. They live in your same village, but are barely related to you, if at all.’ ” (TBD 214)
Then, knowing that the person who will marry her daughter is from
Chang’s family (whom she had revenge with because Chang has already killed PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
48
Precious Auntie’s husband), Precious Auntie forbade the marriage but LuLing did
not want to know.
I knew then that Mother had not told her the name of the family. She had to hear it sooner or later. “The family is the Changs,” I said, watching the words cut her in two. “That’s right, Chang the coffinmaker.” She sounded as if she were drowning. She rocked her head like a clanging bell. And then she told me with slashing hands, You cannot. I forbid you. (TBD 236)
Even when Precious Auntie tried to say that Chang is a bad man who had
already killed LuLing’s father (TBD 236) and that she is LuLing’s Mom, LuLing
rejected her in a bad way.
For a long time she did not move. Then she began to cry and beat her chest. Her hands moved fast: Don’t you have feelings for who I am? And I remember exactly what I said to her: “Even if the whole Chang family were murderers and thieves, I would join them just to get away from you.” (TBD 241)
At the end, we know that LuLing failed to marry a man from Chang’s
family. She then moved to America and married an American man. Meanwhile,
when LuLing has a daughter, Ruth, she does not try to forbid her with Art (the
man Ruth met in the yoga class at a gym). She allows Ruth to live with Art
although this is different from the way the Chinese people usually do. LuLing also
showed that she is brave to break the “rule”. She does it because she loves her
daughter so much. In the deepest part of her heart, she misses Ruth and wants her
attention. It is reflected through her so many protests to Ruth. Unfortunately, Ruth
does not get her Mom’s message; it even keeps away from her Mom, making the
gap between them farther. She does not realize what her mom has sacrificed just
to see her daughter happy. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
49
Besides, in The Joy Luck Club, the marriage between Lindo (the mother of
Waverly) and her first husband was arranged by the matchmaker and Lindo as a
good daughter did what her parent wanted her to do, that was married with Tyan-
yu, the man she did not love (TJLC 44-45).
Instead, the village matchmaker came to my family when I was just two years old. No, nobody told me this, I remember it all. It was summertime, very hot and dusty outside, and I could hear cicadas crying in the yard. (TJLC 43) The matchmaker bragged about me: “An earth horse for an earth sheep. This is the best marriage combination.” She patted my arm and I pushed her away. (TJLC 44)
It is completely different with what her daughter experience when she met
Marvin (her first husband) and Rich (her second husband). Even, she and Rich
have already lived together (TJLC 185). When she wants to say to her Mom that
she wants to marry Rich, Mom seems to dislike him. This Chinese mother in this
novel does not show good response about the relationship happen in America. She
seems do not care. The different way of thinking between Lindo and Waverly
cannot be integrated.
“Did I tell you,” I said as we waited for the lunch bill at Four Directions, “what a great time Shosana had with Rich at the Exploratorium? He—” “Oh,” interrupted my mother, “I didn’t tell you. Your father, doctors say maybe need exploratory surgery. But no, now they say everything normal just too much constipated.” I gave up. (TJLC 184)
Waverly hates how conventional her Mom is. This thing makes gap
between Waverly and her mother. Then, she is aware that actually her Mom
supported her choice.
“I know you hate him,” I said in a quavering voice.”I know you think he’s not good enough, but I …” “Hate?” Why do you think I hate your future husband?” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
50
“You never want to talk about him. The other day, when I started to tell you about him Shoshana at the Exploratorium, you . . . you changed the subject . . . you started talking about Dad’s exploratory surgery and then . . . “ “What is more important, explore fun or explore sickness?” I wasn’t going to let her escape this time. “And then when you met him, you said he had spots on his face.” She looked at me, puzzled. “Is it not true?” “Yes, but, you said it just to be mean, to hurt me, to . . . “ “Ai-ya, why do you think these bad things about me?” Her face looked old and full of sorrow. (TJLC 201)
She cries and feels that actually her Mom just wants the best for her
daughter. The problem is back to communication. They never talk to each other,
heart to heart. Waverly never knows what is in her mother’s heart, and the
reverse. If they want to be patient to each other, sit, and talk; this kind of problem
will not happen. The daughters should be patient and listen to what the mothers
want or wish. They never know if they do not listen. The mothers and the
daughters should equalize their perception and share together.
As Deutsch (222) states, there are two causes of conflict between mother-
daughter relationships. First, the conflict arises because the daughter considers her
mother as rival in getting her father’s attention and love. Second, the conflict
arises because the mother’s authoritarian power over her daughter. When the
daughter finds her freedom and becomes independent, her mother feels abandoned
and is afraid of losing her daughter. As a result, her mother uses her authoritarian
power over her daughter and it causes the conflicts between them become more
complicated. The mothers seem disagree with the daughters but actually they are
just afraid to loose their daughters’ love and attention. Because of the mothers’ PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
51
fear of losing their daughters, the daughters should convince the mothers that the
mothers will not lose them if they live with the man they love or marry someday.
d. The Conflicting Response on Mother Figure’s Different Perception
A mother is the most amazing woman that people have. A mother usually
will do anything for her children just to make her children happy. Chinese
mothers and American mothers are similar, they love their children much.
However, in some parts, there are some things that Chinese mothers teach to their
children that perhaps American mothers do not, and vice versa. A mother
influences her children much, especially her daughter. The relationship between
mothers and their daughter is different from mothers and their son.
According to Nadeau, one of the causes of the conflict between mother
and daughter is the different view in life, especially the different view about a
mother figure. In this context, the mothers had been taught by their mothers to be
obedient daughters whatever happened. The condition in the past when everything
was not good makes the mothers be very obedient with their mothers. They are
even afraid of losing their mothers. They faced hard situation where grandmother,
uncle, new husband of the mother, and anybody could separate them with their
mothers and it made them appreciate and respect and their mothers very much.
While in “now” condition, the daughters do not have the same perception about a
figure of mother. In America, the daughters are not being obedient to their
mothers as the mothers wish. They are influenced by American culture and it is
not easy to make them understand the meaning of a mother. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
52
Nadeau also state that one of the causes of the problem is the teaching
from the mother. The mothers believe that they should apply the same rule and the
same teaching to their daughters now. They forget that they live in America with
different culture which has a very big chance to influence their daughters who
grow up there. The problems in communication and attitude, their inflexibility,
make their daughters far away from them. The daughters underestimate the
meaning of a mother as they less appreciate their mother. It is also caused by the
mothers’ silence of their past experience about their relationship with their
mothers. The daughters do not have a good comparison about how lucky they are
to live and to be loved with their mothers who will always be there for them.
In The Bonesetter’s Daughter, LuLing was influenced much by her
mother, Precious Auntie. The first time she went outside the town without
Precious Auntie, she was aware of how Precious Auntie meant to her life as stated
in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, “After I finished, I realized I had not thought to
bring a comb for my hair or wooden sticks for cleaning under my nails. Precious
Auntie always remembered those things for me. She was the reason I forgot!”
(TBD 220)
LuLing’s past is very painful. She did not know that her mother was
actually the woman who used to be her nursemaid. At last, when she knew that
her mother was her nursemaid, it was too late. She had already hurt her mother’s
heart by saying bad words to her and when she realized what she did, her mother
had died. She had no chance to say sorry and to love her. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
53
LuLing loves Ruth very much. She wanted Ruth to know Precious Auntie.
That is why she asks Ruth to talk to the ghost of Precious Auntie. What she had
done, screaming in Chinese words to remind Ruth of what she did was danger,
just the expression of her fear. She was afraid of losing Ruth. However, this is
what Ruth is not aware of. Ruth just thinks that her mother is trying to embarrass
her. According to Noller and Fitzpatrick (268), the mother-daughter relationship is
characterized by love and hate, high expectation but low appreciation, and high
stress. This is what happens between LuLing and Ruth. Ruth feels so stressed to
face her mother that she cannot understand what her mother wants to her. Ruth
loves her mother but she hates why her mother is so difficult to be understood.
In The Joy Luck Club, there are three mothers and their pasts. An Mei
Hsu, a woman who lived with her grandmother who hated her mother, did not
know who her mother was until her mother came when her grandmother died. Her
choice in following her mother is being insulted by her relatives, especially her
uncle. She also remembered that her grandmother hated her mother very much.
However, she, who missed her mother very much, chose to follow her mother.
Her mother lived outside the town and she had been the fourth wife of a man who
is not her father. She was hurt to know this reality and she promised to herself to
accompany her mother in passing this bad experience. This bad experience makes
her love her mother very much.
The second is Ying-ying. Ying-ying came from a rich family. But she was
close with Amah, a woman who took care of her, although her mother was there
and loved her too. She missed her mother so much. She appreciated every single PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
54
time she had with her mother. As the result, every time her mother talked to her,
she always obeyed what her mother said. She was an obedient girl.
The third is Lindo. The relationship between her and her parent is very
good. She loved her mother very much and Lindo wanted to sacrifice her future
for the promise her parent (especially her mother) had made when she was two
years old. She married to the man she did not love. She was an obedient girl too.
She respected much to her parent.
LuLing, An Mei, Ying-ying, and Lindo appreciate their mothers very
much. For them, mother is a special figure and mother is very valuable. The
difficult time with their mothers in the past make them appreciate their mothers
very much. They are very obedient to their mothers. They love their mothers and
wish that they could live with their mothers and have a better life.
In contrary, their daughters do not have good relationship with them.
Lindo’s daughter, Waverly, ever said to her friend as stated in The Joy Luck Club,
“You don’t know my mother,” I said. “She never thinks anybody is good enough
for anything” (TJLC 183). Rose and Lena also feel that their mother (An Mei Hsu
and Ying-ying) have too big expectation on them. As Noller and Fitzpatrick (267)
stated mother expects more from her daughter but shows less appreciation on her
daughter’s efforts. In contrast, the mother expects less from her son and
appreciates more the thing her son does. In these novels, the daughters feel so fed
up with the mothers’ protests and wishes. They feel that the mothers “push” them
to do this and that to fulfill what their mothers’ wishes. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
55
Lindo and all the mothers have better life now with their daughters. It
should result in a good and close relationship between mother and daughter.
However, this condition does not make their relationship better than their past
experience. The mothers and the daughters cannot go along and the mothers feel
that their daughters do not appreciate them much. The daughters who were born
and live in America are influenced by the American culture much.
Rose, Lena, and Waverly are not open to their own mothers. The
daughters are impatient to understand that their mothers are different from
American mothers. The mothers are special; the mothers love the daughters with
their own ways. The daughters do not understand that Chinese is in the blood of
their mothers and it makes the mothers teach them the different ways from
American moms. They usually think that her mother is too far to reach.
Sometimes, they do not understand what their mothers want from them.
One example of the result is all these women have bad relationship with
man. Waverly is divorced, Rose is also divorced, and Lena had a bad relationship
with her husband. None of their mothers know the reason. That is because they
never talk to each other, heart to heart between a mother and a daughter. If they
talk, the mothers seemed do not understand the daughters’ condition and situation
and keep talking to the daughters with their argument until the daughters can
predict what their mothers will say and can be sure it will not help them in facing
their problems.
I watch her, sweep after sweep, waiting for the right moment to tell her about Ted and me, that we’re getting divorced. When I tell her, I know she’s going to say, “This cannot be.” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
56
And when I say that it is certainly true, that our marriage is over, I know what else she will say: “Then you must save it.” And even though I know it’s hopeless –there’s absolutely nothing left to save—I’m afraid if I tell her that, she’ll still persuade me to try. (TJLC 122-123)
It makes the daughters feel that it is better if they do not talk. It makes them stay
away from their mothers.
The mothers have a bad experience in the past. Some of them were
difficult to meet their mothers; some of them could not meet their mothers. A
‘mother’ for the mothers has meaning as someone who is very precious, cannot be
reached easily, and had tried very hard for their life as the daughters. However,
the easy life in America makes the mothers do not have to try hard to fulfill their
daughters needs. They can live together easily; nobody will separate them as a
mother and a daughter. It makes the daughters can feel the “easiness”. The
daughters can get their moms’ hug anytime they want.
However, this “easiness” is not well appreciated by the daughters. The
different ways of talking, teaching the value of life, and any other “strange”
attitude from the mothers seem to be ‘disaster” for them. It is pity. Some of them
hope that they were not born from their own mom.
In other side, the mothers also do not try to change their mind and attitude.
They keep the culture strongly by teaching the daughters with Chinese culture.
They worry about many American things that actually not bad, but because they
cannot open their mind, these things seem bad. They cannot balance what their
daughters get in this new and modern country. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
57
Both of them keep their belief by themselves. The daughters do not know
how to deal with the mothers, and the reverse where it can actually be so simple.
The daughters should thank much because of the chance they have to be with their
mother anytime they want. They should learn to love and to accept their mothers
whoever their mothers are. They should aware that they are Chinese women who
have great chance to live in America. They should learn not to take all the
American values of life. They should take the good and leave the bad. They have
different customs and they are unique. The mothers and the daughters just have to
sit, be patient, and talk each other, heart-to-heart, as it should happen, between
mother and daughter and lets the miracles happen in their life. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter is divided into two parts; conclusions and suggestions. The
conclusions wrap up the answer of the formulated problem. The suggestions
consist of two parts, namely the suggestions for future researchers and the
suggestions for English teachers: the implementation of The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club to teach Intensive Reading II.
A. Conclusions
Based on the analysis in chapter four, there are two conclusions that can be
drawn. The first is the causes of the conflicts. The conflicts as seen in the novels
are caused by the individual differences, cultural differences, and social change.
The individual differences in these novels can be seen from different ways of
communication, resulting in conflicting attitudes. Communication is not always
easy between mothers and daughters. When the mothers think they are doing the
right things for their daughters, their actions are often perceived as wrong in the
daughters’ eyes.
The cultural differences come from the different cultural backgrounds that
exist between the mothers—who have been brought up in the Chinese culture—
and their daughters—who have been brought up in the American culture. The
differences become the source of the problems as they have completely different
58
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59
ways of thinking. This different way of thinking makes them unable to understand
each other.
The social change happens to the mothers in these novels. The mothers
who are Chinese but live in America keep their Chinese culture and do not try to
adapt themselves to the new culture—American—the culture of the country where
they live, while the daughters who are American-born and live in America, grow
up with American culture.
Then, there are four things that can influence someone’s behavior. The
first is the behavior and characteristics of American people. In this case, the
daughters do not understand their mothers’ behavior and characteristics while, the
mothers, who keep their Chinese culture strongly, do not try to adapt to the new
culture that affects their daughters’ behavior and characteristics. Their refusal to
adapt might be the result of their not understanding the behavior and
characteristics of American people.
The second is the social cognition (one’s thoughts, attitudes, and
inferences about other people around him/her). The mothers in these novels do not
try to understand the thoughts or attitudes of American people. They are aware of
American culture, but they do not adapt to it.
The third is an ecological variable. The mothers in these novels do not
realize where they live now and do not adapt to American circumstances. They
think that they live in China so that they behave as if they were in China.
The fourth is the sociocultural context in which a social behavior
occurs. In this case, the mothers cannot accept the American norms and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
60
regulations. Their intolerance of the American freedom leads to disagreement
with their daughters.
The second conclusion is about the cultural conflicts and the effects. The
cultural conflicts found in these novels are problems in the communication, which
gives result in creating conflicting attitudes. By using some theory of conflicts,
theory and reviews on the mother-daughter relationship and reviews on Chinese
culture, the cultural conflicts in the novels can be described. The different attitude
includes four things.
The first is being superstitious, where the mothers in these novels are so
superstitious because of the cultural beliefs they have. The daughters, who are
American-born, feel that their mother is strange and they cannot understand what
their mothers believe in. They think that their mothers are exaggerating. The
second is boasting habit, where the mothers usually boast what their daughters do.
It is just the way they reflect that they are proud of their daughters. However, this
“strange” attitude makes the daughters feel embarrassed and angry to the mothers.
The daughters are very disturbed by their mother’s attitude.
The third is conflicting response in marriage’s different perception, where
the daughters who live in America thinks that living together and marriage is
based on feeling. If they love the men, they could express it by living together or
marriage. However, the mothers, who were married with the help reference from
the matchmakers, feel that it is strange. Because there is not good communication
between them, they cannot understand why it should be this and that. The lack of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
61
good communication affects their relationship. The mothers and the daughters
have bad relationships.
The fourth is conflicting response in mother figure’s different perception.
The mothers have a difficult time with their mothers in the past. This experience
makes them appreciate their mother very much. However, in present condition,
the daughters live with their mothers. The daughters can get their moms’ hug
anytime they want. However, this “easiness” is not well appreciated by the
daughters. The different ways of talking, teaching the value of life, and any other
“strange” attitude from the mothers seem to be ‘disaster” for them. They are lack
appreciate their mothers. They do not use the chance they have to be close to their
mothers. The daughters do not know what they should do with the mothers, and
vice versa.
B. Suggestions
This part consists of two parts. The first part is suggestions for future
researchers. The second part is the suggestions for English teachers: the
implementation of The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club to teach
Intensive Reading II.
1. Suggestions for Future Researchers
The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club are two novels which
are very rich to be studied. Although some people have studied on these, there are
still many issues that can be studied from these two novels. For further studies, in PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
62
The Bonesetter’s Daughter, the problem of LuLing’s sickness (Dementia,
Alzheimer) is also interesting to be studied. Another topic which can be studied is
the unique characters of every mother and every daughter in The Joy Luck Club.
Amy Tan’s novels are very good and it can be very interesting to talk about the
issues inside them. To make it unique, future researchers can try to compare the
novels of Amy Tan’s or compare one of Amy Tan’s work with another work.
2. Suggestions for English Teachers: The Implementation of The
Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club to Teach Intensive
Reading II
Amy Tan has very good works and we can get so many values from the
novel she had written. For the implementation of literature in teaching, teachers
can teach reading comprehension, grammar (past tense and present tense),
vocabulary, by using parts of story from the novels she had written.
Here, I provide one of the parts of the story in The Joy Luck Club which
can be used as intensive reading material. That is the part when June is adult and
realizes what she had done in the past that makes her mother disappointed to her.
It is appropriate for students in college. It can be used as intensive reading II
material. The students in college have enough ability to interpret the ideas implied
in a passage. Meanwhile, the procedures are suggested as follow:
1. Students read quickly (skim) the reading material by themselves.
2. Students answer the question in part A (the main idea they get when
they skim the text). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
63
3. Students and teacher discuss the answer.
4. Students answer the comprehension questions given in part B (no.1-4).
5. Students and teacher discuss the answer.
6. Students listen to the explanation of the teacher about the story.
7. Students answer the comprehension question no.5 in pairs.
8. Students and teacher discuss the answer.
9. Students answer the vocabulary review (part C) in group of four.
10. Students and teacher discuss the answer.
11. Students make a short written response to the reading passage they
have read by answering the questions had given. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
64
REFERENCES
Anshen, Ruth Nanda. 1949. The Family: Its Function and Destiny. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company.
Baron, Robert and Donn Byrne. 1997. The Social Psychology 8th Ed. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Bloomfield, Frena. 1991. The Book of Chinese Beliefs. New York: Ballantine Books.
Culler, Jonathan. 1997. Literary Theory: a Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Datesman, Maryanne K., Joann Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny. 1984. American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Deutsch, Helena. 1973. The Psychology of Women Volume 11: a Psychoanalytic Interpretation. New York: Grune and Stratton, Inc.
During, Simon. 2005. Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge.
Gillin, John Lewis and John Philip Gillin. 1954. Cultural Sociology. New York: The Macmillan Company.
Harris, Marvin. 1999. Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times. CA: AltaMira Press.
Hsu, Francis L.K. 1948. Under the Ancestors’ Shadow (Chinese Culture and Personality). New York: Columbia University Press.
Kane, John J. 1954. Marriage and the Family. New York: The Dryden Press.
McClosky, Herbert and John Zaller. 1984. The American Ethos: Public Attitudes toward Capitalism and Democracy. New York: Harcaut, Brace and World, Inc.
Meyer, Milton W. 1978. China : An Introduction History. New York: Littlefield, Adams & Co. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
65
Nanquin, Susan and Evelin S. Rawski. 1987. Chinese Society the Eighteenth Century. Ann Harbor: Edwards Brothers, Inc.
Noller, Patricia and Mary Anne Fitzpatrick. 1993. Communication in Family Relationships. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Pretince, Deborah A. and Dale T. Miller. 1999. Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods. 1971. Reading and Writing about Literature. New York: Ramdom House, Inc.
Sirjamaki, John. 1953. The American Family in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Smith, Richard J. 1994. China’s Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty 1644 – 1912. Boulder: Westerview Press, Inc.
Tan, Amy. 2001. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group.
Tan, Amy. 1989. The Joy Luck Club. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group.
Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. 1956. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Source from the internet:
1. Nadeau, Frances A. 2001. The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Young Adult Fiction (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/winter95/Nadeau.html) accessed on March 23, 2010.
2. http://www.litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?catid=2&action=listcat
3. http://www.shmoop.com/joy-luck-club
4. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tan0bio-1 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
APPENDICES
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Appendix 1
Summary of Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter
The Bonesetter's Daughter, published in 200, was Amy Tan's fourth novel.
It consists of 403 pages. This novel deals with the relationship between an
American-born Chinese woman and her immigrant mother. The Bonesetter's
Daughter is divided into two major stories. One is the story of Ruth, an American-
born Chinese woman, a ghostwriter for self-help books, in a relationship with a
white man, stepmother to his two teenaged daughters, and finally, daughter of
LuLing, who Ruth fears is becoming demented. Ruth begins to realize what her
mother's memory loss means to both of them: for her mother, an increased need
for attention, for Ruth, disappearing stories that could help Ruth understand her
family and render a feeling that she is part of a larger story.
The second major story is that of LuLing, which Ruth discovers in the
form of documents LuLing had given her several years earlier, written in Chinese,
LuLing's attempt to hold on to fading memories of her life in China. This story
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within a story--LuLing's life in a village called Immortal Heart; the secrets passed
on by her nursemaid Precious Auntie (who, we learn, is also her mother); a cave
where bones are mined that may be the teeth of Peking Man; tales of ghosts and
curses--parallels in many ways the present-day issues confronting Ruth: an
inability to speak up to her partner and his two daughters; why she remains a
ghostwriter, without a voice of her own; an increasingly problematic and
confusing relationship with her mother.
Answers to both women's puzzles and problems unfold as LuLing's story is
translated in its entirety, providing answers through memory and words that could
not be spoken, only recorded. She told about her experiences and all things she
experienced in Chinese language. Ruth arranges to have the document translated
into English and learns the truth about her mother's life in China. World War II in
this novel split between the “then” of 1930s and 1940s China and the “now” of
1990s San Francisco.
Adapted from:
http://www.litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?catid=2&action=listcat PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Appendix 2
Summary of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989 as the first novel of Amy Tan,
consists of sixteen interlocking stories. It consists of 332 pages. It is about the
lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four American-born daughters.
The stories told in the novel revolve around the Joy Luck Club (mahjong games
group) women and their daughters. The novel opens after the death of Suyuan
Woo, an elderly Chinese woman and the founding member of the Joy Luck Club.
Suyuan has died without fulfilling her "long-cherished wish": to be reunited with
her twin daughters who were lost in China. Suyuan’s American-born daughter,
Jing-mei (June) Woo, is asked to replace her mother at the Joy Luck Club’s
meetings.
At the first meeting, Jing-mei learns that her long-lost half-sisters have
been found alive and well in China. The other three elderly members of the Club –
her mother’s best friends and Jing-mei’s "aunties" – give Jing-mei enough money 69
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70
to travel to China and meet her sisters. Essentially, Jing-mei has the opportunity to
fulfill her mother’s greatest wish. Jing-mei’s aunties assign her the task of telling
her twin sisters about the mother they never knew. The only problem is Jing-mei
feels like she never really knew her own mother.
This simple premise allows the book to cast a much wider net, as it raises
the question of how well daughters know their mothers. The other three members
of the Joy Luck Club – Ying-ying, Lindo, and An-mei – all have wisdom that they
wish to impart to their independent, American daughters. However, their
daughters – Lena, Waverly, and Rose – all have their own perspectives on life as
Americans. This gives the book a total of eight perspectives and life stories to
draw from. The novel is comprised of sixteen chapters, with each woman (with
the exception of Suyuan) getting two chapters with which to tell her story.
At the end of the book, Jing-mei flies to China to meet her half sisters. She
is extremely apprehensive about meeting them. When the sisters do meet for the
first time, they instantly hug and cry. Jing-mei’s mother’s wish has been fulfilled,
and through the process, Jing-mei feels that she has come closer to her mother.
Adapted from: http://www.shmoop.com/joy-luck-club PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Appendix 3
Biography of Amy Tan
Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California. Her family lived in several
communities in Northern California before settling in Santa Clara. Both of her
parents were Chinese immigrants.
Her father, John Tan, was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who
came to America to escape the turmoil of the Chinese Civil War. The harrowing
early life of her mother, Daisy, inspired Amy Tan's novel The Kitchen God's
Wife. In China, Daisy had divorced an abusive husband but lost custody of her
three daughters. She was forced to leave them behind when she escaped on the
last boat to leave Shanghai before the Communist takeover in 1949. Her marriage
to John Tan produced three children, Amy and her two brothers.
Tragedy struck the Tan family when Amy's father and oldest brother both
died of brain tumors within a year of each other. Mrs. Tan moved her surviving
children to Switzerland, where Amy finished high school, but by this time mother
and daughter were in constant conflict.
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Mother and daughter did not
speak for six months after Amy Tan
left the Baptist College her mother had
selected for Tan and decided to follow
Tan’s boyfriend to San Jose City
College. Tan further defied her mother
by abandoning the course her mother had urged and decided to pursue the study of
English and linguistics. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in these
fields at San Jose State University. In 1974, she and her boyfriend, Louis
DeMattei were married. They were later to settle in San Francisco.
DeMattei, an attorney, took up the practice of tax law, while Tan studied
for a doctorate in linguistics, first at the University of California at Santa Cruz,
later at Berkeley. By this time, she had developed an interest in the problems of
the developmentally disabled. She left the doctoral program in 1976 and took a
job as a language development consultant to the Alameda County Association for
Retarded Citizens and later directed a training project for developmentally
disabled children.
With a partner, she started a business writing firm,
providing speeches for salesmen and executives for large
corporations. After a dispute with her partner, who believed
she should give up writing to concentrate on the
management side of the business, she became a full-time
freelance writer. Among her business works, written under PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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non-Chinese-sounding pseudonyms, were a 26-chapter booklet called
"Telecommunications and You," produced for IBM.
Amy Tan prospered as a business writer. After a few years in business for
herself, she had saved enough money to buy a house for her mother. She and her
husband lived well on their double income, but the harder Tan worked at her
business, the more dissatisfied she became. The work had become a compulsive
habit and she sought relief in creative efforts. She studied jazz piano, hoping to
channel the musical training forced on her by her parents in childhood into a more
personal expression. She also began to write fiction.
Her first story "Endgame," won her
admission to the Squaw Valley writer's workshop
taught by novelist Oakley Hall. The story appeared
in FM, literary magazine, and was reprinted in
Seventeen. A literary agent, Sandra Dijkstra, was
impressed enough with Tan's second story "Waiting
between the Trees," to take her on as a client. Dijkstra encouraged Tan to
complete an entire volume of stories.
Just as she was embarking on this new career,
Tan's mother fell ill. Amy Tan promised herself that if her
mother recovered, she would take her to China, to see the
daughter who had been left behind almost forty years
before. Mrs. Tan regained her health and mother and
daughter departed for China in 1987. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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The trip was a revelation for Tan. It gave her a new perspective on her
often-difficult relationship with her mother, and inspired her to complete the book
of stories she had promised her agent.
On the basis of the completed chapters and a synopsis of the others,
Dijkstra found a publisher for the book, now called The Joy Luck Club. With a
$50,000 advance from G.P. Putnam's Sons, Tan quit business writing and finished
her book in a little more than four months.
Upon its publication in 1989, Tan's book won enthusiastic reviews and
spent eight months on the New York Times best-seller list. Paperback rights sold
for $1.23 million. The book has been translated in 17 languages, including
Chinese. Her subsequent novel, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) confirmed her
reputation and enjoyed excellent sales. Since then Amy Tan has published two
books for children, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat and two novels
The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) and The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001). The
Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, appeared in 2003.
Adapted from: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tan0bio-1 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Appendix 4
Lesson Plan
School : Sanata Dharma University Course : Intensive Reading II Meeting : 5 Skills / Topic : Reading / Narrative Time allocation : 2 x 50’
Standard competence : The students are able to understand the content of the reading passage.
Basic competence : The students are able to interpret the idea implied in the narrative reading passage.
Indicators : 1. Students are able to identify the main idea of narrative reading passage. 2. Students are able to interpret the idea implied in a narrative reading passage. 3. Students are able to identify the meaning of vocabulary as stated in the narrative reading passage. 4. Students are able to state their opinion on the issue in a narrative reading passage in written form.
Learning Objectives : 1. Students are able to comprehend various kinds of texts to develop literal and inferential comprehension. 2. Students are able to develop basic reading skills: previewing, skimming, scanning, identifying main ideas, paraphrasing, summarizing. 3. Students are able to develop English vocabulary. 4. Students are able to write simple responses to the ideas or issues presented in the texts.
Learning material Narrative text in a part of story from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club novel
Learning method Exercises (individual work, pair work, group work), explanation, discussion
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Teaching learning activities
No. Activity Time allocation Method 1. Pre activity Pray 1’ Greeting 2’ Question-Answer Introduce the main topic and the relevant 5’ Question-Answer to the previous class
2. Whilst Activity Students read quickly (skim) the reading 5’ Exercise/Individu material by themselves al work Students answer the question in part A 5’ Exercise/ Individual work Students and teacher discuss the answer 5’ Discussion Students answer the questions given in 8’ Exercise/Individu part B (no.1-4) al work Students and teacher discuss the answer 8’ Discussion Students listen to the explanation of the 8’ Explanation teacher about the story Students answer the question no.5 in pair 8’ Exercise/Pair work Students and teacher discuss the answer 8’ Discussion Students answer the vocabulary review 8’ Exercise/Group (part C) in group of four work Students and teacher discuss the answer 8’ Discussion Students make a short written response to 5’ Exercise/ the reading passage they had read Individual work
3. Post activity Review 5’ Question-Answer Closing 2’ Question-Answer Pray 1’
Total 100’
Learning Source and Media Source : a part of story from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club novel
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Appendix 5
Reading Material
The Joy Luck Club
By: Amy Tan
It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that
followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to
fall short of expectations. I didn’t get straight As. I didn’t become class president.
I didn’t get into Stanford. I dropped out of college. For unlike my mother, I did
not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could be me.
And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unspeakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope? For after our struggle at the piano, she never mentioned my playing again. The lessons stopped. The lid to the piano was closed, shutting out the dust, my misery, and her dreams. So she surprised me. A few years ago, she offered to give me the piano, for my thirtieth birthday. I had not played in all those years. I saw the offer as a sign of forgiveness, a tremendous burden removed. “Are you sure?” I asked shyly. “I mean, won’t you and Dad miss it?” “No, this is your piano,” she said firmly. “Always your piano. You only can play.” “Well, I probably can’t play anymore,” I said. “It’s been years.” “You pick up fast,” said my mother, as if she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You could been genius if you want to.” “No, I couldn’t.” 77
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“You just not trying,” said my mother. And she was neither angry nor sad. She said it as if to announce a fact that could never be disproved. “Take it,” she said. But I didn’t at first. It was enough that she had offered it to me. And after that, every time I saw it in my parents’ living room, standing in front of the bay windows, it made me feel proud, as if it were shiny trophy I had won back.
-o-
Last week I sent a tuner over to my parents’ apartment and had a piano reconditioned, for purely sentimental reasons. My mother had died a few months before and I had been getting things in order for my father, a little bit at a home. I put the jewelry in special silk pouches. The sweaters she had knitted in yellow, pink, bright orange—all the colors I hated—I put those in moth-proof boxes. I found some old Chinese silk dresses, the kind with little slits up the sides. I rubbed the old silk against my skin, then wrapped them in tissue and decided to take them home with me. After I had the piano tuned, I opened the lid and touched the keys. It sounded even richer than I remembered. Really, it was a very good piano. Inside the bench were the same exercise notes with handwritten scales, the same secondhand music books with their covers held together with yellow tape. I opened up the Schumann book to the dark little piece I had played at the recital. It was on the left-hand side of the page, “Pleading Child.” It looked more difficult than I remembered. I played a few bars, surprised at how easily the notes came back to me. And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called “Perfectly Contented.” I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. “Pleading Child” was shorter but slower; “Perfectly Contented” was longer but faster. And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song. (TJLC 153 – 155) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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EXERCISES A. Skim the text and state the main idea of the story. ______
B. After reading the story above, answer the following questions. Write your answers on the space provided below. 1. What had June (the first person narrator) done that made her mother disappointed with her? 2. Why did June never talk to her mother about the disaster at the recital? 3. Did June’s mother feel angry of her because of what she had done in the past? Why? 4. Do you think June could play piano? What is your reason? 5. Discuss the possible meaning of the two songs June mentioned at the end: “Pleading Child” and “Perfectly Contented”.
Answers 1. ______2. ______3. ______PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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______4. ______5. ______
C. Match the words below and the meaning as used in the story. 1. Disappointment _____ 2. Assert _____ 3. Disaster _____ 4. Recital _____ 5. Accusation _____ 6. Betrayal _____ 7. Inevitable _____ 8. Struggle _____ 9. Dust _____ 10. Misery _____ 11. Hope _____ 12. Tremendous _____ 13. Burden _____ 14. Pick up _____ 15. Secondhand _____
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a. State a fact or belief confidently or forcefully b. The performance of a program music by soloist or small group c. People act intentionally reveal d. Strive under difficult circumstances to do something e. Great physical or mental distress or discomfort f. Very great in amount, scale, or intensity g. Obtain, acquire, or learn something h. Having had a previous owner, not new i. A heavy load j. A feeling of expectation and desire; a feeling of trust k. A dead person’s remains l. Certain to happen, unavoidable m. A charge or claim that someone has done something illegal or wrong n. An event or fact leading to ruin or failure o. Sadness or displeasure caused by the non-fulfillment of one’s hope or expectations PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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D. WRITTEN RESPONSE
Write Your Response or
Comment on the Story
above Here… ^__~
Do you like the story? Why?
What do you think about June?
What do you think about June’s mother?