Portrayal of Major Characters in Amy Tan's 'The Bonesetter's Daughter'.

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Universitas Kristen Maranatha

ABSTRACT

Tugas Akhir dengan judul “Potrayal of Major characters in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter” ini ditulis untuk memenuhi persyaratan kelulusan dari program S-1 jurusan Sastra Inggris di Fakultas Sastra Kraisten Maranatha.

Di dalam The Bonestter’s Daughter dikisahkan tentang tiga wanita dari generasi yang berbeda, yaitu nenek yang bernama Precious Auntie, anak perempuannya yang bernama LuLing, dan cucu perempuannya yang bernama Ruth. Hal tersebut menyebabkan novel ini menarik untuk dibaca. Novel ini banyak membahas tentang perbedaan pendapat, pandangan, pola pikir, perilaku dan kepribadian mereka.

Saya akan membahas tentang tokoh-tokoh utama dalam novel ini. Generasi pertama adalah Precious Auntie. Precious Auntie lahir dan dibesarkan di China. Precious Aunite masih menganut kepercayaan China. Ia sangat mempercayai kutukan-kutukan, hantu, dan sebagainya. Precious Auntie mempunyai seorang anak perempuan yang bernama LuLing.

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APPENDICES

SYNOPSIS

Precious Auntie is the daughter of a great Bonesetter. Her family collects the bones with high quality and they help other people with their broken bones. Precious Auntie loves Baby Uncle. They decide to get married. But before they get married, they do a premarital sex in an old barn. Unfortunately on the day of Precious Auntie and Baby Uncle get married, an opium seller, namely Chang who also loves Precious Auntie kills Precious Auntie’s father. Chang also kills Baby Uncle.

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burned so people do not recognize her face again. Eventually, Baby Uncle’s mother keeps Precious Auntie as LuLing’s nanny because she is afraid that Baby Uncle’s Ghost exists in her dream and tells her not to hurt Precious Auntie.

LuLing actually is Precious Auntie’s daughter but Big Uncle, Baby Uncle’s brother and his wife have adopted LuLing since LuLing was a baby. LuLing is going to get married with the son of Chang’s family. But Precious Auntie does not agree with it. She tells LuLing not to marry Chang’s son. But LuLing disobeys Precious Auntie’s advice. It causes Precious Auntie to commit suicide and die. Then, LuLing does not marry Chang’s son because Big Uncle’s business in Beijing is burned.

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BIOGRAPHY

Amy Tan was born on February 19th, 1952, in Oakland, California. After her father, John Tan, and her older brother died, Amy, her mother, and her younger brother moved to Europe.

She met her boyfriend, named Lou De Matei in Mc Minville, Oregon. They were married in 1974. She received a bachelor’s degree in English and Linguistics in San Jose City College; San Jose State University. She studied jazz piano. She also began to write fiction. Her first book is named “Endgame”. This book made her won her admission to the Squaw Valley writer’s workshop. At 1989, Tan’s book won enthusiastic reviews. It spent eight months on the New York Times best-seller list.

She wrote The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secrets Senses, and two children books, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat. She was a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club. As well, her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She also wrote The Bonesetter’s Daughte r (2001), The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings (2003), her latest fabulous work.

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Tan became even more rebellious, dating a German who was associated with drug dealers and had serious mental problems. Then Amy went with her boyfriend back to California where she attended San Jose City College as an English and linguistics major. Tan’s mother did not speak to her for six months after her last rebellion.

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Universitas Kristen Maranatha 1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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Among many of Amy Tan’s books, I am going to analyze The Bonesetter’s Da ughter. It tells about mother-daughter relationship. They are raised in different countries which have different culture. The situation makes this novel interesting.

I choose the portrayal of major characters to be analyzed. The reason why I choose the portrayal of major characters to be analyzed is because the major characters in this novel have interesting cultural background. The major characters of this novel also have a complex past. ‘A character is obviously relevant to us and to our experience if he is like ourselves or like others whom we know. Lifeness, then, is properly understood as one form of relevance. A character is relevant if there are a lot of people like him in real world.’ (Kenney, 1966: 27).

THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In doing the thesis, I would like to state the problems as follows:

1. How does the author portray the major characters in The Bonesetter’s Daughter?

2. _{What is the author’s purpose in creating such major characters?}

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

In relevance with the statement of the problem, I would like:

1. To show the way the author portrays the major characters in The Bonesetter’s Daughter .

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

The method of research used is library research. First of all, I begin by reading Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter . I also read some books which are relevant to the topic being discussed. Then I look for some information from the internet to support this research. Finally I use the data for analysis from which I draw conclusion.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed The Bonesetter’s Daughter, I conclude that Amy Tan succeeds in portraying her major characters. The conclusion that I can take is every mother always loves her daughters, but sometimes they are reluctant to listen to their daughter’s opinion. Therefore, it causes problem to the mothers. The mothers should respect the daughters’s point of view and opinion, so they can understand each other. That is the important key which is needed to maintain a good relationship between mother and daughter.

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If the woman’s feet are not small, usually she is a slave girl or a foreigner. Precious Auntie has a strong Chinese culture. She always wants to know about her daughter’s private life. Like other Chinese people who always want to know their children’s private lives, unlike American people who give freedom to their children. Precious Auntie is also a loving and caring mother. Therefore, she always wants to regulate her daughter’s life. That is one of Chinese people’s habits. Moreover, Precious Auntie’s regulations and lavish love has made her daughter become a spoiled girl and can not do anything by herself because she depends on her mother to do anything. She also believes in superstition things. She believes in ghost and curses. Precious Auntie has a daughter, LuLing, without getting married. Therefore, she opposes to Chinese culture which having sex before getting married.

The second major character is LuLing. She is the daughter of Precious Auntie. LuLing is a smart woman. She is good at Chinese and English calligraphy. Not everyone is able to do it. However, she does not want to learn English language although it is important to her. Therefore, she depends on Ruth to become her translator. She is also smart in facing Japanese soldier when she wants to go to Peking. LuLing likes to communicate with her mother’s dead spirit. She believes that if she follows what her mother’s dead spirit says, she might not have been cursed or got a bad luck. I also see that LuLing cannot control her desires to make love before getting married with her boyfriend. Yet, it does not happen.

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Ruth, the third major character believes that she has a right to have freedom. She wants to live like other American people. She also does not want to get married although her Chinese culture is against it. She feels that she is an American and she does not need to follow her Chinese culture.

I also see that the author wants to show that the American-born daughters are unsure to follow their Chinese background, for the reason that there are lots of illogical regulations. Moreover, Chinese mothers are afraid that their daughters will forget their Chinese culture. The mothers do not want the Chinese tradition to disappear. They hope that although their daughters think like Americans yet they will still believe in Chinese culture. Moreover, I think that Tan wants the American-born daughters to learn and know Chinese tradition in order to understand their mothers’ well.

I also see that Tan’s purpose in writing this novel is that she wants the American-born daughters to be given a little bit of freedom to express themselves as free individuals by their mothers.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References:

Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of literary Terms. London: Penguin Books, 1882

Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1982

Internet Website:

Delese, Wear. Tan. Amy: The Bonesetter’s Daughter. 1 May 2005

(http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdescrips/tan11870-des-html)

(http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=the+one-child+policy)

(http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/searchdetail.aspx?q=custom+of+china

&pg=1&grp=art)

(http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=holiday+and+celebrati

ons&Submit2=Go)

Primary Text

Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. United States of America: The Balantine

Portrayal of Major Characters in Amy Tan's 'The Bonesetter's Daughter'.

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE………i

TABLE OF CONTENTS………...ii

ABSTRACT………...iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO: DISCUSSION IN POTRAYAL OF

MAJOR CHARACTERS IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESTTER’S

DAUGHTER………..…..4

CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION………15

BIBILIOGRAPHY……….18

APPENDICES: