Analysis of Theme Through Conflicts in Maxine H.Kingston's 'The Woman Warrior' and Frank Chin's 'Donald Duk' Using A Sociological Approach.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini, penulis membahas konflik yang dapat ditemukan dalam novel karya Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior, dan Frank Chin, Donald Duk. Konflik yang akan dibahas terdiri dari dua jenis, yaitu konflik sosial dan konflik batin. Dari konflik-konflik yang ada, penulis hendak menarik sebuah tema untuk masing-masing novel dengan menggunakan pendekatan sosiologis.

Setelah membaca dan menganalisis kedua novel tersebut, penulis mendapati bahwa topik yang diangkat ke dalam novel tersebut sangatlah menarik, yaitu tentang perbenturan budaya dan pencarian identitas. Topik-topik tersebut adalah permasalahan yang biasa dialami oleh orang-orang yang memiliki lebih dari satu latar belakang budaya.

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APPENDICES

Summary of The Woman Warrior

The story is a memoir about Kingston herself as a Chinese-American. It is divided into five stories. The first story is her description of the suicide of her aunt after giving birth to an illegitimate child and how she is forbidden to speak about it to anyone by her mother.

The second one is the writer’s retelling her childhood. She also imagines

herself as Fa Mulan, a legendary woman who overthrows the corrupt government. The third story describes Kingston’s mother’s experience in Chinese

medical school and her physical and mental battles with spirits and ghosts.

In the fourth story, Kingston’s mother, Brave Orchid, brings her sister,

Moon Orchid, to America. Brave Orchid forces her to meet her husband, who works as a doctor and remarries an American woman. Unfortunately, the result of her coming is disappointing. He rejects Moon Orchid and she becomes mentally-ill later on.

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story ends with a story of Ts’ai Yen, a Chinese poetess born in A.D. 175, who has

to learn to sing in a foreign tongue.

Summary of Donald Duk

The novel takes place in Chinatown in California. Donald Duk is a twelve-year-old Chinese-American boy who is in trouble finding the balance between accepting the American lifestyle and incorporating his Chinese heritage. His family oppresses the American culture while Donald Duk wants to be truly American without being influenced by his Chinese heritage. He is ashamed of the name his father has given him. Donald hates the Chinese culture in his family and thinks it boring, stupid, and embarrassing. Arnold Azalea, Donald’s best friend, is welcomed by the Duks to celebrate the Chinese New Year. He finds his best friend’s culture amusing and is confused of Donald’s being ashamed of his

culture.

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34 Biography of Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior. She was born on October 27, 1940 and raised in Stockton, California. Kingston was the third of six children. Her father was a laundry worker and a gambling house owner, called Tom Hong, and her mother, Ying Lang Hong, was a midwife trained at the To Keung School of Midwifery in Canton.

Kingston graduated from the University of California at Berkeley majoring in English Literature in 1962, and got a teaching certificate. In September 2005, she was honored as a 175th Speaker Series writer at Emma Willard School. She is a Chinese-American novelist whose works often reflect her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. Some of her notable works are The Woman Warrior (1976), China Men (1980), and The Tripmaster Monkey (1989). She now lives in Oakland together with her husband, actor Earll Kingston, and her son, Joseph Lawrence Chung Mei.

(“Maxine Hong Kingston”)

Biography of Frank Chin

Frank Chin is a Chinese-American playwright and novelist. He was born on February 25, 1940, in Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired Vaudeville couple in Placerville, California. At six years old, his mother brought him back to the San Francisco Bay Area to live in Oakland Chinatown. Chin attended college at the University of California, Berkeley.

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are Year of the Dragon (1974), Aiiieeeee! (1974), and Donald Duk (1991). He received an American Book Award in 1989 for a collection of short stories, and Lifetime Achievement in 2000. He now lives in Los Angeles, California.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Cultural clash is “[when] one or more cultures are integrated into one environment, causing disruption and challenging contemporary traditions” (Urban Dictionary). It is common in a multi cultural society, such as The United States of America. Many people from all over the world, such as European and Asian people, come to live in America. The European immigration began in the early 18th century while the Chinese immigration began in the middle of the 19th century. America has become their new home. Since then the immigrants found many hardships during their civilization; one of the examples was hardship to assimilate with the American culture. It became more difficult for Chinese people, because their culture was very different from the American culture. Thus, the immigrants experienced a cultural clash.

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Maranatha Christian University there are only two Chinese-American writers whose works are going to be analysed in this thesis. They are Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin.

Maxine Hong Kingston is a 20th-century Chinese-American writer whose works are highly acclaimed as masterpieces. Some of her notable works are The Woman Warrior and Tripmaster Monkey. Though her works are accepted, “she receives a great deal of criticism, especially from the Chinese American community” (“Maxine Hong Kingston”).

Frank Chin is also a 20th-Century Chinese-American writer. Besides, he works as a playwright who is considered to be one of the pioneers in Asian-American theatres. Some of his notable works are Year of the Dragon, Aiiieeeee!, and Donald Duk. He received an American Book Award in 1989 for a collection of short stories entitled The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co., and Lifetime Achievement in 2000 (“Frank Chin”). Since both of the authors are

Chinese-American, I find it interesting to analyse their works.

The works of Kingston and Frank Chin which are going to be analysed in my thesis are The Woman Warrior and Donald Duk. The two novels share the idea of a cultural clash. Kingston’s novel, The Woman Warrior, tells about an anonymous Chinese-American protagonist who experiences conflicts as an immigrant in America. As a result of the cultural clash, she finds it difficult to recognize her true identity. The topic of Chin’s novel, Donald Duk, is about the

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Maranatha Christian University The conflicts found in both of the novels are significant because it is possible to find them in real life. A conflict means “the opposition between two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist), between two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on” (Shaw 91). There are three types of conflicts. They are physical conflicts, inner conflicts, and social conflicts. “Physical conflict

is a struggle between man and the physical world, inner conflict is a struggle between desires within a person [and] social conflict is a struggle between man and man” (Shaw 91-92). They can be used as a means to reveal the theme of the novel. Theme is “whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals” (Kennedy and Gioia 195). Thus, I would like to analyse the theme of the two novels through conflicts, which are the inner and social conflicts experienced by the protagonists.

Considering that the two novels talk about immigrants, cultural clash, and the concept of identity, I believe it would be best to analyse the theme by using the sociological approach for it deals with self and society. A sociological approach “examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in

which it is written or received” (“Critical Approaches to Literature”).

Statement of the Problem

The problems that I will discuss in my thesis are: 1. What is the theme of each novel?

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Maranatha Christian University Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

1. To reveal the themes of the two novels.

2. To show how the conflicts help revealing the themes.

Method of Research

The method of research that I use in this project is library research. First of all, I read the two novels which are going to be analysed. It is then followed by browsing more information in the Internet to support the analysis. For further understanding, I also read text books and search for literary criticism. Finally, I draw a conclusion of what has been discussed.

Organization of the Thesis

The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the analysis of the theme of The Woman Warrior, followed by Chapter Three, which is the analysis of the theme of Donald Duk. The last chapter, Chapter Four, is the conclusion of what has been discussed in the previous two chapters. The Bibliography and the Appendices will be given at the end of the thesis.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analysing the conflicts in The Woman Warrior and Donald Duk in the previous chapters, I would like to draw some conclusions. In my opinion, both of the novels share the issue of a cultural clash and an identity. The cultural clash appears to create conflicts to the two protagonists since they are Chinese descendants who are influenced by the American culture.

In The Woman Warrior, the theme of the novel is revealed through both the social and inner conflicts experienced by the protagonist. All of the social conflicts in this novel happen between the protagonist and her mother, Brave Orchid. The first conflict happens when the protagonist refuses to go to the drugstore to get what is called a reparation candy. The second one is about the protagonist’s logics, which influences her to express her disagreement to her mother’s cutting the protagonist’s tongue. The last one happens when the

protagonist refuses her mother’s interference in choosing her life choice.

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Maranatha Christian University There are also three inner conflicts found in the novel. The first one happens when the protagonist, who considers herself an American, is unable to confront her boss directly for calling her nigger yellow. The second one happens when the protagonist adopts the American value of competition to gain pride; however, as a female Chinese descendant, she is taught to be uncompetitive. The last inner conflict experienced by the protagonist happens when she feels reluctant to send her money to the relatives in China because of being an individualist; however, she is a Chinese descendant who is supposed to be a collectivist.

Most of the conflicts happen because of the issue of a cultural clash. From the conflicts that I analyse, I find that it is difficult for the protagonist to define her own identity. Having two cultural backgrounds, she cannot identify herself whether she is an American or a Chinese. When she tries to be an American, she is forced to accept that she is a Chinese descendant along with its culture and vice versa. Thus, I conclude that the theme of the novel is cultural clash may hamper someone in identifying his/her identity.

In Donald Duk, the theme is also revealed through the social and inner conflicts. The social conflicts in this novel mostly happen between Donald and his father, King Duk. The first one happens between Donald and King Duk when Donald refuses his father’s order to accompany Arnold running inside the dragon.

The other one happens between Donald and X. This conflict is caused by Donald’s disagreement with X’s opinion towards his father kissing up Arnold’s

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Maranatha Christian University conflict, again, happens between Donald and his father when Donald wants everyone to be more American than Chinese since they live in America.

From the social conflicts, it is seen that Donald considers himself an American. Therefore, he struggles to ignore his Chinese culture in order to be a fully American, which leads him to experience some social conflicts with the Chinese people around him. However, it will be proven in his inner conflict that he cannot choose to be fully American since he is also a Chinese descendant.

Donald’s inner conflict also leads him to experience another issue of a

cultural clash. This happens because he is made to believe by his history teacher that the Chinese are passive, non-competitive, and nonassertive. Later on, he knows from his dream that the Chinese stereotypes set by the American community are incorrect. Thus, he expresses his disagreement towards the negative Chinese stereotype to his teacher. By accepting that he is part of the Chinese community and confronting the teacher directly, he proves that he embraces both of his cultural backgrounds. Therefore, I conclude that the theme of this novel that a cultural clash makes it impossible for one with two different cultural backgrounds to choose only one identity.

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Maranatha Christian University the two novels is both of the protagonists have conflicts with their parents because the parents are dominantly influenced by the Chinese culture, while the protagonists are more influenced by the American culture.

Apart from the similarities of the conflicts from these two novels, there is a difference that I have found. The protagonist in the first novel is still confused whether she is an American or a Chinese since she can be easily influenced by both of the cultures, while Donald has firmly chosen to be an American. However, he is unable to be fully an American.

After reading and analysing the novels, I find something valuable that I can learn. In my opinion, people who have more than one cultural background, such as the protagonist of The Woman Warrior, will find difficulties in choosing their identity. They will always be confused whether to be, in this case, a Chinese or an American. However, in Donald Duk, it is proven that there is no possibility for one to choose only one identity, which means that they should embrace all their cultural backgrounds to figure out who they really are. This makes both of the novels complete each other.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary texts:

Chin, Frank. Donald Duk. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1997.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, INC, 1976

References:

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“Cultural Clash.” Urban Dictionary: culture clash. 1999-2010. 26 April 2010.

<http: //www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=culture clash> “Critical Approaches to Literature.” Critical Approaches to Literature – Engl

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Datesman, Maryanne Kearny, JoAnn Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny. The American Ways. New York: PRENTICE HALL REGENTS. 1997.

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< http://chinahopelive.net/2008/11/05/a-kiss-up-kick-down-society> Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and

Drama. New York: Longman. 2002.

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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston> Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill,

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