Analysis of Portrayal of The Protagonist in Frank Chin's 'Donald Duk'.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini saya menganalisa penggambaran tokoh

utama dalam Donald Duk karya Frank Chin.

Tokoh utama dalam Donald Duk adalah Donald Duk, seorang anak

Amerika keturunan Cina. Dia lahir dan dibesarkan di Amerika. Oleh karena itu,

dia lebih merasa dirinya orang Amerika bukan Cina. Saat dia merasa dirinya

orang Amerika dia digambarkan sangat sombong. Dia membanding-bandingkan

dirinya dengan orang Cina dan meremehkan mereka. Ternyata kesombongannya

itu disebabkan oleh ketidaktahuannya terhadap sejarah dan budaya Cina. Ini juga

menyebabkan dia berpikiran sempit terhadap orang Cina. Pada masa Tahun Baru

Cina, dia selalu bermimpi tentang orang Cina. Dia menjadi ingin tahu dan mencari

informasi tentang mimpinya. Akhirnya dia mendapatkan bahwa mimpinya adalah

tentang sejarah orang Cina pertama yang datang ke Amerika. Di dalam mimpinya

juga digambarkan perilaku orang Cina. Pikirannya menjadi terbuka terhadap

sejarah dan orang-orang Cina. Dia menganggap dirinya bagian dari orang Cina.

Dari novel ini, Chin ingin memberitahukan kepada para pembaca untuk

lebih mengenal tentang sejarah nenek moyang mereka. Karena dengan begitu,

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APPENDICES

Synopsis Of Donald Duk

Donald Duk is a Chinese American boy who was born in America. He hates

his own name, Donald Duk, which sounds like a cartoon movie character Donald

Duck, which makes kids around him mock him. In school his history teacher

explains that Chinese is passive, not competitive and chicken when they first

come to America. This condition makes him hate everything about Chinese and

does not want to be like Chinese. He prefers being an American than Chinese.

In his house, there are so many models of airplanes that are built by his

father and sisters. His father says that he will fly and burn it all. Donald gets

shocked when he hears it. Then one night before Chinese New Year, he silently

takes one of his father’s airplanes then burns it. His uncle knows his action, and

then his uncle tells him about the model airplane that he burns and his

great-great-grandfather who worked at the railroad.

Since then, Donald dreams about railroads. He dreams that he meets Kwan

Kung, foreman of railroad, and Crocker, the owner of the railroad. He joins them

in doing the railroad. At first when he dreams, he does not understand about it

because it is all about Chinese people and culture. Every night when he sleeps,

that dream always comes to him. It makes him feel curious about the railroad.

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are the truth about first Chinese people in America. Later, he realizes how great it

is to be Chinese and considers himself part of Chinese people. He starts to open

himself to Chinese culture.

Biography Of Frank Chin

Frank Chin is an Asian-American playwright and novelist who was born in

Berkeley, California, on February 25, 1940. He was raised by a pensionary couple

in Placerville, California At the age of six, his mother brought him back to San

Francisco and lived in Oakland Chinatown. Chin was educated in University of

California in Berkeley, the State University of Iowa, and the University of

California in Santa Barbara.

Chin’s works deal with the stereotypes of Asian American and traditional

Chinese folklore. The Chickencoop Chinaman (1971) was his first play that is

performed on the American Place Theatre in New York. Another works by Chin

such as The Year of the Dragon (1974), Donald Duk (1991), Gunga Din Highway

(1994) and Born in the USA (2002).

Apart from being a novelist and playwright, Chin was also active in the

Civil Rights movement, African American arts movement and took part in the

treatment of Japanese during World War II. In 1989, Chin received an American

Book Award because of a collection of short stories and in 2000 he got Lifetime

Achievement Award. At present, he lives in Los Angeles, California.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

History “tells us about the people, places and events of the past, arranged in

chronological order. It tells us about our ancestors - their lifestyles, occupations,

customs and traditions, religious beliefs, social and political systems and cultural

patterns. It also tells us about their problems, aspirations as well as their

achievements” (“What is the meaning of history?”). Thus, it is important for one

to learn things about one’s ancestor in order to know about one’s identity. Identity

is “people’s concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how

they relate to others” (Fearon).

Donald Duk, a novel written by Frank Chin, deals with a twelve-year old

protagonist who does not know about his Chinese ancestors so that he considers

himself American. The author Frank Chin is a popular 20th century

Chinese-American novelist who “deal[s] with the stereotypes of Asian Chinese-American and

traditional Chinese folklore” (“Frank Chin”). He “has played an important role in

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Maranatha Christian University had received “a number of awards and fellowships throughout his career” (“Chin,

Frank-Introduction”).

In Donald Duk, Chin creates “a deeply thoughtful and complex protagonist

of Donald Duk” (Shirley). The protagonist, Donald Duk firstly prefers being an

American than Chinese. Later, when he finds the truth about Chinese people, he

considers himself part of Chinese. Thus, in my thesis, I have chosen to discuss the

portrayal of the leading character in the novel. Character is defined as “an

imagined person who inhabits a story” (Kennedy 45). “In almost any literary

work, several characters receive the main focus. Accordingly, they are considered

the leading characters or protagonists” (Irmscher 24). So in this thesis, I will

analyze the characteristics of the protagonist in Donald Duk and the purpose of

the author in creating such a character.

Statement of the Problem

The problems I am going to analyze are:

1. How is the protagonist in the novel portrayed?

2. What is the purpose of the author in creating such a character?

Purpose of the Study This study is done:

1. To show how the protagonist is portrayed in the novel.

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Maranatha Christian University Method of Research

In order to help me analyze the novel, I use library research by first reading Chin’s Donald Duk as the primary text. I also read and compile some

texts that are taken from books and the Internet. The information and the

knowledge that have been gathered are then used to support my analysis. Finally,

I draw a conclusion from the research I have conducted.

Organization of the Thesis

I will divide my thesis into three chapters, preceded by the

Acknowledgements, the Table of Contents and the Abstract. Chapter one is the

Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the

Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research and the Organization

of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the Analysis of Portrayal of the Protagonist in Frank

Chin’s Donald Duk. The last chapter is the Conclusion. The thesis ends with the

Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the Synopsis of the Novel and

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having analyzed Frank Chin’s novel entitled Donald Duk, I would like to

draw some conclusions. The protagonist in the novel namely Donald Duk is a

Chinese-American boy. He was born and lives in America, which makes him feel

as an American not a Chinese although he is of Chinese descent. He does not like

everything about Chinese. He does not speak Chinese, either. It is all because

Chinese people is stereotyped as inferior in America. However, later changes

occur; he considers himself as part of Chinese, because during Chinese New Year,

he has continuous dreams about the first Chinese people in America. The dreams

seem so real to him because they come to him every night in Chinese New Year.

This causes curiosity in him and then he searches the library for what he has

dreamt of and asks some people about Chinese heroes whom he meets in his

dreams. Apparently, his dreams are telling the truth about Chinese people in

America. This makes him realize and change his perception about Chinese people.

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Maranatha Christian University In this novel, Donald is portrayed as an arrogant boy who is proud of

himself as an American. He feels himself smarter than Chinese people and

underestimates them. His arrogance makes him ignore everything about Chinese

and he becomes an ignorant boy who knows nothing about Chinese history,

culture and people. His ignorance of everything about Chinese leads him to

become a narrow-minded boy who has limited view of Chinese culture and

people. All of his characteristics change when he is having continuous dreams

about the first Chinese people in America. These dreams make him become

curious. He searches and searches about the things in his dreams. Then, he finds

that his dreams are telling the truth about Chinese history and people. This

searching makes him become broad-minded as he then knows that the stereotype

of Chinese as inferior is not true. Finally, he considers himself part of Chinese

people.

From all the above characteristics, I can see that Donald is portrayed as a

round and dynamic character. He is portrayed as an arrogant, ignorant and

narrow-minded boy, who later becomes a curious and broad-minded one. Frank

Chin, the author of this novel, of course has his purpose in portraying Donald in

such a way. Donald, who firstly feels himself as American and does not want to

consider himself Chinese, finally considers himself part of Chinese after he

dreams of some facts in Chinese history which tell him the truth about the first

Chinese people in America. It is seen clearly that the changing characteristics of

Donald are triggered by his dreams of Chinese history. Frank Chin makes use of

Chinese history in Donald’s dreams in order to make him realize the truth about

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Maranatha Christian University Chinese-Americans, become aware of their own history in order to understand

their true identity.

After analyzing the novel, I can see how skillful Chin is in writing his novel.

This Donald Duk is a Chinese-American novel and it has a lot of Chinese terms.

However, Chin writes it all in details: he explains all the Chinese terms in order

not to make the readers confused. He wants his readers to understand clearly what

is in the novel. The way he makes his protagonist change is unique. He uses

dreams. The dreams about Chinese history make his protagonist change his

perception of Chinese and of course his characteristic.

I can also learn something from Chin’s novel Donald Duk. Firstly, I learn

more about Chinese terms, culture and history, which Chin describes in details.

The detailed information can enrich my knowledge about Chinese people and

culture. Secondly, Chin has made me realize that I have to be aware of the fact

that stories about my ancestors are important for me to know as it can make me

understand my own identity. Thus, I am of the opinion that the novel is worth

reading.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

Chin, Frank. Donald Duk. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1991. Print.

References

“Arrogant.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

“Broad-minded.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, LLC, 2012. Web. 15 Mar.

2012.

“Chin, Frank - Introduction.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W.

Hunter. Vol. 134. Gale Cengage, 2001. eNotes.com. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.

“Curious.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print.

Fearon, James D. “WHAT IS IDENTITY (AS WE NOW USE THE WORD).” 3

Nov 1999. Web. 15 Mar. 2012

“Frank Chin.” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia The Free

Encyclopedia, 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2011.

“Ignorant.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. 2005. Print..

Irmscher, William F. The Nature of Literature. New York: Holt, Rinehart and

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Maranatha Christian University Joannah. “Frank Chin Biography.” Asian American Theatre. THE UNIVERSITY

of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL, 31 Jan 2011. Web. 18

Mar. 2011.

Kennedy, X.J. LITERATURE: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.

Canada: Little, Brown and Company, 1983. Print.

“Narrow-minded.” Babylon Online Dictionary. Babylon Ltd, 2012. Web. 15 Mar.

2012.

Richardson, Susan B. “The Lesson of Donald Duk.” JSTOR. MELUS, 1999. Web.

11 Sep. 2012.

Shirley, David Goldstein. “The Dragon Is a Lantern: Frank Chin's Counter

-Hegemonic Donald Duk.” 49th _{Parallel. 1997. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.}

“Sigmund Freud.” dream theorists. Dream Moods, Inc, 20 Jan 2012. Web. 2 Oct.

2012.

Analysis of Portrayal of The Protagonist in Frank Chin's 'Donald Duk'.

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY