Third, the writer moved to the analysis which examined the process of development of Suwen‟s feminist behaviour and thought,the writer divided the
third step into three subchapters or smaller sections that would explain Suwen‟s
development through the relationship with family, friends, and the painting.
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
A. The Description of Suwen’s Characteristics
1. Good and Talented Artist
The project of her painting that Suwen desired, contained the perfection of society‟s unity in its content, however the perfection of unity had a different
meaning, life was free and fluid and she sketched the painting according to her own mood.
Suwen had tried to capture them in her sketchbook. But each time she tried, she had failed miserably. They never came out the way she saw or
heard them inside her head. How to translate that which was inside into something which she could show to the outside world was her constant
struggle Lim, 2003: 103
The painting that Suwen produced was the result of several times of failure and painful sketches. Suwen was educated with British education system, the
painting consisted of the solidity of one‟s colours, pigments and brush strokes, and connection between lines and dots, light and shadow piercing the notion of
serenity. As the writer said for several times, Singapore was built with various cultures and races, the large immigration had happened long time ago. Started
from China, India, British, and Malay. The painting that Suwen sketched became the symbol and the representation of diversity in the multicultural society, each
line and dot told us different story and angle point of view toward the issues that happened in the early Singapore.
As emphasized by Abrams, Suwen‟s characterization of talented artist was derived from the narrative text in the novel. Beside that, the characterization of
Suwen came out from her own action that stated in the canva s, Nica‟s speech and
thought. Also the society‟s action or response toward Suwen‟s way of painting gave the basic foundation to Suwen‟s characterization.
2. Stubborn
When Suwen reaches her age, she is decribed as stubborn girl who rejects her mother‟s persuasion in many terms. Suwen claims that she has her own
problem to solve but her mother binds her to stay close to her, she dared and confronted her mother about the reasons on why chidlren should be tied forever to
the mess of their parents made Lim, 2003:13, as emphasized by Abram on the theory of characterization, the character of Suwen was derived from the actions as
described in the novel. During Suwen‟s performance on painting the society, Nica urged Suwen
to use another object beside her own race. According to Nica, a Singapore artist must dare to travel beyond hisher ethnic group and paint the society as a
universalit object, without choosing the side of particular race. However Suwen insisted to paint only what she could feel and see, the lack of confidence toward
her identity also driven herself to paint the society based on her narrow perspectives.
As Suwen struggled to paint the society and to find her roots, she determined to kept painting even though the feeling of lack of confident still
became her image that came to surface.
It had been niggling her all week, chipping away at her self-confidence. What she dreaded most, however often she tried to push the thought away,
was returning to her former state of emptiness and the feeling that she had been abandoned liker in her first year in England Lim, 2003: 179
3. Lack of Confidence
Though Suwen‟s dream or desires driven her to paint the society, Suwen is desribed to be so unconfident toward the manners that she would like to perform
in the canvas, the lack of confident travelling her outside race in the painting driven the result of the painting to be considered as the void of universality, as
Nica thought. The artist must dare to perform her artistic freedom in universality, painting the society without doubts, on the other hand, the lack of certainty of
Suwen‟s identity and race driven her to by shy to move beyond her ethnic group. Besides the lack of confident in the painting.
Suwen also found her doubt to move out from the her mother‟s oppression. The characterization of Suwen is derived from the other character,
Nica‟s speech and thought, as supported and emphasized by Abrams in the theory of character and characterization.
Suwen had lacked the guts to walk out on her mother and away from the ong mansion, compared with the likes of nica and jan, she was just a blob
of jellyfish, flapping on the beach, dreaming of freedom riding the waves but had no ability to move on her own accord. Lim, 2003: 128
Through this description of Suwen‟s behaviour in the narration, Abrams, once again emphasized the characterization to be judged objectively with seeing
both side of speech and action. A critical tendency has been to consider telling a violation of artistryand
to recommend only the technique of showing characters; authors, it
