He is wise in the sense that he faces his sisters’ death as a reality. He does not force himself to be responsible at their death. By doing this, he does not only
show his wiseness but also his rational and logical characteristic. He thinks and acts based on the reality that happens to him. His wiseness affect Chester’s way of
thinking. Through his contact with his great-uncle, Chester begins to recognize his roots in China. In the end of the play, Chester stands where his great-uncle stood
early in the beginning of the play, and the shape of his face “begins to change”, presumably to reflect his kinship to his great-uncle from China and his new-found
ethnic connections.
B. The Conflicts of the Main Characters
In this part of the study, the writer will focus on the main characters’ conflicts, both Ama and Popo’s internal and their external conflict against their
only brother, Di-Gou. According to Perrine 1974: 44 conflict is a clash of action, ideas, desires, or will between two individuals or among people in the society.
Conflict itself can be classified into physical, mental emotional, or moral. Regardless to those types of conflicts, Perrine states that conflict in a
literary work may consist of one conflict that is stated clearly and the readers are able to easily identify it single and clear-cut conflict, and it may also consist of
multi conflicts or more than one conflicts that are difficult to be understood by the readers. To be able to understand multi conflicts, the reader should analyze the
conflicts one by one.
By knowing the characterization of the characters and their conflicts, the writer can find the message inside the story. The writer will discuss the external
conflict first and then the internal one. The purpose of this order is to make the analysis understable and clear because it is easier to understand the whole conflict
by seeing the external conflict in advance.
1. Ama and Popo’s External Conflict
From the beginning of the play, the author shows the readers many conflicts that happen between the main characters and minor characters. However,
the center of this play wants to tell us about the conflict between the three main characters, they are Ama, Popo, and their brother, Di-Gou because their conflicts
are the most important things found in this story. Their conflict can be said as general conflict between a Christianized Chinese-American family and a pagan
Chinese relative who comes to visit them in their California home. Their conflict
can be divided into two parts, those are the fanaticism of Ama and Popo that brings the downfall to the family and the loyalty of Di-Gou towards his sisters that
makes them ignore the truth that Di-Gou tries to reveal. Ama and Popo are Christian fanatics, they believe in Christianity but in
the fanatic way. The two elderly and devoutly Christian Chinese sisters escaped with their family from China before the Communist revolution. They now in Bel
Air, California, with their daughters, Joanne and Hannah, and their daughters rich husbands, Wilbur and Robert. Their grand children, Jenny and Chester are
planning to slip away by one going to college and the other taking a job with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. However, their younger brother, Digou believed in the revolution, and returned to China.
At the beginning of the play, the whole family is waiting a visit from Di- Gou, who Ama and Popo have not seen in over thirty years. They recall him as a
child prodigy evangelist, but when he arrives it is clear that he is not the man his sisters remember. Now Di-Gou does not believe in God anymore. He turns out to
be an elderly little stranger, neatly blue suited, who has left his childhood Christianity behind.
Ama and Popo attempt to make Di-Gou remember about what their aunt, See-goh-poh had done to them and then tell the story to other family members.
They do this because they respect and praise their long-deceased aunt, See-goh- poh who was according to the familty myth, brought Christianity into the family.
They believe that See-goh-poh was like a hero for their entire family and she has done a lot of miracles during her life. She is a kind of a true example for Ama and
Popo. Popo reminds him about their servant, Ah hong, who was helped by See- goh-poh by casting out his opium demon.
POPO: Ah Hong tell stories how he eats opium, then he can see everything so clear, like-uh-glass. He can see even through wall, he say, and can see-
ah-all the way through floor. Yes He say he can through ground, all the way to hell. And he talk with Satan and demon who pretend to be Ah
Hong’s dead uncles. You should remember. Act 1, p. 205.
At that time, Ah hong was bothered by the Demon which pretend to be ghost then show himself everyplace to Ah Hong. He always just sit there and
never talk, neither move, just sit. Then, See-goh-poh came, called on God, and with only said two words: “Demon begone” and the demon left. No more ghost or
opium. Popo even tells Di-Gou that he himself also cast out the Demon at that time.
Di-Gou knows that it is not the truth and he thinks he should tell them the right story about what happened at that time. Most plays, like Family Devotion,
use the disclosure of a hidden truth as their central conflict. Firstly, Di-Gou choose to respond them by saying that they were all just children and do not know
nothing, but Ama does not want to hear it. She insists him by saying that he has faith of a child. Di-Gous still refuses to admit her sisters story, he said that Ah
Hong did not stop eating opium and needed money, that is why he was fired two years ago.
Ama and Popo cannot believe that Ah Hong was fired, they believe that Ah Hong died many years later before Di-Gou come to America for his college.
Di-Gou denies it and say that Ah Hong was fired before he came to college. They keep debating about things and memory that they each belief.
When Ama holds the Family Devotion, she tries to make one of the other members to give testimony about their faith so that Di-Gou can hear it. However,
when Robert points himself to do it, Ama and Popo rejects him because they think Robert is a boring person who keep repeating his story again and again. After a
quite long debate between them, they decide that Popo will give them her testimony first and then, because of Hannah’s advice, Jenny will do it next.
JENNY: [At podium, she begins testimony.] First, I want to say that I love you all very much. I really do.
POPO: [
To DI-GOU
] That meaning is, she love God. JENNY: And I appreciate what you’ve done for me.
POPO: [
To DI-GOU
] She loves us because we show her God. JENNY: But I guess there are certain times when even love isn’t enough.
