Method of the Study

ghosts and it brings bad luck if people watch the shooting stars. However, Ruth does not buy her mother’s words. She did not actually believe that her laryngitis was star-crossed, or that the meteor shower had anything to do with her inability to speak. Her mother, though, had often told Ruth throughout her childhood that shooting stars were really ‘melting ghost bodies’ and it was bad luck to see them. If you did, that meant a ghost was trying to talk to you Tan, 2004: 9. The contrast is shown through the quotation and it points out the characteristic of Ruth as being reasonable. Her characteristic can be seen through the direct comment. It is emphasized in the quotation that Ruth is being reasonable. She believes that the shooting star has no connection with her laryngitis. LuLing as a conservative Chinese lady often teaches Ruth with her hierarchical parenting system, yet Ruth does not like it. Ruth as a second generation who grows up in America does not like to be controlled by her mother. When she is tired of her mother’s complaints, she chooses to read and study, so her mother can remain in silent and Ruth can escape for awhile from her mother. “The only time her mother didn’t bother her was when she was doing her homework or studying for a test. Her mother respected her studies. If she interrupted her, all Ruth had to do was say, ‘Shh I’m reading.’ And almost always, her mother fell quiet Tan, 2004: 105. Her reaction shows that she is a perceptive girl. She can choose the best way to avoid her mother when she starts to bother her. She learns that her mother pays respect to her studies and she uses it as her way to escape. From that, it can be seen that she puts herself into a suitable situation when facing her fussy mother. Another characteristic as being perceptive can also be found from her reaction when she has to face her demanding mother. Her mother breaks her privacy every time and reads her diary so there will be no secrets between mother- daughter. “Ruth did not want to censor her writing, so she started recording it in a combination of pig Latin, Spanish, and multisyllabic words that she knew her mother would not understand” Tan, 2004: 133. The quotation implies that Ruth learns from her experience that her mother always checks her diary and will read it again. Ruth decides to keep writing but in the code that only she can understand. She writes her diary with words in the pig Latin because she knows that her mother must not be able to read it. Pig Latin that Ruth uses is a constructed language game in English. As an American teenager Ruth must know pig Latin. Ruth learns it from her American friends around her and uses it when she writes to hide her writing from her mother. Her reaction to use those code languages proves that she is an observant of the situation around her. As a teenager, she does not want to be ruled by her mother. She wants freedom and does what teenager should do, like going to beach and dating boys. However, her mother always controls and forbids her. “But her mother always managed to find it, at least which was what Ruth figured, on the basis of what she was next forbidden to do: ‘No more go beach after school.’ “No more see this Lisa girl.’ ‘Why you so boy-crazy?’ Tan, 2204: 133. Because of so many pressures from her mother, Ruth becomes a rebellious daughter. She can read the situation that happens around her quickly. Then, Ruth shows her loathe towards her mother by being a rebellious daughter. ‘I’m an American,’ Ruth shouted. ‘I have a right to privacy, to pursue my own happiness, not yours’ ‘No right All wrong’ ‘Leave me alone’ ‘Why I have daughter like you? Why I live? Why don’t I die long time ‘go?’ LuLing was huffing and snorting. Ruth thought she looked like a mad dog. ‘You want I die?’ Ruth was shaking but shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. ‘I really don’t care.’ Tan, 2004: 134. Ruth’s rebellion is shown from the conversation between her and her mother. She shows her rebellion towards her mother when her mother scolds her for smoking. Her mother gives her pressure and controls her to not do some stuff, so Ruth becomes unhappy. She rebels because she wants to fight back against her mother. She thinks that she is an American and has the right to choose her own path. She yells at her mother and says offensive words. As a second generation daughter, the writer finds Ruth’s characteristics as a reasonable, perceptive, yet rebellious. She does not believe in superstition like her mother does. She can also learn quickly from the situation around her and put herself in the right situation. Yet, she is a rebellious daughter because she wants to show that she is an American who seeks for freedom and cannot be controlled by her mother’s Chinese parenting system.

2. Ruth Young as a Ghostwriter

When Ruth was a child, she has had lived with her widowed mother who is domineering and demanding. LuLing forces Ruth to be her mother’s mouthpiece due to her lack of English. Ruth was the one who made appointments for the doctor, wrote letters to the bank and once she even had to compose a