Lack of Confidence The Description of Suwen’s Characteristics

In Fistful of Colours, Suwen lived within the authority of figure of her step father and grandfather,OngTay Luck and Ong Ah Buck, both of them were depicted as the representation of patriarchal practices within the household. Trace back to the old time, Ong Ah Buck once had a name, Lim Ah Buck. Ah Buck came from China after being sold by his neighbor, since his family was broken. Then he lived in Pagoda lane where TowkayOng found him and raised him as his own son and the only son. He was sinkeh living in Pagoda Lane. You would find him hidden among the numbers and digits in the record books of the colonial immigration ofice, a dot among thousands of other dots: young chinese male, aged seventeen or thereabouts. Lim, 2003: 39 Suwen‟s step grandfather, Ong Ah Buck was picked from the dark side of the corner of Pagoda lane and adopted by TowkayOng since Towkay‟s mistresses and concubines didn‟t give him a single son but worthless girls to bear the surname. In the Chinese household, surname became one of the parts of family future which determined how the luck or family‟s destiny would move, whether good or bad. As emphasized by Bell Hooks about patriarchy system, the adoption of Ong Ah Buck to Towkay Ong was the process of education to prepare and ensure the fortune of the Ong family. The education itself was considered as a violance toward its subject, Ah Buck was forced to obey the Towkay Ong patriarch, the repressed feeling and desire had lost with his own masculinity and intergrity as free man and Pagoda Lane became the representation of the system of education where it was harsh and brutal. The Pagoda lane itself was considered to be one of the most brutal places in Singapore, harsh and brutal. The lane itself was dominated by men‟s full authority, made up from immigrants of Malays, Chinese, and Indians. In Pagoda lane, everything that was built in that place was man‟s made Pagoda lane belonged to the Chinese male. Life in Pagoda lane, pre war Singapore was harsh brutal and short. And the colonial police made up mainly of Indians and Malays, were fearful for their own lives and limbs. Lim, 2003: 36 Also, after s eeing the values of the Chinese family‟s fortune which was attached in the surname, the writer took the theory of Global and Postcolonial feminist‟ point of view in the field of sexual reproduction to understand the notion of surname in the household, man was the only one who could bear the surname.As emphasized by Bell Hooks, this kind of system required Ong Ah Buck to be the agent of the oppression. Patriarchy requires maledominance by any means necessary, henceit supports, promotes, and condones sexistviolence.Hooks, 2004: 2 The survival of a son in the family was paramount importance, the surname that contained the honour and the fortune of the family‟s future must be passed down to the next generation of male. Based on the Chinese tradition, men should carry the honor of family. They have the family name that will decide the fortune of the family life. The continuity of the surname must be passed down to son and not daughter Lim, 2003: 44-46 Within Suwen‟s family, Mistresses were forced to give a birth of son rather than daughter and if they failed, their husband would take another wife who could give him a birth of a son therefore those mistresses had had no private authority toward the concern of their own body. Assuming the patriachy system, Bell Hooks emphasized that Ong‟s mistresses always became the victim and