Women’s Oppressionas Attached in Suwen’s Experience in Fistful of

emphasized by Gilber t and Gubar‟s strategy as a process of triumphant self – discovery, whereby an identity was discovered and a mission in life conceived and embarked upon 2002: 135.The writer used the statement of Multicultural feminist, AudreLorde that embraced the same issue that stated the essential meaningof being different, SiaLiew considered herself as a unique individual within the household instead of superior than her mistress. But it was not vanity which drew her. It was the amazement of self- discovery at seeing herself. She had never owned a mirror and had never been allowed to groom herself in front of one because, according to her mistress, there was no need for a bondmaid to preen herself like a duck pretending to be a swan. The slave was beginning to see herself as a separate, distinct and unique entity, quite different from the way her oppressors had viewed her.Lim, 2003: 207 The feeling of being different was achieved through the acceptanceof all the things that she had, with her own dignity and power in i d’s realm . The feeling was flowing as she enjoyed her daily time of freedom at the Chinatown market, gambling passion which resulted with some luck and gave her foundation to fight the skeptical or negative issue to be a misfortune bearer to Madam Geok Neo. SiaLiew reached and achieved her feminism through the experiences she had during the oppression of her mistress, using Millet‟s conception on pyschological criticism, the writer analyzed that SiaLiew‟s gender oppression case resulted in the feminist way was being processed within the society and it hadn‟t achieved naturally. Therefore the behaviour and thought SiaLiew, was constructed and deconstructed. Using Millet‟s own terms and concepts, especially the distinction, so crucial to feminism, between gender and sex, the former being a matter of biology, the latter a construct, something learned or aquired, rather than „natural‟ Barry, 2002: 130 Suwen adored her old mama more than anyone else in the Ong household because Suwen liked Her old mama‟s way in dressing or style herself to be more adaptable within the current basic social construct. Thus, this kind of situation inspired Suwen to live her life according to her own dreams and desires. Suwen experienced and encountered her own mother‟s oppression. Suwen‟s mother obssessed with Ong mansion, the symbol of Ong‟s first wive. The competition among the other mistresses had risen and fallen, this kind of rivalry was driven with the obsession of possessing material things as emphasized by the global and postcolonial feminists. Suwen‟s mother went impatient and afraid toward the possession of the mansion because she bore no son to Ong Tay Luck and the possession of the mansion would probably fall to another mistress who had a son. With the passing of the years, her mother had become more and more obsessed with the mansion, the symbol of her marriage and authority as the first wife. She took to heart the sayin g “she who lives in the big house has the big say in all family matters.” Lim, 2003: 33 Suwen‟s family was built with the desire of possessing material things, money was the one thing of many things that the other family member always wanted, the children of another mistress always seek for their father, begging for money and this kind of manner was passed down from their mother. If Mrs. OngTay Luck had a son, the presence of their existance would have gone missing, however she was blessed with two daughters instead of having a son. The possession of mansion in the eyes of Mrs. Ong had became the ultimate motives that violated the social norms, such as human rights. Using the method of Freudian psychological analysis, the Id was the source of all aggress ions and desires. Mrs. Ong‟s id was highly seductive which caused the resistance of her own daughter, Suwen; which later to be analyzed in the next sub chapter. The obsession toward the Mansion was basically to ensure the life safety for Suwen and Sulin in the conflict gender oppression, however the action could not be tolerated and it led Suwen to leave her mother‟s shade which brought the destruction of pain and loneliness toward her mother. The „id‟ contains two main instincts: „Eros‟, which is the life instinct, which involves self- preservation and sex which is fuelled by the „libido‟ energy force. „thanatos‟ is the death instinct, whose energies, because they are less powerfull than those of „Eros‟ are channeled away from ourselves and into aggression toward others. Mcleod, 2007: 50

C. The Desription of

Suwen’s Life and The Process of Her Development in T he Middle of Society’s Diversity. 1. Suwen’s Way of Life and Her Development in The Relationship With Family The maturity of Suwen‟s stages of life had developed the resistance toward those who oppressed her. Suwen‟spsyche processed the unconscious and conscious which divided into her own id, ego, and superego, however the development of feminist behaviour and thought was not only about the conflict between conscious and unconscious of herself, it was also about how the society transfered their influence toward the pysche which would have been processed in Suwen‟s mind. Suwen‟s stages of life was not far from the mother‟s womb, she was taken from her grandfather and brought by her mother to Ong family, during the maturity of her personality development she lived with the uncertainty of her own family roots. Suwen was fully attached with her mother‟s matters, but Suwen‟s mother could not let her daughter to experience the same fate as she did then she sent her daughter to British college so that Suwen could have better life than she had.Suwen became some kind of tool to achieve her own mother‟s dream, to eliminate the patriarchal practice of OngTay Luck within the household. Suwen wanted to leave her mother to pursue her artistc freedom on painting the Singapore‟s society but her behaviours and thoughts were limited by her own mother and the lack of uncertainty toward the roots of her race. Suwen stirred her paint pots vigorously, mixing colours and feelings, angry that her mother was demanding so much from the and furious the she had not the guts to say, “get off my back My life is my own business Why should children be tied forever to the mess their parents made? Lim, 2003:13 The quoatation above showed the condition of Suwen where she was attached to her own mother‟s problem, this kind of situation led the oppression of Mrs. Ong toward Suwen that contained the relationship of sisterhood as emphasized by the Global and Postcolonial feminists, the relationshipoccured to ensure the existance of feminist behaviour and thought in the patriarchal practice of OngTay Luck, through the same fate Mrs. Ong embraced her own daughter to fight against the Ong patriarch however the oppression from Mrs. Ong had caused the violation of human rights toward her own daughter. This situation was supported by the Global and Postcolonial feminist which driven Mrs. Ong wanted to have her daughter educated but resulted in the f ailure of defending Suwen‟s human rights In the term of reproduction, Suwen had strongly refused all the marriage proposal from her mother while Suwen‟s sister, Sulin already had three children. Suwen was still unmarried while Sulin had three children already. Mrsong was beginning to think that her elder daughter had adamantly refused all offers of marriage just to spite and punish her Lim, 2003: 166 According to this kind of situation, the writer took the issue of reproduction as emphasized by Global and Postcolonial feminist that women must have a priviledge control over their own body, in Fistful of ColoursSuwen remained virgin as long as she liked, Suwen seemed to bury herself in the edge of desperation and the feeling of loneliness. In pursuing the family roots, Suwen was confused about it, the resistance of her soul toward the oppression of the family was depictedin the question on what kind of reason that the authorities wanted Suwen to define her own nature and identity,languages and dialects wereless of contributition to define the identity of an individual. Within the household, SiaLiew became the old mamah whom Suwen admired, she had done by putting herself in the discovery of her own identity among the family member within the household therefore she placed