AKI. That‟s all you think about: work, work, work CHIZUKO. warning Aki...
AKI. Well. It‟s true. You‟re always telling me what to do and how to do it. You‟re always trying to tell everyone what to do around here.
CHIZUKO. I‟m not trying to tell everyone... AKI. You‟re going to drive Kaoru-san away from here—bossing him like
you do. Yamauchi, 1996: 437
CHIZUKO. That‟s what I mean. You don‟t care about anyone but yourself. You don‟t care how anyone else feels.
AKI. You mean you? she turns back Yamauchi, 1996: 438
From the conversation above, it can be concluded that Chizuko somehow shows her role as a mother who holds the ultimate authority at home. As Kato
cited in her journal that parental authority is the American ideal of child-rearing practice. Chizuko in The Music Lesson is seen as a mother who always arranges
everything on her own and everybody has to follow her order regardless of they like it or not. By doing so, Chizuko seems to ignores Japanese principle that is
intimacy in a family, she tends to create a gap between her and her children and it causes Aki to start assuming that there is no bond between her and Chizuko. Aki
insists that Chizuko is the one who never cares how other people feel as she is always busy to work and think how to survive. Because of living a really tough
life, Chizuko sets aside her feeling and suggests to herself that working hard is now become her first priority. Chizuko realizes that possessing traits which
belong to women will just aggravate her condition. Meaning to say, if she continues being feminine all the time during her settlement in California, then she
will never be able to make a living for her family. She proves that she can be
independent, tough and even dominating like a man eventhough at first it starts from an urge to survive in California.
b. Hybrid Identity
In The Music Lesson, Chizuko is described as an independent breadwinner to support her family and she seems to struggle against patriarchal premise that a
woman should be a housewife and follower. From Chizuko, it is blatant that two culture are overlapping within her. She does a labor division between her daughter
and sons based on gender traits that has been set by patriarchy. However, she does not follow that patriarchal rule, she keeps on playing her double role as both a
breadwinner and a good mother for her children and she is able to maintain Japanese culture as well.
CHIZUKO. No? No? You think I like this life? You think I like grubbing in dirt and manure and...
AKI. That‟s the only way you know to live. You don‟t want to change your life.
CHIZUKO. You believe that? You believe this is all I want? That I lived with a man I hardly knew, didn‟t understand, didn‟t respect because I..
AKI. You didn‟t love him You didn‟t love him, did you? CHIZUKO. How could I love him
—I didn‟t know him. All the time I was keeping our heads above water ... single-handed Yes While he was still
alive, until the merciful day he drowned Growing old before I was ready
—dying before I ever lived. Yamauchi, 1996:445
The dialogue between Chizuko and Aki implies Chizuko‟s refusal to her arranged marriage back then. She finds it miserable and uncomfortable as she has
to marry a man she barely knows and loves. Patriarchal culture that has been
deeply-rooted in Japanese society forces Chizuko to accept what has been destinied for her despite the fact she does not want it. Moreover, from the
dialogue above it is obvious that she does not like her „new‟ role. She used to be a
housewife who took care of her family and depended on her husband, but suddenly everything changed, her husband died and she had to take over his job. It
proves that Chizuko does not intentionally want to be a breadwinner, it is because her condition forces her to do so.
She assimilates to western culture and way of thinking in order to survive in California since she realizes that she will not be able to make enough money if
she is only a housewife. Chizuko‟s hybrid identity begins from the dire neccessity,
it is not because her desire to be accepted in American society. Chizuko adopts both eastern and western culture yet she is neither „native‟ japanese nor
„american‟, but she has become a hybrid self. Chizuko‟s hybrid identity also comes out as a result of her diasporic experience, her movement from Japan to the
USA. We cannot tell if she is a „real‟ japanese for she has already adopted western
way of life and we also cannot say if she is an american because she has no intention to neglect her japanese culture instead, she still upholds on to it. If it is
seen from postcolonial perspective, Chizuko‟s attitude somehow reveals kind of
complexity, it is her complicated state of mind when she tries so hard not to lose her native culture while her circumstance forces her to adopt western culture to
survive. For instance, she emphasizes the principle of togetherness within a family, but she creates a gap between her and her children, she tells her daughter
to do household chores instead of working outside while she is doing plowing in
