In addition, Lily also manages to make her offspring and the offspring of Snow Flower govern the house of Lu’s family. “and yet these days my contentment
comes from knowing that Snow Flower’s and my blood will soon rule the house of Lu.” See, 2005: 252. Lily makes her granddaughter become the wife of Snow
Flower’s grandson. Thus, when Lily and her husband pass away, her granddaughter will be the next successor, becomes Lady Lu and Snow Flower’s grandson becomes
Master Lu. This proves that Lily is able to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture not only for the sake of herself and her family but is able to help others, her friend.
Female friendship makes women are able to face the challenges of class and overcome the challenges by survive in a patriarchal culture.
3. Female friendship is so important because it becomes the reason for women
to survive
All the women in China are pushed to get married and the system of the marriage is through arranged marriage. Marriage gives the bitter impact for Chinese
women. “Women were forced to break with their natal families at marriage and begin as strangers in their husbands’ families.” Raymond, 2001: 105. By facing the
situation where women no longer have family bond with their biological families and become a stranger in their husband’s families, it makes women left alone.
Women are even forbidden to think of their natal families and they just need to focus on taking care of their husband’s families. Besides living as strangers in their
husband’s families, women also have to live under the difficult conditions of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Chinese patriarchal culture. Women are also sad with the fact that their existence as women in Chinese society is worthless. As stated by Raymond, “the Chinese female
was likely to be unwanted from her first days of existence” Raymond, 2001: 106. Therefore, the existence of female friendship is very important to the survival of
Chinese women. Female friendship gives strength and love to each other. Women can get mutual emotional support from each other. If women do not have emotional
support, they will feel devastated, alone, and want to die. On the contrary, if women get emotional support from their fellow, they want to live because there are other
people who are their fellow who acknowledge their existence in this world and these fellows want them to live.
4. Female friendship creates a condition to bring about the change in women
After marriage, women have to stay at their husband’s families. Women cannot be as intense as the time they used to spend together with their fellows. They
have to focus on doing their duties as wives and serving their husband’s families properly. Therefore, to make them keep in touch is by using nu shu secret writing.
They write nu shu texts on fans. They can exchange news, share stories, share the joy and sorrow with using this nu shu. As time goes by, women realize the true
purpose of this nu shu. Nu shu is a means for the Chinese women to speak the truth of Chinese women’s lives. As stated by Lily,
With her bold act, I realized the true purpose of our secret writing. It was not to compose girlish notes to each other or even to introduce us
to the women in our husband’s families. It was to give us a voice. Our nu shu was a means for our bound feet to carry us to each other, for
our thoughts to fly across the fields as Snow Flower had written. The men in our households never expected us to have anything important
to say. They never expected us to have emotions or express creative thoughts. See, 2005: 160
The existence of nu shu secret writing can help women survive in a patriarchal culture. Nu shu as a means that can heal women from a suffering
experience because women use nu shu to share stories, share the grief with her friend. By sharing, a woman would calm the other woman and it can help heal the
suffering that women experienced. Nu shu also provides an opportunity for women who are in a female friendship to be able to exchange thoughts, ideas, and dreams.
By recognizing the importance of nu shu, the two women who are in female friendship will have their heart and mind moved to share their knowledge of nu shu
to other women. As stated by Janice G. Raymond, When women cease believing in the primacy and primordiality of
hetero-relations, they will see that the first goal of feminism is not to bring women and men together but to bring women together. Female
friendship is the process by which this goal is achieved. Raymond, 2001: 43
Female friendship is an opportunity for women to bring about change in women. By the existence of female friendship, women find the strength and make a
positive contribution to bring women together towards the better in education. Although Chinese women do not get a formal education as men get, Lily and Snow
Flower try to make the other women to be able to write and read nu shu. By teaching PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
how to write nu shu to another woman, nu shu will grow and there will be many women are increasingly aware to learn nu shu then they will share their knowledge
with other women and it goes. Lily and Snow Flower share their knowledge about how to write nu shu to other women. Lily teaches nu shu to her children,
granddaughter, and the friends of her children and granddaughter. Snow Flower also shares her knowledge. Although Snow Flower passes away of illness, Snow Flower
could prove that she survives in Chinese patriarchal culture during her lifetime. Dead or alive is not the matter but the most important thing is that how women can prove
that they survive in a patriarchal culture because it cannot be denied that everyone will die someday. Snow Flower is able to prove that her death is not in vain. Such as
the death of a hero, Snow Flower gives a valuable contribution that benefits others. “She was our teacher, and we respected and loved her for that.” See, 2005: 242.
She teaches her three students how to write nu shu. From the knowledge that she gives just to three women, it will be growing and growing and beneficial for women
because knowledge will never run out. Although it is just a little movement, Lily and Snow Flower hope they can help the other women of the next generation be better.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
In this chapter, the researcher will draw a conclusion from the analysis. In this study, the researcher found how Lisa See uses a literary work which is a novel to
show the strong patriarchal culture in China in the nineteenth century, which in turn makes women helpless. The researcher found that the lives of Chinese women who
live in the nineteenth century are not easy. As experienced by the two main characters in this novel, Lily and Snow Flower. The researcher finds three important
points to be the root of the problem, which in turn brings women into the hole of suffering and oppression. They are footbinding, arranged marriage, and domestic
violence. Because China is a patriarchal culture where men more dominating and holding the power, it makes women as inferior beings. Chinese patriarchal system
has been set up so neatly with the aim to make women always obey and submit to men. The suffering is first started with the practice of binding the feet. Women
should follow the tradition of footbinding since the age of six or seven years. Having a pair of tiny feet is not only considered as a symbol of beauty in China, but also as a
symbol of social status. Because women in Chinese patriarchal culture is in the lowest position or they are regarded as worthless in the society, women are the one
who have to bear the ugliness by raising their self-esteem by doing the practice of footbinding. For women of the upper classes, having a pair of tiny feet is a mark of
their hierarchy, while for women from the lower classes, doing the practice of
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