Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of five parts. The first part is the background of the study. It explains the reasons for choosing Amy Tan’s novels, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. The second part, problem formulation, concerns with the problem that leads to the analysis of the study. In the third part, the objectives of the study, the aims of conducting the study are stated. The forth part mentions the benefits of the study. Finally, in order to avoid misunderstanding, there are definitions of some terms.

A. Background of the Study

A family as the smallest unit in the society is the basis of people children behavior. A mother and daughter relationship in a family is very important. The bond between a mother and a daughter is very strong. Noller and Fitzpatrick 267 state that the bond attachment between mother and child is formed to maintain proximity between a mother and an infant. They also state that the maintenance of proximity is mutual endeavor of both the mother and the child and is sometimes initiated by the mother and sometimes by the daughter 267. A mother has a special role, especially in the life of her daughter, who usually has very close relationship with mother. However, a relationship between mother and daughter does not always go well. Something can always go wrong. Mother and daughter may sometimes have big problems when the daughter is in her adolescent year. When the daughter is in her adolescent year, usually she tries to find her self identity. The mother usually has bigger expectation of her daughter in her daughter’s life that is hard to understand and to fulfill for her daughter. The problem is not only from that misunderstanding side, but usually culture plays an important role in a mother-and-daughter relationship, especially when there is a cultural gap between them. For example, a daughter lives separately from her mother in a place of different culture from her mother’s. Culture can influence and develop the family relationship, especially mother- daughter relationship. Cultural differences may raise conflicts between individuals or between groups in the society, even in the family. Different cultures can produce different points of view or perception. For example, Chinese people see a mother-daughter relationship in a different way from the way American people see it. A mother in the Chinese culture is usually stricter than a mother in the American culture. While a Chinese mother treats and teaches her daughter strictly, an American mother usually gives more freedom to her daughter. Two novels would be the source of discussion here. The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club were both written by Amy Tan, a Chinese- American novelist who wrote about a Chinese-American mixed marriage and a mother-daughter relationship. The first novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, talks about relationships of two mothers and their daughters. The first main character is Ruth as Chinese-American young woman whose life is very much influenced by the Chinese culture and who has a bad relationship with her strict mother, LuLing. They find difficulties in understanding each other and encounter many problems as described in the novel. The second main character is LuLing herself, who has a very close relationship with her mother, called Precious Auntie. Meanwhile, the second novel, The Joy Luck Club, talks about the relationships of four mothers and their daughters: Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei June, Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. Suyuan is a Chinese woman who strongly holds on her culture and although she and her daughter have moved to San Francisco, the United States of America, Suyuan brings up her daughter in such a strong Chinese culture, which sometimes causes misunderstanding between them. Problems occur when mother and daughter do not “know” each other. The other three mothers in this novel also hold the strong Chinese beliefs that sometimes cannot blend with what the daughters’ want because the daughters have already been influenced by American culture. It causes many problems and misunderstandings. The problems derive from the different perspective and how they cannot talk openly one to another as mother and daughter. The main problem is communication. They cannot understand one to another and there comes problems of attitude that mothers approve but daughters do not like. Because of the problem in communication, these conflicting attitudes could not be shared. It raises more and more conflicts. This novel also describes the relationships between the mothers Suyuan Woo, An Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair with their mothers. In the novel we can see that most of them have bad experience and bad example of family, which could be the cause of the bad relationship between them and their daughter. Each mother and each daughter in this novel has different perception about mother and family which is unshared too. Amy Tan’s novels are very rich of cultural conflicts. She presents a very wonderful bound between family relationship and culture. The explanation above shows how The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club contain so many problems of mother-daughter relationships. Amy Tan beautifully presents the conflicts in the relationship and also presents the readers real examples of family’s problem. In analyzing these novels, I focus on the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.

B. Problem Formulation