way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization of which the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people become the subject matter. It means, in
order to analyze a literary work, we need to analyze and understand the social background when the literary was produced. The proponents of this approach
analyze the sociocultural background that can be found in the story itself or outside the story in order to get the meaning of the study and give the esthetic
response to it.
2. Theory of Conflicts
There are several theories of conflicts which were used in this study. They are the causes of the conflicts, theory of mother-daughter relationship which
includes the meaning of mother-daughter relationship and conflict in mother- daughter relationship.
a The Causes of the Conflicts
Everything in this world has a cause and an effect. When we do something, we have to know the consequences of doing this. In conflict, there is
also cause and effect. Conflict does not exist if there is no cause. Gillin and Gillin 260 state, “Conflict is a social process in which individuals or groups seek their
ends by directly challenging the antagonist by violence or threat of violence.” There are four roots of conflict which Gillin and Gillin 633 – 644 state. The first
is individual differences. Gillin and Gillin say, “Individual differences give
different point of view and provide disparities which lead to clashes.” Everybody
has unique characteristics that are different one from another. These different characteristics may lead to different points of view of almost every thing.
Different perceptions then may lead to conflicts or clashes. This is where problems emerge.
The second is cultural differences. They do not only prevail within our
own society, but they also prevail outside our society. People live in society and there are so many cultures we can find in our society. Every culture has its own
characteristic too. These cultural differences often make people misjudge another culture so that it may form conflicts between individual and also between groups.
The third is clashing interests. Because everyone has different and special
characteristic, he or she can have interests on different thing too. Because everyone has different interest, it may be a source of conflict.
The fourth is social change. Social change may change and separate
people into group which can cause competition. It can cause conflict. For example, if there is migration, economy change, trend, heredity status, social
mobility, and frontier society, they can cause conflict. Besides, the elements of culture are developed by the society. Baron and
Byrne 9-13 state that social behavior is shaped by a seemingly endless list of variables. They added some number of major specific cultural factors influencing
someone’s behavior that have possibility to raise conflict and clash between one to another.
The first is the behavior and characteristics of other person. The
importance of one’s position in the society can strongly affect hisher behavior. For example, an employer will easily influence hisher servant by considering that
the employer has higher position than the servant. The behavior and characteristics, which are not everyone have, could raise conflict if there is no
understanding.
The second is the social cognition one’s thoughts, attitudes, and
inferences about other people around himher. It is the aspect that affects one’s thoughts, attitudes, ideas, and judgments on other people. If someone has a good
judgment on other people, then heshe may follow or imitate others’ behavior. If there are different thoughts and each person stands on hisher own thought
without receiving others, there will be clash.
The third is an ecological variable. The term ‘ecological variable’ refers
to the social ecological circumstances around an individual such as the condition of the environment, the house, the city, etc. For example, if a person lives in a
place where heshe feels comfortable, heshe will likely have an unchanged behavior. On the other hand, if a person lives in the place where heshe feels hard
to live, then heshe may have certain behavior that leads himher to change the condition to be better. If a person cannot accept where heshe is, it can be a
conflict inside and outside himher.
The fourth is the sociocultural context in which a social behavior occurs
. Such factors as cultural norms and regulations will affect one’s behavior. Social standards or values shifting can influence one’s behavior. If people can
accept the norms and regulations and be fair, everything can be alright, but if people cannot accept the norms and regulations, it can raise conflict.
The fifth is the aspect of one’s physical condition in relevance with social behavior
. The last is the physical condition of the person himherself. Hisher ability to accept any social information will help himher to change hisher
old behavior and subsequently imitate or adopt another behavior from the society. However, if heshe does not have the ability to accept any social information, it
can raise clash. Conflict can also happen in family relationship. Noller and Fitzpatrick 98
say that conflict occurs in a family because the family members hold a difference between them. It can be different opinions, attitudes, needs, and also goals. Noller
and Fitzpatrick 99 add that when the members of the family do not agree about the situations in their lives such as one’s behaviour, one’s opinions, etc, there is a
conflict. Disagreement can raise clash and conflict. That is why agreement is needed in a family relationship, as simply between mother and father.
b Theory of Mother-Daughter Relationship
The theory of mother-daughter relationship is divided into two parts. They are the meaning of mother-daughter relationship and conflicts in mother-daughter
relationship.
1 Meaning of Mother-Daughter Relationship
The strongest parents-children relationship is the relationship between mother and her daughter Noller and Fitzpatrick 267. Deutsch 222 says that the
daughter’s identification with her mother is important for her emotional and moral development. The mother plays a role as a model for her daughter’s later feminity.
In Chinese, a woman is expected to be closer to her mother than her father Hsu 63. As a matter of fact it would be regarded as unusual if a woman is closer to
her father than her mother. A mother would have much more to teach the younger woman than a father.
2 Conflicts in Mother-Daughter Relationship
Deutsch 322 states that a daughter’s identification with her mother is important for her emotional and moral development. A mother will play a role as
the source of identification of her daughter, who later will likely develop her mental and moral according to her perspective toward her mother. Mother-
daughter relationship is not always in harmony. Sometimes there may be some misunderstandings and conflicts which may affect the relationship and create a
gap between them. Noller and Fitzpatrick 267 say that woman is more likely to see the
relationship with her mother as a negative one. Woman sees her mother as a critical, controlling, and demanding person while man usually idealizes his
mother. This different exists because of the mother’s attitudes towards her daughter and son. The mother expects more from her daughter but shows less
appreciation on her daughter’s efforts. In contrast, the mother expects less from her son and appreciates more the thing her son does.
Furthermore, they describe the mother-daughter relationship as complex, ambivalent, and ambiguous 268. The relationship is characterized by love and
hate, high expectation but low appreciation, and high stress. However, the daughter still concerns about her mother although their relationship is not close
and warm. Nadeau states that there are some causes of conflict that make the daughter
feel not comfortable and want to live separately with her mother. First is the unclear individual boundary between a mother and her daughter
. Second is
the freedom that the daughter wants but the mother does not agree with
. A daughter usually has wants that sometimes different with what her mother wants.
It can raise clash and it can result bad attitude from the daughter to her mother.
Third is the different view in their life. A daughter and a mother have different
view in their life and as the younger generation, the daughter does not want to listen to her mother. She thinks that her mother does not understand what she
wants. Forth is the teachings from the mother. A mother teaches how to behave,
how to dress, how to talk, how to walk, and many good things but not all these good things are accepted by the daughter well. The daughter usually hates it and
wants to do it by her own way. Besides, Deutsch 222 also explains the causes of conflict between
mother-daughter relationships. First, the conflict arises because the daughter considers her mother as rival in getting her father’s attention and love
. The daughter feels that her father loves her mother more than to her. It can be seen
more if the father is a strict person or if he often criticizes the daughter. For the
daughter it can be a symbol that her father does not love her and love her mother
most. Second, the conflict arises because of the mother’s authoritarian power over her daughter
. When the daughter finds her freedom and becomes independent, her mother feels abandoned and is afraid of losing her daughter. As
the result, her mother uses her authoritarian power over her daughter and it causes the conflicts between them become more complicated.
C. Review on Chinese Culture in Contrast with American Culture
