Men’s Oppressionin Suwen’s Friends
they did not fully comprehend, but nonetheless strongly left Lim, 2003: 74
Nica stated that they had lived in the multicultural society and diversity of various races from all the corners of the world. The patriarchal practice that was
fully conducted in the society was supposed to introduce the stability of new future of Singapore. The authorities wanted to mold the Singapore into another set
of atmosphere where diversity of ethnic could live in harmony. We‟re living in an age of cultural lobotomy. Forget about your Cantonese,
teochow, and hokkien. Think mandarin, drop the dialects. That‟s what the authorities want. It‟s a kind of sculpting. They want to sculpt a new kind
of Singapore chink. Dialects belong to the peasants. Mandarin is the language of the educated Chinese. You betray your peasants roots if you
speak dialects. Lim, 2003: 79
As the writer stated before, Su wen‟s feminist behaviour and thought was
also influenced by the feminist behaviour and thought of Nica and Janice, the writer had decided to include the process of Nica and Janice‟s feminist
development, therefore we could see how the development of their feminism affected the feminist behaviour and thought of Suwen. Using the pyschoanalytical
approach which analyzed the human pyschethat was developed and fully covered in the unconsciousness by Freud, Nica‟s unconscious in the realm of her superego
took the great contribution which was processed from the social conflict inside the family and her friends. Driven by her own desire, Nica‟sid, started to move on
from the influence of her father by pursuing the interest in art rather than being obey to be forced
to study and work in medicine, in the end, Nica‟ssuperego decided to work as an artist who sculpted the society as a universality in her rights
of freedom. The writer took the Freud‟s explanation about the father that held the
majority of role in the household, father is the term that was associated with male‟s dominance in social forces which kept the society according to the norm
and political issue. The term escaping had been used by Nica in order to survive her own ultimate desire, she chose herself to achieve her dreams by expanding the
social life with the persons, who had the same experience in the past, therefore the influence that was poured out from his father‟s mouth would have slowly gone
missing. According to Freud‟s interpretation of dreamer and the process of personality development, the writer concluded that Nica was depicted with young
adult who wanted to break the influence of her father therefore she could live the adult life to the fullest, breaking the chain of authority of her own father.
Let‟s say the dreamer is a young adult still under the thumb of an authoritian father but wanting to break away from his influence, and
experience adult life to the full. Barry, 2002:59
The writer concentrated the focus on another Suwen‟s friend, Janice. Janice‟s family lived in the era of World War 2 where the Japanese took the
control over British in Singapore, the Japanese imperial army prohibitted the social norm and culture to be fully conducted and every life aspect should be done
and devoted to the preparation of Japanese imperial army war logistic. Mr. Wong was Jan‟s father and Mrs. Wong was Jan‟s mother.
Joseph Wong Weng Choy was an impatient and disappointed salesman. He managed the process of his own behaviour and thought in the development of
his own psyche, giving a gapbetween his own feeling of anger or desperation and the protection toward the family, in order to escape the confession of the failure
he once made, so that he could move on and find a new job.
Joseph Wong Weng Choy was an impatient and disappointed man, hiding his sense of failure behind his anger. Before the war, he had been a sales
clerk with good prospects in a British trading company. His wife, Martha, was
a nursing assistant in St Andrew‟s Hospital. Lim, 2003: 150 The Geylangstreet was the place where Jan‟s family had lived, the place
was quiet and peaceful in diversity of multi ethnic before the war came. Mr. Wong worked as a sales clerk in British Trading Company and his wife was a
nurse in St. Andrew‟s hospital. The Japanese came and British left, the situation was clearly changing, many people became jobless because the outbreak of war.
I was jobless after the war. I am not ashamed to admit it. Times were bad then. Everybody jobless. The British left and there were no jobs for people
like me. But i was responsible family man. I saved every scent I earned in Hong Kong. I shared a room with four men. We slept on the floor. We
cooked and mended our own clothes To this day she thinks I was having a gala time over there. What more does she want from a husband? I wanted
her to bring up our two children properly. But did she? Did you Martha?
You, bitch, you “stop your bullying dad” Jan rushed out of her bedroom. “it‟s not Mum It‟s me, your daughter Scold me Lim, 2003: 155
Mr. Wong migrated to Hong Kong to sustain the life of his own family‟s economy, working each day and night. According to the theory of patriarchy
system from Bell Hooks, the writer emphasized that patriarchal Mr. Wong were reliable person, he was assumed to be imprissoned within his own political system
Hooks, 2004: 4 thus it led Mr. Wong‟s emotional became and remain unstable, which cause the violance toward the others.
Mrs. Wong felt the difficult position, where she felt the oppression of her own husband, she was beaten and bullied in front of Janice‟s own eyes while Mr.
Wong felt the pressure of the surrounding in the society, the horrible condition of war where people went mis
sing by sudden. The failure of Mr. Wong‟s career in
Hong Kong led him to bully and beat his own family and Mrs. Wong missed the figure of a man who protected the assurance of family‟s safety in the middle of
war. Mrs. Wong stayed loyal toward the obedient of a wife to her husband, waiting and hoping the everything would turn better.
What can I say? What does he want me to do? Mrs. Wong was sobbing. “every night I can‟t sleep. He scolds me. Keeps me awake the whole night
long. What can I do? She winned. “when he was in Hongkong, I was left alone here. No money. No news even. Just the two children and me. I
worked shifts at the hospital to make ends meet. I let the ammah go. Not
enough money. I had to everything myself. And now, he blames me.” Lim, 2003: 154
The writer took the example of Freudian interpretation to analyze the role of Mr. Wong and Mrs. Wong in the Janice‟s life, they were the representation of
Roman soldier that depicted of both love and protection. However the term “love” was done by Mr. Wong in the extreme ways.
The Roman soldier might also represent this person, the envisaged lover; perhaps the cliched phrase „Latin lover‟ might have prompted this. Thus,
both the feared father and the desired lover are condensed into single dream figure of the Roman soldier. Barry, 2002: 99
Mr. Wong went to Hong Kong in order to feed his family since there was no job to be found in Singapore, but he was considered missing by Mrs. Wong
because there was no information or even news about him, while Mrs. Wong stayed in the house while taking care of her two children and all of them were
dying in the middle of war. Putting aside the matters of the patriarchal father, Janice used the notion
„escape‟, leaving everything behind to conduct her own life in the new era of place and time with new family of Zul. The term “escape” was processed within
the Janice‟s idof dreams and desires, she had chose herself to leave the matters of her own family and decided to be fully devoted to Zul‟s family.