Background of the Study

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This first chapter consists of five parts. The first part is Background of the Study, which explains the reasons for choosing Amy Tan’s novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and everything that is related to this study. The second one, Problem Formulation, states the problems to be analyzed in this study. In the third part, Objectives of the Study, the purpose of the study is presented. The fourth part identifies the advantages of this study in the Benefits of the Study. Finally, in order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation on using the key words in this study, Definition of Terms is presented in the fifth part.

1.1 Background of the Study

We live in a society with hundreds of culture surrounding us. It is the way the culture embraces us and puts the values on us. While in this earth we have millions of diversities in culture, it is always interesting to choose one of them and analyze it to learn more about something new. Edgar and Sedgwick state that ‘culture’ is not easily defined, not least because it can have different meanings in different contexts. Culture is the complex everyday world we all encounter and through which we all move. Culture begins at the point at which humans surpass whatever is simply given in their natural inheritance. The cultivation of the natural world, in agriculture and horticulture, is thus a fundamental PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 2 element of a culture. As such, the two most important or general elements of culture may be the ability of human beings to construct and to build, and the ability to use language 101-102. One of the exciting cultures to be noticed is Chinese culture. Hu explained that from the viewpoint of world history, the most significant event since World War II may well be the emergence of the China mainland of a dynamic, aggressive, and totalitarian government controlling the largest sector of the world’s population 1. Furthermore, Hu also clarified that the Chinese people are extraordinarily conscious of their history. They love to read and retell the past, which is like a mirror reflecting the present. Like other people, the Chinese possess a body of folklore concerning the creation of the world and the origin of their nation, but they have neither dignified their myths into a cult nor claimed divine descent as a chosen people. Their mythology begins with P’an Ku, the creator who was followed by a succession of mythical figures and semi divine beings from whom men learned and rudiments of civilization 2-3. Therefore, many literature works, such as novels, poems, and plays are written to tell the prosperous stories and myths. One of the literary works that the writer is interested in is The Bonesetter’s Daughter written by Amy Tan in 2001. In this novel, Amy Tan does not only tell about the Chinese culture and myths but also the relation with the Western culture. Being a Chinese who was raised in American way of life has inspired her to write novels about the culture clash which PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 3 occurs between Chinese and American, and later becomes the source of conflicts between the characters in her novels. Padmanugraha said that Amy Tan, born in 1952, is one of the most notable figures in ethnic literature. With her first novel The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989, she is so prominent that she becomes “a household name”, besides receiving awards and being translated into several languages including Chinese 274. The writer has chosen The Bonesetter’s Daughter to analyze in this study because it contains symbols in myths and superstitions. Having finished reading the novel, the writer can feel the sense of darkness in the novel that carries many Chinese superstitions. For example, the Chinese belief that shooting stars are “melting ghost bodies” and it is a bad luck to see them 10, the fog is really the steam from fighting dragons, one water, the other fire 12, and “long hair look like suicide maiden” 23. The Bonesetter’s Daughter tells about the mother-daughter relationship named LuLing Young and Ruth who have different background of cultures. LuLing Young, who has judged to have dementia by the doctor, keeps her memory of her childhood and her longing for the real mother by writing down all of her stories in Chinese, while Ruth, a ghostwriter who has unmarried relationship with Art, finds that her mother is hiding her past from her. Soon, when she finds the pieces of LuLing’s writing in her drawer, she wants to reveal her mother’s memories. Her action of revealing her mother’s memories raises problems and conflicts in her life. It influences her relationship with her mother, her boyfriend, her colleagues at work, and her opinion towards her mother. 4 The Bonesetter’s Daughter is divided into two major stories. The first is about Ruth, a Chinese-American woman living in San Francisco. It tells about Ruth’s everyday life, her thoughts and childhood memories, her love story with Art, and her job as a ghostwriter. She worries that her elderly mother, LuLing, is gradually becoming increasingly demented. LuLing seems increasingly forgetful, and makes bizarre comments about her family and her own past. The second major story is about LuLing herself, as written for Ruth. Several years earlier, LuLing had written her life story in Chinese. It also reveals the existence of Precious Auntie. Precious Auntie or Bao Bomu is considered as a nursemaid in the LuLing’s family, but she loves LuLing very much. There are not many people in LuLing’s clan like her for she had an accident with fire which makes her unable to talk like normal people. Her half face was bumpy while the other half was smooth and melted closed. The inside of her right cheek was stiff as leather and the left was moist and soft. Where the gums had burned, the teeth had fallen out. And her tongue was like a parched root. She could not taste the pleasures of life: salty and bitter, sour and sharp, spicy, sweet, and fat. She often told LuLing about her father, the Famous Bonesetter from the Mouth of Mountain, about the cave where they found the dragon bones, how the bones were divine and could cure any pain, except a grieving heart 3. As a result, Ruth yearns to weave her memories with her mother’s memories and Precious Auntie’s memories who is truly her grandmother. She would like to know about her family history and recognize her forgotten grandmother. Thus, she arranges to have the document translated and learns the truth about her mothers life PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 5 in China. Ruth wants to recollect the puzzles of her mother’s memories to find her own origin. Amy Tan uses ‘bone’ as the main symbol in the novel. Regarding this thought, the writer intends to conduct a study to analyze the symbol of bone found in this novel, its meaning, its representation in life, and its relation with the author’s intention to convey particular messages to the readers.

1.2 Problem Formulation