Analysis of Social Conflicts in Kathryn Harrison's 'The Binding Chair'.
PREFACE
This thesis is submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of
Letters, Maranatha Christian University, as a partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the ‘Sarjana’ degree.
In this thesis, I try to put into practice the knowledge I have acquired
during my studies at the English Department. I propose to analyse the conflicts in
Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ for all His
blessings and love that enable me to write and finish my thesis. I am also sincerely
grateful to my supervisors for their invaluable guidance, advice, and patience
during the whole process of writing this thesis. Last but not least, I would like to
dedicate my thankfulness to my dearest parents and all my friends for all their
support, help, and encouragement in the accomplishment of this thesis.
Bandung, April 2008
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ………………………………………………………..…
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………...…
ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………….…...
iii
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ……..……………………………..
Statement of the Problem ……..……………………………..
Purpose of the Study ………………………………………...
Method of Research ……...………………………………….
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………......
1
2
2
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE CONFLICTS IN
KATHRYN HARRISON’S THE BINDING CHAIR……..
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………...
14
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………..……….
18
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of The Binding Chair………………………………
Biography of Kathryn Harrison ……………………………..
19
20
ii
ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan thesis ini, penulis menganalisis novel The Binding Chair
karya Kathryn Harrison. Penulis bertujuan menganalisis konflik-konflik sosial
yang dialami oleh May, yaitu tokoh utama dalam novel tersebut.
Penulis menemukan bahwa kebanyakan konflik yang terdapat dalam novel
ini adalah konflik sosial. Konflik sosial adalah konflik yang terjadi antara
seseorang dengan orang lain. Dalam novel ini, sebagai protagonis May mengalami
konflik dengan orang-orang. Konflik sosial tersebut terjadi karena May ingin lari
dari kenyataan hidupnya. May merasa bahwa masa lalunya membayangi setiap
tindakan yang dilakukannya. May tidak bisa melepaskan bayang-bayang masa
lalunya hingga ia meninggal.
Setelah membaca novel ini dan menganalisis konflik-konflik sosial yang
dialami oleh May, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa semua konflik yang dialami oleh
tokoh utama dalam novel ini sangat realistis dan dapat ditemukan dalam
kehidupan masyarakat kita. Begitu pula dengan penyebab dan penyelesaian semua
konflik tersebut.
iii
APPENDICES
SYPNOSIS OF THE BINDING CHAIR
Chao-tsing (May’s real name) is five years old when her grandmother
binds her feet and tells her not to cry out whatever happen. When May is fourteen
she marries a silk merchant. She is the fourth wife and her husband has a sexual
disorder. May feels that noone of her family support her wish. One day she run
away to Shanghai, makes a funeral for herself, changs her name and works as a
prostitute.
May hates all Chinese man because she has a trauma with her former
husband. May thinks that all of Chinese men are same as her former husband. She
wants to run away from her fate and buries all her past memories behind but she
can not do it as easy as she wants. Considering that May makes herself difficult to
be understood by other people who love and care to her. May does not want
everyone in her new family know about her past life, moreover sometimes it cause
a social conflict because of May’s inner conflict.
After the fire, May and the rest of her family, Dick, May, Cecily, Alice
and Miss Cuthburtson move to France. Before she leaves Shanghai, she wants to
finish her business. In France, May learns swimming and Alice has her own life.
May feels lonely. When May is swimming in the sea, she intentionally drowns
herself and died
19
Maranatha Christian University
BIOGRAPHY OF KATHRYN HARRISON
Kathryn Harrison was born in Los Angeles, California in 1961. Her
parents were only eighteen when she was born and they lived with her maternal
grandparents who ended up raising her. In her memoir, it is stated that Harrison’s
childhood relation with her mother was dysfunctional and she only saw her father
twice in twenty years. Then, when she did meet her father, she was manipulated
into an incestuous affair that lasted four years. She also suffered from eating
disorders for years.
Harrison graduated from the Iowa writers’ Workshop in 1987, and then
she moved to Brooklyn, New York, with Collin Harrison, whom she married in
1988. Her grandmother moved east and lived with them until her death, two
months before her 92nd birthday. She saw her first great-grandchild, Sarah, who
was born in 1990. The Harrisons also had a son named Walker, who was born in
1992 and a younger daughter Julia, born in 2000.
Harrison is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review; her
essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The new
Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Vogue, O Magazine, Salon, and other publications.
Harrison is the author of the novels Thicker Than water, Exposure, and
Poison. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Collin Harrison,
and their children.
20
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
I have decided to analyse novel rather than any other literary genres
because although it is usually longer, it is easier to read since it gives more
detailed and complete information.
According to Shaw, novel is “a lengthy fictitious prose narrative
portraying characters and presenting an organized series of events and setting”.
(Shaw, 1972:257) Moreover, he states “novel has no actual maximum length.
Every novel is an account of life; every novel involves conflict, character, action,
setting, plot and theme”. (Shaw, 1972:257)
I have decided to analyse Kathryn Harrison’s novel The Binding Chair
because I feel that this literary work is interesting; it tells a lot about Chinese
women and Chinese tradition written by an American writer. Few western writers
write novels about Chinese women and Chinese tradition. It is obvious that
Harrison has a lot of knowledge about Chinese society and culture. The details she
presents are convincing.
I have decided to analyse conflict because it is one of the most important
elements in novel. According to Shaw, conflict is “the opposition of a person or
1
Maranatha Christian University
forces upon which the action depends in drama and fiction. There are three kinds
of conflicts; one type of conflict is elemental or physical: a struggle between man
and the physical world. It represents man versus forces of nature, the difficulties
and danger. Another type of conflict is social: a struggle between man and man.
The third type of conflict is internal or phychological: a struggle between desires
within a person, but the focus is always upon the central figure’s inner turmoil”.
(Shaw, 91)
I have decided to analyse the conflict in Kathryn Harisson’s novel The
Binding Chair because May as the protagonist has many conflicts with other
characters throughout the novel, from the time she was a little girl until her death.
She experiences social conflicts with other characters in this novel.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
After reading Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair, I would like to
formulate the problem as follows:
1. What are the conflicts in Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair?
2. What causes the conflicts?
3. How are the conflicts resolved?
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
I intend to show:
1. The conflicts that the protagonist experiences in The Binding Chair.
2. The causes of the conflicts.
3. The solutions to the conflicts.
2
Maranatha Christian University
METHOD OF RESEARCH
In analysing this topic, I use formalism method; first I read Kathryn
Harrison’s The Binding Chair, and then I decide the topic I want to discuss. After
I have decided the topic, I use library research to support my work. I use some
reference books which are relevant to the topic and I search in the Internet to get
additional information. I use the data I have collected for the analysis.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,
which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the
Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis.
In Chapter Two, I analyse the social conflicts that the protagonist has with the
other characters in the novel. After the Conclusion, I end the thesis with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain a synopsis of the novel and a
brief biography of the novelist.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analysing the conflicts in Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding
Chair, I come to the conclusion that the conflicts in this novel are very important.
The conflicts are worth analysing because they are realistic, meaning that such
conflicts may also be found in real life. Some of us may have hatred for any ethnic
group because we have a psychological or physical trauma. Throughout the story
May develops hatred towards the Chinese men, later in the story she refused to
serve Chinese clients when she was a prostitute, eventhough that did not give her
a benefit, because she did not have a chance to get away from prostitution.
Western people will not marry a prostitute, Chinese men do. It is because of her
bad experiences in her past marriage.
As the protagonist, May experiences a lot of conflicts with the other
characters in the novel. Her sad married life makes her have hatred for all Chinese
men. Her husband marries her only for a pride as a successful man. He does not
love her at all. May feels that she does not deserve to be treated like that because
she has tried hard to be a noble woman since she was child, suffering for her
bright future but it does not come up to her expecting
14
Maranatha Christian University
The first conflict between May and her grandmother happens because
since she was a little girl May has been forced by her grandmother to be a highly
regarded woman. Whether she likes it or not, May has to have her feet bound for
the sake of her own future. May also has a conflict with her mother and her
grandmother. The conflict happens because neither her mother nor her
grandmother supports her wish. May feels very disappointed because her mother
does not understand her feeling nor does her grandmother. In real life, it is normal
for a girl to have a conflict with her mother or with her grandmother because
although they belong to the same family, they have different characteristics,
feelings and wishes. The conflict between May and Alice is because May does not
like Alice for what she has done. May does not want anyone to know about her
past life, she wants to bury it deep. May has very bad memories about her former
husband, a Chinese man who badly and cruelly treated her. Her past bad
experience makes her clearly refuse to serve Chinese clients when she is still a
prostitute. None of her new family knows about it; moreover, Alice’s behavior
reminds her. To have a husband like her husband, most women probably will act
like she does. Especially nowadays, women do not want to be badly treated by
their husbands. They want to have equal rights. When they are treated badly, they
may ask for a divorce. Treating a woman as badly as May’s husband should not
happen in this modern time.
In Chinese culture, foot binding and polygamy were a custom practiced for
approximately thousands of years in China. Foot binding was begun in the 10th
century and it was ended in the early 20th century. This practice is only for noble
families. Polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one partner. It was
15
Maranatha Christian University
begun from the Han Dynasty. Chinese men can have one wife or more. It is
common for rich Chinese men to have more than one wife. One of the reasons is
to continue the father’s family name.
Her husband treats May like an object of sexual exploration. He is bored
with normal sex that he does with three other wives. He only does the anal sex to
May. Anal sex is one form of human sexual behavior. Anal sex is sometimes seen
as preserving female virginity, another reason is that the rectum is giving more
pleasure for the penis, being tighter than the vagina. This type of sexual behavior
is known widely around the world. In this novel May’s husband does it and May
cannot refuse because her husband is a rich man, but she hates him for practising
this to her.
May’s inner conflicts cause her social conflicts. May wants to run from her
past, but it is not easy for May to do. It makes her uncomfort and causes conflict
with other people around her in this novel. May has hatred for all of Chinese men
group because she has a psychological and physical trauma with her first Chinese
husband.
So far as the other resolutions of the conflicts are concerned, they are also
plausible; for example when May fails to get her mother’s and grandmother’s
support, she leaves them and she also leaves her husband, who has treated her
badly. May’s love for Alice makes her wish to do her best for her. Her anger
towards Alice’s indecent attitude is a manifestation of her love for her. Likewise,
Alice’s insistence that May should have her feet properly fixed is also a
manifestation of her love for May. In real life, one will want to do one’s best for
16
Maranatha Christian University
the people one love although they may have a different interpretation of what one
intends to do for them.
May is a dynamic character; she undergoes certain changes in her life. It
can be seen from May’s social conflicts with the other characters in the novel. The
most essential changes of her characteristics are the fact that the obedient little girl
has become a woman of a stronger character who can express her own desires.
The moral lesson that I get from this novel is that life is not as easy as I
think. I must struggle to get something that I want to have and face everything I
find in my life. Eventhough it is hard to get, I still must do it, because I believe
that I am going to get what I want if I try the best; if I do not succeed in getting it,
I do not give up easily. Life is a struggle and I must be tough to get through it.
As a final comment, I would like to say that one should not always think
about the past. The present situation and condition and the future are more
important in life. The fact that May cannot forget her past leads her to a miserable
life. Her consumption of opium is not an acceptable way out. Moreover,
committing suicide is a much worse solution.
17
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
REFERENCE
Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1996
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1972
Yerkes, David (ed.). Webster’s Enchyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the
English Language. New York: Portland House, 1989
INTERNET
http://www.news.wisc.edu./harisson/bio.html
http//www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm
http//www.kathrynharrison.com
http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki
http//www.rotten.com/library
PRIMARY TEXT
Harrison, Kathryn. The Binding Chair. New York: Random House,Inc.,2000
18
Maranatha Christian University
This thesis is submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of
Letters, Maranatha Christian University, as a partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the ‘Sarjana’ degree.
In this thesis, I try to put into practice the knowledge I have acquired
during my studies at the English Department. I propose to analyse the conflicts in
Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ for all His
blessings and love that enable me to write and finish my thesis. I am also sincerely
grateful to my supervisors for their invaluable guidance, advice, and patience
during the whole process of writing this thesis. Last but not least, I would like to
dedicate my thankfulness to my dearest parents and all my friends for all their
support, help, and encouragement in the accomplishment of this thesis.
Bandung, April 2008
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ………………………………………………………..…
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………...…
ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………….…...
iii
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ……..……………………………..
Statement of the Problem ……..……………………………..
Purpose of the Study ………………………………………...
Method of Research ……...………………………………….
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………......
1
2
2
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE CONFLICTS IN
KATHRYN HARRISON’S THE BINDING CHAIR……..
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………...
14
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………..……….
18
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of The Binding Chair………………………………
Biography of Kathryn Harrison ……………………………..
19
20
ii
ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan thesis ini, penulis menganalisis novel The Binding Chair
karya Kathryn Harrison. Penulis bertujuan menganalisis konflik-konflik sosial
yang dialami oleh May, yaitu tokoh utama dalam novel tersebut.
Penulis menemukan bahwa kebanyakan konflik yang terdapat dalam novel
ini adalah konflik sosial. Konflik sosial adalah konflik yang terjadi antara
seseorang dengan orang lain. Dalam novel ini, sebagai protagonis May mengalami
konflik dengan orang-orang. Konflik sosial tersebut terjadi karena May ingin lari
dari kenyataan hidupnya. May merasa bahwa masa lalunya membayangi setiap
tindakan yang dilakukannya. May tidak bisa melepaskan bayang-bayang masa
lalunya hingga ia meninggal.
Setelah membaca novel ini dan menganalisis konflik-konflik sosial yang
dialami oleh May, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa semua konflik yang dialami oleh
tokoh utama dalam novel ini sangat realistis dan dapat ditemukan dalam
kehidupan masyarakat kita. Begitu pula dengan penyebab dan penyelesaian semua
konflik tersebut.
iii
APPENDICES
SYPNOSIS OF THE BINDING CHAIR
Chao-tsing (May’s real name) is five years old when her grandmother
binds her feet and tells her not to cry out whatever happen. When May is fourteen
she marries a silk merchant. She is the fourth wife and her husband has a sexual
disorder. May feels that noone of her family support her wish. One day she run
away to Shanghai, makes a funeral for herself, changs her name and works as a
prostitute.
May hates all Chinese man because she has a trauma with her former
husband. May thinks that all of Chinese men are same as her former husband. She
wants to run away from her fate and buries all her past memories behind but she
can not do it as easy as she wants. Considering that May makes herself difficult to
be understood by other people who love and care to her. May does not want
everyone in her new family know about her past life, moreover sometimes it cause
a social conflict because of May’s inner conflict.
After the fire, May and the rest of her family, Dick, May, Cecily, Alice
and Miss Cuthburtson move to France. Before she leaves Shanghai, she wants to
finish her business. In France, May learns swimming and Alice has her own life.
May feels lonely. When May is swimming in the sea, she intentionally drowns
herself and died
19
Maranatha Christian University
BIOGRAPHY OF KATHRYN HARRISON
Kathryn Harrison was born in Los Angeles, California in 1961. Her
parents were only eighteen when she was born and they lived with her maternal
grandparents who ended up raising her. In her memoir, it is stated that Harrison’s
childhood relation with her mother was dysfunctional and she only saw her father
twice in twenty years. Then, when she did meet her father, she was manipulated
into an incestuous affair that lasted four years. She also suffered from eating
disorders for years.
Harrison graduated from the Iowa writers’ Workshop in 1987, and then
she moved to Brooklyn, New York, with Collin Harrison, whom she married in
1988. Her grandmother moved east and lived with them until her death, two
months before her 92nd birthday. She saw her first great-grandchild, Sarah, who
was born in 1990. The Harrisons also had a son named Walker, who was born in
1992 and a younger daughter Julia, born in 2000.
Harrison is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review; her
essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The new
Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Vogue, O Magazine, Salon, and other publications.
Harrison is the author of the novels Thicker Than water, Exposure, and
Poison. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Collin Harrison,
and their children.
20
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
I have decided to analyse novel rather than any other literary genres
because although it is usually longer, it is easier to read since it gives more
detailed and complete information.
According to Shaw, novel is “a lengthy fictitious prose narrative
portraying characters and presenting an organized series of events and setting”.
(Shaw, 1972:257) Moreover, he states “novel has no actual maximum length.
Every novel is an account of life; every novel involves conflict, character, action,
setting, plot and theme”. (Shaw, 1972:257)
I have decided to analyse Kathryn Harrison’s novel The Binding Chair
because I feel that this literary work is interesting; it tells a lot about Chinese
women and Chinese tradition written by an American writer. Few western writers
write novels about Chinese women and Chinese tradition. It is obvious that
Harrison has a lot of knowledge about Chinese society and culture. The details she
presents are convincing.
I have decided to analyse conflict because it is one of the most important
elements in novel. According to Shaw, conflict is “the opposition of a person or
1
Maranatha Christian University
forces upon which the action depends in drama and fiction. There are three kinds
of conflicts; one type of conflict is elemental or physical: a struggle between man
and the physical world. It represents man versus forces of nature, the difficulties
and danger. Another type of conflict is social: a struggle between man and man.
The third type of conflict is internal or phychological: a struggle between desires
within a person, but the focus is always upon the central figure’s inner turmoil”.
(Shaw, 91)
I have decided to analyse the conflict in Kathryn Harisson’s novel The
Binding Chair because May as the protagonist has many conflicts with other
characters throughout the novel, from the time she was a little girl until her death.
She experiences social conflicts with other characters in this novel.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
After reading Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair, I would like to
formulate the problem as follows:
1. What are the conflicts in Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding Chair?
2. What causes the conflicts?
3. How are the conflicts resolved?
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
I intend to show:
1. The conflicts that the protagonist experiences in The Binding Chair.
2. The causes of the conflicts.
3. The solutions to the conflicts.
2
Maranatha Christian University
METHOD OF RESEARCH
In analysing this topic, I use formalism method; first I read Kathryn
Harrison’s The Binding Chair, and then I decide the topic I want to discuss. After
I have decided the topic, I use library research to support my work. I use some
reference books which are relevant to the topic and I search in the Internet to get
additional information. I use the data I have collected for the analysis.
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS
This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,
which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the
Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis.
In Chapter Two, I analyse the social conflicts that the protagonist has with the
other characters in the novel. After the Conclusion, I end the thesis with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain a synopsis of the novel and a
brief biography of the novelist.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analysing the conflicts in Kathryn Harrison’s The Binding
Chair, I come to the conclusion that the conflicts in this novel are very important.
The conflicts are worth analysing because they are realistic, meaning that such
conflicts may also be found in real life. Some of us may have hatred for any ethnic
group because we have a psychological or physical trauma. Throughout the story
May develops hatred towards the Chinese men, later in the story she refused to
serve Chinese clients when she was a prostitute, eventhough that did not give her
a benefit, because she did not have a chance to get away from prostitution.
Western people will not marry a prostitute, Chinese men do. It is because of her
bad experiences in her past marriage.
As the protagonist, May experiences a lot of conflicts with the other
characters in the novel. Her sad married life makes her have hatred for all Chinese
men. Her husband marries her only for a pride as a successful man. He does not
love her at all. May feels that she does not deserve to be treated like that because
she has tried hard to be a noble woman since she was child, suffering for her
bright future but it does not come up to her expecting
14
Maranatha Christian University
The first conflict between May and her grandmother happens because
since she was a little girl May has been forced by her grandmother to be a highly
regarded woman. Whether she likes it or not, May has to have her feet bound for
the sake of her own future. May also has a conflict with her mother and her
grandmother. The conflict happens because neither her mother nor her
grandmother supports her wish. May feels very disappointed because her mother
does not understand her feeling nor does her grandmother. In real life, it is normal
for a girl to have a conflict with her mother or with her grandmother because
although they belong to the same family, they have different characteristics,
feelings and wishes. The conflict between May and Alice is because May does not
like Alice for what she has done. May does not want anyone to know about her
past life, she wants to bury it deep. May has very bad memories about her former
husband, a Chinese man who badly and cruelly treated her. Her past bad
experience makes her clearly refuse to serve Chinese clients when she is still a
prostitute. None of her new family knows about it; moreover, Alice’s behavior
reminds her. To have a husband like her husband, most women probably will act
like she does. Especially nowadays, women do not want to be badly treated by
their husbands. They want to have equal rights. When they are treated badly, they
may ask for a divorce. Treating a woman as badly as May’s husband should not
happen in this modern time.
In Chinese culture, foot binding and polygamy were a custom practiced for
approximately thousands of years in China. Foot binding was begun in the 10th
century and it was ended in the early 20th century. This practice is only for noble
families. Polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one partner. It was
15
Maranatha Christian University
begun from the Han Dynasty. Chinese men can have one wife or more. It is
common for rich Chinese men to have more than one wife. One of the reasons is
to continue the father’s family name.
Her husband treats May like an object of sexual exploration. He is bored
with normal sex that he does with three other wives. He only does the anal sex to
May. Anal sex is one form of human sexual behavior. Anal sex is sometimes seen
as preserving female virginity, another reason is that the rectum is giving more
pleasure for the penis, being tighter than the vagina. This type of sexual behavior
is known widely around the world. In this novel May’s husband does it and May
cannot refuse because her husband is a rich man, but she hates him for practising
this to her.
May’s inner conflicts cause her social conflicts. May wants to run from her
past, but it is not easy for May to do. It makes her uncomfort and causes conflict
with other people around her in this novel. May has hatred for all of Chinese men
group because she has a psychological and physical trauma with her first Chinese
husband.
So far as the other resolutions of the conflicts are concerned, they are also
plausible; for example when May fails to get her mother’s and grandmother’s
support, she leaves them and she also leaves her husband, who has treated her
badly. May’s love for Alice makes her wish to do her best for her. Her anger
towards Alice’s indecent attitude is a manifestation of her love for her. Likewise,
Alice’s insistence that May should have her feet properly fixed is also a
manifestation of her love for May. In real life, one will want to do one’s best for
16
Maranatha Christian University
the people one love although they may have a different interpretation of what one
intends to do for them.
May is a dynamic character; she undergoes certain changes in her life. It
can be seen from May’s social conflicts with the other characters in the novel. The
most essential changes of her characteristics are the fact that the obedient little girl
has become a woman of a stronger character who can express her own desires.
The moral lesson that I get from this novel is that life is not as easy as I
think. I must struggle to get something that I want to have and face everything I
find in my life. Eventhough it is hard to get, I still must do it, because I believe
that I am going to get what I want if I try the best; if I do not succeed in getting it,
I do not give up easily. Life is a struggle and I must be tough to get through it.
As a final comment, I would like to say that one should not always think
about the past. The present situation and condition and the future are more
important in life. The fact that May cannot forget her past leads her to a miserable
life. Her consumption of opium is not an acceptable way out. Moreover,
committing suicide is a much worse solution.
17
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
REFERENCE
Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1996
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1972
Yerkes, David (ed.). Webster’s Enchyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the
English Language. New York: Portland House, 1989
INTERNET
http://www.news.wisc.edu./harisson/bio.html
http//www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm
http//www.kathrynharrison.com
http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki
http//www.rotten.com/library
PRIMARY TEXT
Harrison, Kathryn. The Binding Chair. New York: Random House,Inc.,2000
18
Maranatha Christian University