Analysis of Theme Through Portrayal of The Protagonist in Amy Tan's 'The Kitchen God's Wife'.
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya akan menganalisa tema melalui karakteristik
dari tokoh utama dalam novel The Kitchen God’s Wife karya Amy Tan. Winnie
Louie, yang terlahir di keluarga yang terkenal di Cina pada jaman Perang Dunia II,
dijodohkan dengan Wen Fu, yang berasal dari keluarga kelas menengah.
Pada awalnya, Winnie digambarkan sebagai gadis yang naïf dan penurut
terhadap keinginan keluarga dan suaminya. Namun, selama menikah dengan Wen
Fu, Winnie mendapat siksaan lahir dan batin. Tak tahan lagi terhadap siksaan itu,
Winnie mulai berontak. Dia mencari jalan keluar agar bisa bercerai dari Wen Fu.
Dia kemudian dibantu oleh Jimmie Louie untuk lari dari Wen Fu. Winnie
kemudian mengalami perubahan pada karakteristiknya. Ia berani melawan demi
kebahagiaannya.
Setelah bercerai dari Wen Fu dan menikah dengan Jimmie, Winnie pindah
ke Amerika Serikat. Ia digambarkan sebagai perempuan yang selalu berhati-hati
terhadap sekitarnya termasuk terhadap laki-laki di sekitar anak perempuannya,
Pearl. Ia tidak ingin Pearl mengulangi kesalahannya.
Melalui penggambaran tokoh Winnie, tema novel ini sangatlah jelas terlihat
bahwa penderitaan seseorang bisa mempengaruhi karateristik orang tersebut.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………
ii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………….
iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ………………………………………........
1
Statement of the Problem ……………………………………….......
3
Purpose of the Study ………………………………………………..
3
Method of Research …………………………………………….......
3
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………………….
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST IN AMY TAN’S
THE
KITCHEN
GOD’S
WIFE
……………………………………………………………………….
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………………
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………
18
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Kitchen God’s Wife ……………………………….
20
Biography of Amy Tan .……………………………………………
21
ii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Kitchen God’s Wife
Pearl Louie is a Chinese - American girl who works as speech therapist in
California. She does not have a close relationship with her mother, thus when she
finds out she suffers from multiple sclerosis; she keeps it secret from her mother.
One day, she is called to attend her cousin’s engagement party and once she
arrives, her aunt, Aunt Hulan, who knows about her disease, threats her to tell her
mother about her illness. So, later that night, Pearl has deep conversation with her
mother. Pearl is shocked to find out that her mother, Winnie Louie also has a
secret.
Winnie, who is born in China, loses her mother when she is a child. Later,
she moves into her uncle’s house and lives there. However, Winnie is not happy
there because her aunt’s strict attitude towards her. Then, the time for Winnie has
to marry comes. Her aunt arranges a marriage for Winnie with a middle class man
named Wen Fu. It turns out that Wen Fu is an abusive husband. Winnie suffers
physically, sexually, and mentally from the abuse and she loses her children along
the way. So, in order to prevent from having Wen Fu’s child, Winnie aborts the
baby whenever she is pregnant. Having been abused, Winnie decides to get a
divorce from Wen Fu. She then asks for help from Jimmie Louie, an American.
20
However, in order to get the divorce, Winnie needs two witnesses to sign the
paper. She asks for Aunt Du’s and Hulan’s help. After Aunt Du and Hulan know
the true nature of Wen Fu, they help Winnie and sign the paper as witnesses. After
Winnie obtains the divorce paper, she decides to go to America. Unknowingly,
Wen Fu chases her to her place and rapes her. Because of that event, Winnie is
pregnant.
After Pearl hears her mother’s secret, she tells her mother about her
disease. Her mother blames Wen Fu for Pearl’s disease, but Pearl insists that the
illness is not genetic. Her mother then says that she will go to China to find a cure
for Pearl and their relationship as mother and daughter becomes closer than before.
Biography of Amy Tan
Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1952. She is
the second of three children from John and Daisy Tan. Her mother had married
before in China and she had three children already. Unfortunately for her, she was
forced to leave her children in China and this incident was the basis for Amy
Tan’s first novel, 1989 New York Times bestseller The Joy Luck Club. When she
was 15, her father and brother died from brain tumor within a year from each
other. Her mother then moved her and her younger brother, John Jr, to
Switzerland, where she finished high school. In 1987, Amy and her mother
traveled to China to meet Amy’s three half-sisters.
Amy Tan received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and
Linguistics from San Jose State University, and later did doctoral linguistic
studies at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley. She resides in Sausalito, California
21
with her husband, Louis DeMattei, a tax accountant whom she met on a blind date
and married in 1974.
Her works include The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God's Wife
(1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001),
Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), Rules for Virgins (2011), and her coming
novel, The Valley of Amazement (2012)
Source: “Amy Tan”
22
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In real life there are many cases of abusive relationships around us. These
abusive relationships mostly take male figures as the abuser and female figures as
victims. “The causes for abusive relationship are various, such as, poor anger
management, jealousy, social stress, etc. There are five forms of abuses; they are
social, physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal”. (“Physical Abuse”)
There are many novels that tell about abuse cases, such as The Girl with
Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, and Ellen
Foster by Kaye Gibbons, but in this thesis I will choose The Kitchen God’s Wife
by Amy Tan. In The Kitchen God’s Wife, the character Winnie Louie shows about
how she is beaten by the evil husband, Wen Fu, and how she manages to get away
from him.
The Kitchen God’s Wife deals with an abuse which can occur everywhere
and not just in one place or one culture. This novel also makes me aware about
domestic violence. This novel has received some praises from critics in the United
States and one of them is that “Within the peculiar construction of Amy Tan's
1
Maranatha Christian University
second novel is a harrowing, compelling and at times bitterly humorous tale in
which an entire world unfolds in a Tolstoyan tide of event and detail. – New York
Times” (Dew).
In addition Amy Tan is a great contemporary American writer who has
achieved many awards because of her works. She received Bay Area Book
Reviewers Award, American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults,
Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature Honorable Mention, and many
others. She also received praise from Elgy Gillespie, an author and journalist.
Gillespie stated, "Once again I found myself reading Amy Tan all night, unable to
put the story down until I knew what happened in the end, sniffling when I got to
the sad bits … and finally going to sleep at dawn with the conviction that Tan had
provided an education for the heart." (“Tan, Amy – Introduction”)
I will analyze the theme of the novel through the portrayal of the
protagonist. Theme is “the subject or main idea in a talk, piece of writing or work
of art, a short piece of writing on a particular subject” (“Theme”). In
oxforddictionaries.com the word protagonist is defined as “the leading character
or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc” (“Protagonist”). I choose
portrayal of protagonist as a way to analyze the theme because it is clear that the
story of the novel focuses on the protagonist’s life. It is shown how the
protagonist’s sufferings give an impact on her personalities and make her unique,
which leads to the theme of the novel.
2
Maranatha Christian University
Statement of the Problem
The problems I am going to discuss are:
1.
What is the theme of the novel?
2.
How does the portrayal of the protagonist help in revealing the theme?
Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
1. To show what the theme of the novel is.
2. To show how the portrayal of the protagonist helps in revealing the theme.
Method of Research
I use library research in writing my thesis. First, I read the novel that I
have chosen. After that, I analyze the theme through the portrayal of the
protagonist in the novel. And then, I search for references from the Internet. In the
end, I draw some conclusion from my analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
I divided my thesis into three parts, preceded by the Acknowledgements,
the Table of Contents, and the Abstract. 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.
Chapter Two is the Analysis of the Theme Through the Portrayal of the
Protagonist in Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife. The thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the synopsis of the novel and the
biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Amy
Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife, I would like to draw a conclusion. Winnie is a
Chinese girl who lives when a war happened in China. She was born in a wealthy
family and she is arranged to marry Wen Fu, a man from middle class family.
After she marries Wen Fu, she realizes that Wen Fu is not a nice person. He is
abusive and evil. During her marriage with Wen Fu, Winnie suffers from his
abuses. After many abuses, Winnie decides that she wants to be free from Wen Fu
and she finally runs away to the United States.
Winnie is portrayed as naïve and submissive girl before she marries Wen
Fu. Winnie, who is raised in a traditional Chinese family, is expected to obey the
rules from her aunt. As a result, she becomes submissive. She also believes in
what people say because she lacks experiences and judgment. Thus, she is a naïve
person.
However, after she marries Wen Fu, these characteristics slowly change
due to her being abused by Wen Fu. Winnie, who once believes in what people
say to her, starts to have her own ideas and opinion. Her experience with Wen Fu
15
Maranatha Christian University
makes her realize the reality around her. Her being naïve slowly develops into
carefulness. She then has her own judgment to the situations around her. She
becomes careful towards men around her daughter, Pearl. This happens because
Winnie does not want Pearl to repeat her mistakes.
Then, Winnie, who is once submissive, changes into a rebellious woman.
She suffers enough during her marriage so she decides to end her suffering. She
runs away from Wen Fu because she cannot take more abuses from him. She even
prefers staying in jail when Wen Fu accuses her of stealing to apologizing to Wen
Fu and coming back home with him.
Along with her rebelliousness, a characteristic is formed, that is
resourceful. This characteristic is formed because she needs to survive under Wen
Fu’s control. She uses tricks to get what she wants without making Wen Fu angry.
When Wen Fu brings another woman home, she uses the occasion to ask for a
divorce from him. Although Wen Fu refuses, Winnie actually shows that she is no
longer submissive towards her husband because at that time it is forbidden for
women to ask for a divorce from her husband.
After analyzing the characteristics of the protagonist, I get the theme that
“One’s sufferings influence one’s characteristics.” Winnie, before she is abused, is
a naïve and submissive girl but her sufferings influence her characteristics.
Winnie then makes an important decision in her life, that is, she wants to be free
from Wen Fu, and she struggles to get her own happiness. As a character, Winnie
is portrayed as someone who is different from other Chinese girls.
During that time in China, Chinese girls should obey the tradition. They
are expected to obey their husbands and follow what their husbands want. A
16
Maranatha Christian University
divorce is considered taboo for girls because at that time it is not common for girls
to get divorce from their husbands. Once they divorce they will be considered as
bad luck in the family. The society also regards a wife as a bad luck when a wife
disobeys her husband’s words. Winnie, however, despite all the rules in the
society, goes against her husband to achieve her own happiness.
In my opinion, the author succeeds in showing to the readers that one’s
sufferings influence his/her characteristics. She creates Winnie as a naïve girl who
lacks experiences and who also obeys every rule in traditional Chinese society.
But then she gets abuses from her husband and from those abuses she grows as a
character who dares to go against her own tradition although she knows that she
will be considered bad luck. However in the end she gets her own happiness and
freedom.
In my opinion, the theme of this novel can be considered universal. It can
be applied in our daily life. Everyone will have their own unhappiness and
sufferings and it is undeniable that those unhappiness and sufferings will affect
their characteristics. In the novel, the sufferings that Winnie experiences make her
strong and she becomes a better person. So for some people, their sufferings can
make them strong but for others, their sufferings will make them feel more painful
and unhappy. By reading this novel I get the lesson that in our life we will have
our misfortune, pain, and unhappiness. Nevertheless, what matters most is for us
to overcome those sufferings and to make life go on.
17
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God’s Wife. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1991.
Print.
References
"Amy Tan". Wikipedia. 2012. Web. 20 Jan 2012.
“Careful.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17 Sept
2012.
Dew, Robb Forman. “Pangs of an Abandoned Child”. NYTimes.com. The New
York Times. 16 June 1991. Web. 27 Oct 2012
“Naive.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17 Sept
2012.
"Physical Abuse". Wikipedia. 2012. Web. 20 Jan 2012.
“Protagonist.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 15
Sept 2012.
“Rebellious.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17
Sept 2012.
“Resourceful.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17
Sept 2012.
18
Maranatha Christian University
“Submissive.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17
Sept 2012.
“Suffering.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print
"Tan, Amy - Introduction." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W.
Hunter. Vol. 120. Gale Cengage, 1999. eNotes.com. Web. 27 Oct
2012
“Theme.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print
19
Maranatha Christian University
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya akan menganalisa tema melalui karakteristik
dari tokoh utama dalam novel The Kitchen God’s Wife karya Amy Tan. Winnie
Louie, yang terlahir di keluarga yang terkenal di Cina pada jaman Perang Dunia II,
dijodohkan dengan Wen Fu, yang berasal dari keluarga kelas menengah.
Pada awalnya, Winnie digambarkan sebagai gadis yang naïf dan penurut
terhadap keinginan keluarga dan suaminya. Namun, selama menikah dengan Wen
Fu, Winnie mendapat siksaan lahir dan batin. Tak tahan lagi terhadap siksaan itu,
Winnie mulai berontak. Dia mencari jalan keluar agar bisa bercerai dari Wen Fu.
Dia kemudian dibantu oleh Jimmie Louie untuk lari dari Wen Fu. Winnie
kemudian mengalami perubahan pada karakteristiknya. Ia berani melawan demi
kebahagiaannya.
Setelah bercerai dari Wen Fu dan menikah dengan Jimmie, Winnie pindah
ke Amerika Serikat. Ia digambarkan sebagai perempuan yang selalu berhati-hati
terhadap sekitarnya termasuk terhadap laki-laki di sekitar anak perempuannya,
Pearl. Ia tidak ingin Pearl mengulangi kesalahannya.
Melalui penggambaran tokoh Winnie, tema novel ini sangatlah jelas terlihat
bahwa penderitaan seseorang bisa mempengaruhi karateristik orang tersebut.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………
ii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………….
iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ………………………………………........
1
Statement of the Problem ……………………………………….......
3
Purpose of the Study ………………………………………………..
3
Method of Research …………………………………………….......
3
Organization of the Thesis ………………………………………….
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST IN AMY TAN’S
THE
KITCHEN
GOD’S
WIFE
……………………………………………………………………….
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………………
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………
18
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Kitchen God’s Wife ……………………………….
20
Biography of Amy Tan .……………………………………………
21
ii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Kitchen God’s Wife
Pearl Louie is a Chinese - American girl who works as speech therapist in
California. She does not have a close relationship with her mother, thus when she
finds out she suffers from multiple sclerosis; she keeps it secret from her mother.
One day, she is called to attend her cousin’s engagement party and once she
arrives, her aunt, Aunt Hulan, who knows about her disease, threats her to tell her
mother about her illness. So, later that night, Pearl has deep conversation with her
mother. Pearl is shocked to find out that her mother, Winnie Louie also has a
secret.
Winnie, who is born in China, loses her mother when she is a child. Later,
she moves into her uncle’s house and lives there. However, Winnie is not happy
there because her aunt’s strict attitude towards her. Then, the time for Winnie has
to marry comes. Her aunt arranges a marriage for Winnie with a middle class man
named Wen Fu. It turns out that Wen Fu is an abusive husband. Winnie suffers
physically, sexually, and mentally from the abuse and she loses her children along
the way. So, in order to prevent from having Wen Fu’s child, Winnie aborts the
baby whenever she is pregnant. Having been abused, Winnie decides to get a
divorce from Wen Fu. She then asks for help from Jimmie Louie, an American.
20
However, in order to get the divorce, Winnie needs two witnesses to sign the
paper. She asks for Aunt Du’s and Hulan’s help. After Aunt Du and Hulan know
the true nature of Wen Fu, they help Winnie and sign the paper as witnesses. After
Winnie obtains the divorce paper, she decides to go to America. Unknowingly,
Wen Fu chases her to her place and rapes her. Because of that event, Winnie is
pregnant.
After Pearl hears her mother’s secret, she tells her mother about her
disease. Her mother blames Wen Fu for Pearl’s disease, but Pearl insists that the
illness is not genetic. Her mother then says that she will go to China to find a cure
for Pearl and their relationship as mother and daughter becomes closer than before.
Biography of Amy Tan
Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1952. She is
the second of three children from John and Daisy Tan. Her mother had married
before in China and she had three children already. Unfortunately for her, she was
forced to leave her children in China and this incident was the basis for Amy
Tan’s first novel, 1989 New York Times bestseller The Joy Luck Club. When she
was 15, her father and brother died from brain tumor within a year from each
other. Her mother then moved her and her younger brother, John Jr, to
Switzerland, where she finished high school. In 1987, Amy and her mother
traveled to China to meet Amy’s three half-sisters.
Amy Tan received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and
Linguistics from San Jose State University, and later did doctoral linguistic
studies at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley. She resides in Sausalito, California
21
with her husband, Louis DeMattei, a tax accountant whom she met on a blind date
and married in 1974.
Her works include The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God's Wife
(1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001),
Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), Rules for Virgins (2011), and her coming
novel, The Valley of Amazement (2012)
Source: “Amy Tan”
22
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In real life there are many cases of abusive relationships around us. These
abusive relationships mostly take male figures as the abuser and female figures as
victims. “The causes for abusive relationship are various, such as, poor anger
management, jealousy, social stress, etc. There are five forms of abuses; they are
social, physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal”. (“Physical Abuse”)
There are many novels that tell about abuse cases, such as The Girl with
Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, and Ellen
Foster by Kaye Gibbons, but in this thesis I will choose The Kitchen God’s Wife
by Amy Tan. In The Kitchen God’s Wife, the character Winnie Louie shows about
how she is beaten by the evil husband, Wen Fu, and how she manages to get away
from him.
The Kitchen God’s Wife deals with an abuse which can occur everywhere
and not just in one place or one culture. This novel also makes me aware about
domestic violence. This novel has received some praises from critics in the United
States and one of them is that “Within the peculiar construction of Amy Tan's
1
Maranatha Christian University
second novel is a harrowing, compelling and at times bitterly humorous tale in
which an entire world unfolds in a Tolstoyan tide of event and detail. – New York
Times” (Dew).
In addition Amy Tan is a great contemporary American writer who has
achieved many awards because of her works. She received Bay Area Book
Reviewers Award, American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults,
Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature Honorable Mention, and many
others. She also received praise from Elgy Gillespie, an author and journalist.
Gillespie stated, "Once again I found myself reading Amy Tan all night, unable to
put the story down until I knew what happened in the end, sniffling when I got to
the sad bits … and finally going to sleep at dawn with the conviction that Tan had
provided an education for the heart." (“Tan, Amy – Introduction”)
I will analyze the theme of the novel through the portrayal of the
protagonist. Theme is “the subject or main idea in a talk, piece of writing or work
of art, a short piece of writing on a particular subject” (“Theme”). In
oxforddictionaries.com the word protagonist is defined as “the leading character
or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc” (“Protagonist”). I choose
portrayal of protagonist as a way to analyze the theme because it is clear that the
story of the novel focuses on the protagonist’s life. It is shown how the
protagonist’s sufferings give an impact on her personalities and make her unique,
which leads to the theme of the novel.
2
Maranatha Christian University
Statement of the Problem
The problems I am going to discuss are:
1.
What is the theme of the novel?
2.
How does the portrayal of the protagonist help in revealing the theme?
Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
1. To show what the theme of the novel is.
2. To show how the portrayal of the protagonist helps in revealing the theme.
Method of Research
I use library research in writing my thesis. First, I read the novel that I
have chosen. After that, I analyze the theme through the portrayal of the
protagonist in the novel. And then, I search for references from the Internet. In the
end, I draw some conclusion from my analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
I divided my thesis into three parts, preceded by the Acknowledgements,
the Table of Contents, and the Abstract. 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.
Chapter Two is the Analysis of the Theme Through the Portrayal of the
Protagonist in Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife. The thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the synopsis of the novel and the
biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the theme through the portrayal of the protagonist in Amy
Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife, I would like to draw a conclusion. Winnie is a
Chinese girl who lives when a war happened in China. She was born in a wealthy
family and she is arranged to marry Wen Fu, a man from middle class family.
After she marries Wen Fu, she realizes that Wen Fu is not a nice person. He is
abusive and evil. During her marriage with Wen Fu, Winnie suffers from his
abuses. After many abuses, Winnie decides that she wants to be free from Wen Fu
and she finally runs away to the United States.
Winnie is portrayed as naïve and submissive girl before she marries Wen
Fu. Winnie, who is raised in a traditional Chinese family, is expected to obey the
rules from her aunt. As a result, she becomes submissive. She also believes in
what people say because she lacks experiences and judgment. Thus, she is a naïve
person.
However, after she marries Wen Fu, these characteristics slowly change
due to her being abused by Wen Fu. Winnie, who once believes in what people
say to her, starts to have her own ideas and opinion. Her experience with Wen Fu
15
Maranatha Christian University
makes her realize the reality around her. Her being naïve slowly develops into
carefulness. She then has her own judgment to the situations around her. She
becomes careful towards men around her daughter, Pearl. This happens because
Winnie does not want Pearl to repeat her mistakes.
Then, Winnie, who is once submissive, changes into a rebellious woman.
She suffers enough during her marriage so she decides to end her suffering. She
runs away from Wen Fu because she cannot take more abuses from him. She even
prefers staying in jail when Wen Fu accuses her of stealing to apologizing to Wen
Fu and coming back home with him.
Along with her rebelliousness, a characteristic is formed, that is
resourceful. This characteristic is formed because she needs to survive under Wen
Fu’s control. She uses tricks to get what she wants without making Wen Fu angry.
When Wen Fu brings another woman home, she uses the occasion to ask for a
divorce from him. Although Wen Fu refuses, Winnie actually shows that she is no
longer submissive towards her husband because at that time it is forbidden for
women to ask for a divorce from her husband.
After analyzing the characteristics of the protagonist, I get the theme that
“One’s sufferings influence one’s characteristics.” Winnie, before she is abused, is
a naïve and submissive girl but her sufferings influence her characteristics.
Winnie then makes an important decision in her life, that is, she wants to be free
from Wen Fu, and she struggles to get her own happiness. As a character, Winnie
is portrayed as someone who is different from other Chinese girls.
During that time in China, Chinese girls should obey the tradition. They
are expected to obey their husbands and follow what their husbands want. A
16
Maranatha Christian University
divorce is considered taboo for girls because at that time it is not common for girls
to get divorce from their husbands. Once they divorce they will be considered as
bad luck in the family. The society also regards a wife as a bad luck when a wife
disobeys her husband’s words. Winnie, however, despite all the rules in the
society, goes against her husband to achieve her own happiness.
In my opinion, the author succeeds in showing to the readers that one’s
sufferings influence his/her characteristics. She creates Winnie as a naïve girl who
lacks experiences and who also obeys every rule in traditional Chinese society.
But then she gets abuses from her husband and from those abuses she grows as a
character who dares to go against her own tradition although she knows that she
will be considered bad luck. However in the end she gets her own happiness and
freedom.
In my opinion, the theme of this novel can be considered universal. It can
be applied in our daily life. Everyone will have their own unhappiness and
sufferings and it is undeniable that those unhappiness and sufferings will affect
their characteristics. In the novel, the sufferings that Winnie experiences make her
strong and she becomes a better person. So for some people, their sufferings can
make them strong but for others, their sufferings will make them feel more painful
and unhappy. By reading this novel I get the lesson that in our life we will have
our misfortune, pain, and unhappiness. Nevertheless, what matters most is for us
to overcome those sufferings and to make life go on.
17
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God’s Wife. New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1991.
Print.
References
"Amy Tan". Wikipedia. 2012. Web. 20 Jan 2012.
“Careful.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17 Sept
2012.
Dew, Robb Forman. “Pangs of an Abandoned Child”. NYTimes.com. The New
York Times. 16 June 1991. Web. 27 Oct 2012
“Naive.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 17 Sept
2012.
"Physical Abuse". Wikipedia. 2012. Web. 20 Jan 2012.
“Protagonist.” Oxford Dictionary Online. oxforddictionaries.com, 2012. Web. 15
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