The effects of cultural conflicts on the mother- daughter relationships as seen in Amy Tan`s The Bonesetter`s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club - USD Repository
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THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
Student Number: 06 1214 109 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2010
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THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
Student Number: 06 1214 109 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2010
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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declared that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
th
Yogyakarta, June 17 , 2010 The Writer
Eunike Indriani Poedjianto 06 1214 109
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIK
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
Nomor Mahasiswa : 06 1214 109 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul: THE EFFECTS OF THE CULTURAL CONFLICTS ON THE MOTHER- DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AS SEEN IN AMY TAN’S THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER AND THE JOY LUCK CLUB Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin ataupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: ……………………….
Yang menyatakan Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
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ABSTRACT
Poedjianto, Eunike Indriani (2010). The Effects of the Cultural Conflicts on the
Mother-Daughter Relationship as Seen in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club . Yogyakarta: English Language Education
Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis discusses two Amy Tan’s novels, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. This thesis is about six mother-daughter relationships to be discussed, Precious Auntie and LuLing, LuLing and Ruth (Luyi), Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei (June), Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and Ying-Ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. The mothers in these novels are Chinese born, while their daughters were born and grew up in America. This different culture causes cultural conflicts in their relationship.
In doing this research, there is one research question: what the effects of cultural conflicts are on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.
Library research was used in this study. A collection of articles, journals, critical essays, and other available printed matters were gathered from libraries as well as electronic resources. Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club serve as the primary or main data. Other sources were collected to gain data and facts on Chinese culture. Some of the secondary sources are mostly taken from the books of culture (especially Chinese culture) like Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times by Marvin Harris and Under the Ancestors’ Shadow by Francis L.K. Hsu and the books of sociology.
In order to answer the question, I used the sociocultural approach because this cultural conflicts deal with society and culture. The theories I refer are theory of conflict, theory and reviews on the mother-daughter relationship, and some reviews on Chinese culture.
After analyzing these novels, there are two points that can be concluded. The first is the causes of conflicts. The causes of the conflicts between the mothers and the daughters in these novels are individual differences, cultural differences, and social change. Meanwhile, the second cause concerns the cultural conflicts and the effects on the mother-daughter relationships as seen in the novels. The cultural conflicts and the effects are divided into two most problematic problems here, namely the problem in communication and the problem in attitude. Meanwhile, the problem in attitude has been divided into four parts, namely: being superstitious, boasting habit, the conflicting response on marriage’s different perception, and the conflicting response on mother figure’s different perception.
This thesis also gives suggestions for future researchers and for English teaching. The other thing the future researchers can analyze is LuLing’s sickness, Dementia, Alzheimer. I also suggest a part of The Joy Luck Club as the materials for teaching reading for the students in English Education Study Program.
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ABSTRAK
Poedjianto, Eunike Indriani (2010). The Effects of the Cultural Conflicts on the
Mother-Daughter Relationship as Seen in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s
Daughter and The Joy Luck Club . Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris
Universitas Sanata dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas dua novel karangan Amy Tan yang berjudul The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club. Kedua novel ini menceritakan enam buah hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya yakni antara Precious Auntie dan LuLing, LuLing dan Ruth (Luyi), Suyuan Woo dan Jing-mei (June), Lindo Jong dan Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu dan Rose Hsu Jordan, dan Ying-Ying St.
Clair dan Lena St. Clair. Masing-masing Ibu adalah kelahiran dan keturunan Cina murni, sedangkan anak-anak mereka lahir dan dibesarkan di Amerika. Perbedaan latar belakang budaya ini menyebabkan permasalahan-permasalahan timbul di antara mereka.
Dalam mengerjakan analisa ini, terdapat satu buah masalah yang dinyatakan dalam rumusan masalah, yakni apakah akibat-akibat dari pertentangan budaya dalam hubungan-hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya seperti terdapat dalam kedua novel Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club ?
Studi pustaka digunakan dalam menganalisa data. Koleksi artikel, jurnal, esai, dan materi-materi lainnya yang dapat diperoleh di perpustakaan, sama halnya dengan bahan-bahan dari internet digunakan dalam menganalisa data. Kedua novel Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter dan The Joy Luck Club menjadi sumber utama. Selain itu, saya juga mengumpulkan data dan fakta tentang budaya Cina. Sumber-sumber lainnya kebanyakan terambil dari buku-buku tentang budaya (khususnya tentang budaya Cina) seperti Theory of Culture in Postmodern Times karangan Marvin Harris dan Under the Ancestors’ Shadow karangan Francis L.K.Hsu dan buku-buku sosiologi.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan dalam rumusan masalah, saya menggunakan pendekatan sosial-budaya karena pertentangan budaya dalam kedua novel yang saya analisa ini berkaitan dengan lingkungan dan budaya. Sedangkan teori-teori yang saya gunakan adalah teori-teori mengenai konflik, teori dan resensi tentang hubungan ibu dan anak, dan beberapa resensi tentang budaya Cina.
Setelah menganalisa kedua novel tersebut, ada dua hasil yang bisa disimpulkan. Yang pertama adalah penyebab-penyebab konflik. Penyebab- penyebab konflik dalam hubungan ibu dan anak perempuannya tersebut adalah perbedaan individu, perbedaan budaya, dan perubahan sosial. Sedangkan yang kedua adalah konflik-konflik budaya yang terjadi dan akibat-akibatnya. Konflik- konflik budaya dan akibat-akibatnya terbagi menjadi dua masalah utama, yakni permasalahan dalam komunikasi dan permasalahan dalam tingkah laku, yang terbagi menjadi empat bagian: kepercayaan dalam takhyul, kebiasaan untuk menyombongkan diri, respon yang mengakibatkan masalah dalam perbedaan persepsi tentang pernikahan, dan respon yang mengakibatkan masalah dalam
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Skripsi ini juga memberikan saran-saran kepada peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya dan dalam pengajaran bahasa Inggris. Hal lain yang bisa dianalisa oleh peneliti-peneliti selanjutnya adalah penyakit LuLing, yakni Dementia. Selain itu, saya menyarankan salah satu bagian cerita dalam novel The Joy Luck Club untuk digunakan sebagai materi untuk mengajar reading untuk mahasiswa- mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris.
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I can do all things through CHRIST who
strengthens me. . . ☺
PHILIPPIANS 4 : 13
Yk170510
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sometimes I see something as a bad thing and ask God, “Why, God?” and not thanking God for what happened. Then, one by one, slowly but surely, God’s plan comes up and becomes clearer everyday. Then, I realize that something that I called as a “bad thing” is a part of God’s plan. In this great and wonderful moment, I would like to give my biggest and greatest gratitude to my beloved Savior, Jesus Christ who always bless me, guide me, and give me the greatest spirit and knowledge that could make me finish this thesis right now.
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs. Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum.
, as my thesis advisor, for her time, support, suggestions, kindness, patience, knowledge, and everything she had given to me.
Then, I would like to give my gratitude to Mrs. C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. , as the Chief of English Education Study Program and my RELT’s lecturer and to Mr. Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., for the knowledge both of them had given to me.
I also would like to give my gratitude to all my lecturers in PBI for their guidance during my study in Sanata Dharma University. I am nothing without all of them. I would like to give my gratitude to Mba Tari and Mba Danniek in PBI Secretariat for helping me in everything I needed.
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I would like to express my deepest love and my deepest gratitude to my beloved father in heaven, papi Pdt. Andreas Poedjianto, for always “watching” me from above, for helping me to make me strong in this hard life, and to my beloved and wonderful mother, mami Yohanna Haryanti Setyawan, for the prayer, the love, the hope, and for being a strong Mom that makes me strong too.
I would like to give my gratitude to all of my family especially for Oma
Sing Gie
and Om Budianto (Om Boen), and to my wonderful Junior High School headmaster, Mrs. Lis Setiatin, for the prayer and the support. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my very best aunt, Iik Eli as my best proofreader who gave so many suggestions and much time to read my thesis.
I would like to give my special thank to Rizki Sambodo (Ariz). Thanks for the spirit, for helping me in making me more mature, for every laugh, every tear, and every smile we shared together. I have learnt so much from the beautiful chance that God gave for me to know him.
I would like to give my best appreciation and thanks to all my best friends in college: Lance, Anes, Fance, Entiw, and Ade, for the great relationship we have in this college time. May our friendship last forever!
I would like to give my gratitude to all of my best friends since I was in Junior High School: Iyaw, Iphay, Why-why, and in Senior High School: Tika,
Chela , Thata for the support and the prayer.
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I also would like to give my best appreciation and thanks to Lance (again),
Angga , and Ce Patty for being my proofreader, for the time and their suggestions.
I also would like to give my gratitude to PBI 2006’s students for encouraging me and for every best wish.
Last but not the least, I would like to give my gratitude to every single person who often asked me, “How is your thesis? When will you have your final exam?” every time we met. For all my friends in Junior High School and in Senior High School who already graduated, thanks for “encouraging” me to finish it as soon as possible. At last, I would like to give my gratitude to everyone who also included me in every prayer and had shared beautiful moments with me. God bless them all.
Eunike Indriani Poedjianto
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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i ii iv v vi vii ix x xiii
1. Theory of Sociocultural Approach……………………………… 2. Theory of Conflicts……………………………………………...
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study.………………………………………….. B. Problem formulation………………………….……………………. . C. Objective of the Study………………………………………………. D. Benefits of the Study…………………………………..……………. E. Definitions of the Terms.………….………………………………... CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies…………………………………………. B. Review of Related Theories………………………………….……..
PAGE OF DEDICATION ……………………………………………...… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..…………………………………...…………. TABLE OF CONTENTS.………………………………………………….
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN ...…………....……………… ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………..… ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………………..
TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………… APPROVAL PAGES…………………………….………………………. STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY..……………..…………...
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a) The Causes of Conflict………………………………...…..
10 b) Theory of Mother-Daughter Relationship………………….
13 1) Meaning of Mother-Daughter Relationship……..………
13 2) Conflicts in Mother-Daughter Relationship………..……
14 C. Review on Chinese Culture in Contrast with American Culture…....
16 D. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………...
21 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
22 A. Objects of the Study…………………………………………………
22 B. Approach of the Study...……………………………………….……
24 C. Method of the Study…………………………………………………
25 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
26 A. The Causes of the Conflicts…………………………………………
26 B. The Cultural Conflicts and The Effects on the Mother-Daughter Relationship……………………………………………………….
31 1. The Problem in Communication..…………………………….
32 2. The Problems in Attitude …….……………………………….
36 a) Being Superstitious .………………………………………..
38 b) Boasting Habit ..…………………………………………….
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c) The Conflicting Response on Marriage’s Different Perception …………………………………………………..
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d) The Conflicting Response on Mother Figure’s Different Perception …...………………………………………………
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58 A. Conclusions………………………………………………….………
58 B. Suggestions …………………………………………………………
61 1. Suggestions for Future Researchers.………..…………………...
61
2. Suggestions for English Teachers: the Implementation of The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club to teach Intensive Reading II……………………………………….
62 REFERENCES
64 APPENDICES
66 Appendix 1: Summary of The Bonesetter’s Daughter………………………
67 Appendix 2: Summary of The Joy Luck Club…………………………..…..
69 Appendix 3: Biography of Amy Tan………………………………………..
71 Appendix 4: Lesson Plan……………………………………………………
75 Appendix 5: Implementation of The Joy Luck Club to Teach Intensive Reading II…………...…………………………………………
77
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTIONThis chapter consists of five parts. The first part is the background of the study. It explains the reasons for choosing Amy Tan’s novels, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club. The second part, problem formulation, concerns with the problem that leads to the analysis of the study. In the third part, the objectives of the study, the aims of conducting the study are stated. The forth part mentions the benefits of the study. Finally, in order to avoid misunderstanding, there are definitions of some terms.
A. Background of the Study
A family as the smallest unit in the society is the basis of people (children) behavior. A mother and daughter relationship in a family is very important. The bond between a mother and a daughter is very strong. Noller and Fitzpatrick (267) state that the bond attachment between mother and child is formed to maintain proximity between a mother and an infant. They also state that the maintenance of proximity is mutual endeavor of both the mother and the child and is sometimes initiated by the mother and sometimes by the daughter (267).
A mother has a special role, especially in the life of her daughter, who usually has very close relationship with mother. However, a relationship between mother and daughter does not always go well. Something can always go wrong. Mother and daughter may sometimes have big problems when the daughter is in
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her adolescent year. When the daughter is in her adolescent year, usually she tries to find her self identity. The mother usually has bigger expectation of her daughter in her daughter’s life that is hard to understand and to fulfill for her daughter.
The problem is not only from that misunderstanding side, but usually culture plays an important role in a mother-and-daughter relationship, especially when there is a cultural gap between them. For example, a daughter lives separately from her mother in a place of different culture from her mother’s.
Culture can influence and develop the family relationship, especially mother- daughter relationship. Cultural differences may raise conflicts between individuals or between groups in the society, even in the family. Different cultures can produce different points of view or perception. For example, Chinese people see a mother-daughter relationship in a different way from the way American people see it. A mother in the Chinese culture is usually stricter than a mother in the American culture. While a Chinese mother treats and teaches her daughter strictly, an American mother usually gives more freedom to her daughter.
Two novels would be the source of discussion here. The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club were both written by Amy Tan, a Chinese- American novelist who wrote about a Chinese-American mixed marriage and a mother-daughter relationship. The first novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, talks about relationships of two mothers and their daughters. The first main character is Ruth as Chinese-American young woman whose life is very much influenced by the Chinese culture and who has a bad relationship with her strict mother, LuLing.
They find difficulties in understanding each other and encounter many problems
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as described in the novel. The second main character is LuLing herself, who has a very close relationship with her mother, called Precious Auntie.
Meanwhile, the second novel, The Joy Luck Club, talks about the relationships of four mothers and their daughters: Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei (June), Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong, An Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan, and Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. Suyuan is a Chinese woman who strongly holds on her culture and although she and her daughter have moved to San Francisco, the United States of America, Suyuan brings up her daughter in such a strong Chinese culture, which sometimes causes misunderstanding between them.
Problems occur when mother and daughter do not “know” each other.
The other three mothers in this novel also hold the strong Chinese beliefs that sometimes cannot blend with what the daughters’ want (because the daughters have already been influenced by American culture). It causes many problems and misunderstandings. The problems derive from the different perspective and how they cannot talk openly one to another as mother and daughter.
The main problem is communication. They cannot understand one to another and there comes problems of attitude that mothers approve but daughters do not like. Because of the problem in communication, these conflicting attitudes could not be shared. It raises more and more conflicts. This novel also describes the relationships between the mothers (Suyuan Woo, An Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair) with their mothers. In the novel we can see that most of them have bad experience and bad example of family, which could be the cause of
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the bad relationship between them and their daughter. Each mother and each daughter in this novel has different perception about mother and family which is unshared too.
Amy Tan’s novels are very rich of cultural conflicts. She presents a very wonderful bound between family relationship and culture. The explanation above shows how The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club contain so many problems of mother-daughter relationships. Amy Tan beautifully presents the conflicts in the relationship and also presents the readers real examples of family’s problem. In analyzing these novels, I focus on the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.
B. Problem Formulation
In doing this research, I have one problem formulation as follow, What are the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club ?
C. Objective of the Study
In doing this research, I have one objective. The objective of this research is to reveal the effects of cultural conflicts on the mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club.
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D. Benefits of the Study
There are some benefits we can acquire from this research. They are divided into two parts as follows.
a. The benefits for the education field Hopefully, the result of this research can give benefits to senior high school and college students and those teaching literature. For students in Senior High School and college, they will have deeper understanding in novels, especially in Amy Tan’s works. They can learn from a unique culture and gain some new knowledge. Meanwhile, for lecturer, these two novels could be one reference to be used in some courses, like in Reading
Course, Introduction to Literature
and also in Prose. By using novels, lecturers can encourage their students to develop their reading habit. These novels broaden not only our knowledge, but also our imagination and understanding toward different cultures. Besides, it also can be a variation to make lectures more interesting. For both lecturer and students, they can appreciate literary study as something valuable.
b. The benefits to readers in general There are two benefits to people in the society. First, they can get better understanding of mother-daughter relationship. Hopefully, through this research, we can gain more insights into problematic relationships between a mother and her daughter from different cultural perspectives. Second, we
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can also learn the value of mother in one’s life. No matter how strict she is, she always tries to give her best to her children as she loves them.
E. Definitions of the Terms
In this research, I work in literature and talk about the effects of the cultural conflicts on the mothers-daughters relationship. To avoid misunderstanding, below are definitions of some terms used in this study:
The first is culture. According to Kane (162) culture refers to ways of thinking and doing passed down from generation to generation. In this study, culture refers to the ways of thinking and doing passed down from mothers and daughters from two different cultures which are Chinese and American.
The second is conflict. Noller and Fitzpatrick (98) said that conflict occurs in a family because the family members hold a difference between them. Noller and Fitzpatrick (99) included that when the members of the family do not agree about the situations in their lives such as one’s behavior, one’s opinions, etc; there is a conflict. In this study, conflict refers to the disagreement between the mothers and the daughters about the situations in their lives in one’s behavior, one’s opinions and conflict occurs in their relationship because the mothers and the daughters hold culture differences between Chinese culture and American culture.
The third is mother-daughter relationship. The strongest parents-children relationship is the relationship between mother and her daughter (Noller and Fitzpatrick 267). According to them too, there is often conflict between mother and daughter because woman sees her mother as a critical, controlling, and
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demanding person while man usually idealizes his mother (267). In this study, the strongest parents-children relationship is shown by the relationship between six mothers and their daughters, they are: Precious Auntie and her daughter, LuLing; LuLing and her daughter, Ruth (Luyi); Suyuan Woo and her daughter, June (Jing- mei); Lindo Jong and her daughter, Waverly Jong; An Mei Hsu and her daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan; and Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter, Lena St. Clair. Each of them has conflicts inside their mother-daughter relationship. There are often conflicts between the mothers and the daughters because the daughters see their mothers as a critical, controlling, and demanding people.
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This chapter contains four parts: the review of related studies, the review of related theories, the review on Chinese culture in contrast with American culture, and the theoretical framework that explains the contribution of the theories in the problem solution.
A. Review of Related Studies
There have been two separate studies conducted on these two novels of Amy Tan. First, Yosepha Respati (981214068), who studied The Joy Luck Club, talked about the influence of mothers’ background on raising their daughters. She used sociocultural-historical approach. Second, Vini Sunadi (991214188), who studied The Bonesetter’s Daughter, analyzed the characterization on the character of both mother and daughter and how mother-daughter relationship was described in the novel by using the psychological approach. Unlike these two separate studies on the two novels, I made a comparison of the two, The Bonesetter’s Daughter and The Joy Luck Club, and analyzed the cultural conflicts’ effects on the mother-daughter relationship by using sociocultural approach.
B. Review of Related Theories
The review of related theories discusses some aspects of literature that provide important information in analyzing the novels. In this study, some
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theories are employed to analyze the problem: the theory of critical approaches, the theory of conflict, and the theory of mother-daughter relationship.
1. Theory of Sociocultural Approach
According to Culler (32), literature is a self-reflective context where people can reflect on what they had done in their life. Culler (32) states that novels are about the problems and possibilities of representing and giving shape or meaning to every experience people had.
Literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and meter are social in their very nature. They are conventions norms which could have arisen only in society. But, furthermore, literature represents ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’. (Wellek and Warren 94) As Wellek and Warren state that literature is a social institution, literature deals with society and literature cannot be apart from society. Literature represents ‘life’ as social reality. Literature also talks about the problem in the society and all the cases people can find in the real life.
In this study, I used theory of sociocultural approach in order to analyze the cultural conflicts and the effects those conflicts on a family relationship.
According to Rohrberger Woods Jr. (6 – 15), sociocultural approach deals with the reference of social and cultural background of literary work. It is necessary to investigate the social milieu in which a work was created and which it necessarily reflects on. The critics of this approach believe that it is necessary to investigate the society and culture in which a work was created. The approach insists that the
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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
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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.
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The first is the behavior and characteristics of other person. The importance of one’s position in the society can strongly affect his/her behavior.
For example, an employer will easily influence his/her 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 him/her). 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 he/she may follow or imitate others’ behavior. If there are different thoughts and each person stands on his/her 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 he/she feels comfortable, he/she will likely have an unchanged behavior. On the other hand, if a person lives in the place where he/she feels hard to live, then he/she may have certain behavior that leads him/her to change the condition to be better. If a person cannot accept where he/she is, it can be a conflict inside and outside him/her.
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
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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 him/herself.
His/her ability to accept any social information will help him/her to change his/her old behavior and subsequently imitate or adopt another behavior from the society.
However, if he/she 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
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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.
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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