ipl-logo

The Bonesetter's Daughter Analysis

769 Words4 Pages

“That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies, but in small secrets” (Tan 157). In Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Ruth Luyi Young lives by keeping secrets from others, starting from her own mother, LuLing, to her longtime boyfriend, Art. Ruth is mentally pressured to be secretive with her loved ones to avoid conflict. However, this actually causes her to be distant from them, disintegrating the trust in her relationships. Her miscommunication of feelings led to secrecy and loss of trust. She does so by keeping personal thoughts to herself, writing secrets in her diary, and ignoring her problems with Art.
Throughout her life, Ruth is always picked on by LuLing. LuLing often points out Ruth’s flaws and never congratulates …show more content…

Ruth was starting to feel that Art wasn’t appreciating her enough while Art tells Ruth that she never accepts help offers from anyone and makes her life harder than it is. When she has countless amounts of errands to run, she never asks for anyone’s help. She always depends on herself, spending more time for work than her love life. She wondered whether Art still loved her or not, but she did not this this situation seriously, as “she wasn’t the type of to get into conflict over things that were ultimately not that important” (Tan 49). She never discussed her struggles to maintain everything by herself to Art. In fact, she could never properly explain her love for him, which causes Art to believe that she’s avoiding him. “In all these years we’ve been together”...”I don’t think I know an important part of you. You keep secrets inside of you. You hide”…“Why do you keep pushing me away?” (Tan 388). The main reason why she has a hard time doing this is because she never showed love to anyone directly with anyone in the first place. It was impossible for Ruth to tell Art that she loved him when she could barely say the same thing to her mother. Though Ruth does not believe that discussing such matters with Art is critical, it is actually separating them

Show More
Related

  • Sacrifice In The Poisonwood Bible

    1479 Words  | 6 Pages

    Ruth May narrates how God is watching her all the time. Because God is monitoring her, she tries to avoid bad thoughts. Ruth May, who is only five years old, is already fearful of making a mistake because she fears making God mad. The idea of always being observed, and the fear of getting punished for bad actions came from Nathan, “So if we suffered in our little house on the peanut plain of Bethlehem, it was proof that one of us had committed a failure of virtue.” ( Kingsolver, 200) Orleanna shares how her husband believes that any unfortunate event is a punishment for their sins.

    Read More

  • Religion In Elie Wiesel's The Color Of Water

    633 Words  | 3 Pages

    On her graduation day, Ruth is fighting herself because she doesn’t know whether or not she wants to walk into the church with Frances. On the one hand, she wants

    Read More

  • A Raisin In The Sun Quotes With Page Numbers

    2524 Words  | 11 Pages

    Page 28). He also seems restless and impatient, but still respecting to his parents (he obeys his mother). To me it seems that Ruth and Walter are both stressed (they argue a lot and Ruth already has “disappointment hanging in her face” page 24), due to the family’s financial state. Their relationship seems rocky, yet you can tell they both love each other. Ruth seems to be tired and restless, having worked too much and doing housework.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In The Color Of Water

    1830 Words  | 8 Pages

    Her mother was crippled, spoke no English, and was not loved by her husband. Ruth was sexually abused by her father and began to look for a better life filled with friends, a home, and love. The day after high school graduation she fled Virginia to New York to live with her grandmother and aunts. She got a

    Read More

  • Summary: The Skin Color Of Water By James Mcbride

    2064 Words  | 9 Pages

    Ruth does not want them to discover how difficult her life used to be. She could also be hiding it because she does not want to reminiscence about her family, mostly her mother. Her “distrust of authority” might have been caused by her father, Tateh. He was extremely controlling, demanding, and selfish. His authority on his family significantly impacted Ruth as a child.

    Read More

  • The Color Of Water Racism Quotes

    945 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ruth is the perfect example of a person who sees race as being “ignorable”. In one of the chapters, it informs the reader about Ruth’s high school

    Read More

  • Killings By Andre Dubus Analysis

    1813 Words  | 8 Pages

    One example of how Ruth’s sorrow is shown to the reader is early in the story when the narrator introduces Ruth, saying that “Ruth’s arm, linked with Matt’s tightened, he looked at her. Beneath her eyes there was swelling from the three days she had suffered” (111). This introduction to Ruth’s character is able to display her feelings of loss because of the fact that one of the first traits the reader learns about Ruth is that she had cried for three days after the loss of Frank, which does clearly show her sorrow because of the fact that three days is definitely a strangely long time to be crying for, especially since it seems like the entire family, besides her, had already moved on from crying about the loss. Another example of how Ruth is affected by loss is shown the night of Richard’s murder when Matt reflects on how “he believed Ruth knew... When Ruth said good night she looked at his face, and he felt she could see see in his eyes the gun, and the night he was going to” (116-117).

    Read More

  • Ruth May's Reconciliations In Kilanga

    805 Words  | 4 Pages

    She grows old with the self-condemnation of staying with Nathan for as long as she did, for if she mustered up the courage to leave the Congo earlier, Ruth May would not have died. Ruth May’s plea for Orleanna to forgive herself, just as Ruth May has forgiven her, presents the possibility of repentance for anyone, no matter how great of consequence their mistakes are. Though she never passed the age of 6, Ruth May seems to have learned better than most the importance of finding strength from and learning from wrong-doings. Urging her mother to “Move on. Walk forward into the light”, Ruth may passes along her own moral reassessment to anyone whom will listen, telling the error in letting so-called sins weigh down ones self forever

    Read More

  • Multiple Illustrations Of Ruth's Relationship With Dr. Foster

    788 Words  | 4 Pages

    Why are the multiple recounts of Ruth’s relationship with Dr. Foster? Roshni Babal Prior to reading Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, I had established a very clear view of what was true and what was not. In my head, there was always a definitive division between the two ideas; there was either the full, unexposed truth or a dishonest representation of events. However, upon reading the novel, I was faced with multiple recounts of Ruth’s relationship with her father- Dr. Foster- leading to me wondering about whether Ruth really did have an incestuous relationship with her father.

    Read More

  • The Invisible Hero Character Analysis

    898 Words  | 4 Pages

    Similarly, Raphaela appreciates Ruth’s welcome to the school, as being new is difficult for her. At a school with distorted hierarchy, emotional support is crucial. So, Ruth provides Raphaela a place where she could feel comfortable. Despite her appreciation, Raphaela often compares her bravery to Ruth’s.

    Read More

  • James And Ruth Character Analysis

    314 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since Ruth is Jewish and James is black, they both faced difficulty with racial discrimination and prejudice. For example, Ruth stated that “death was always around Suffolk” (McBride 59). Both Ruth and James had to live in constant fear of attack because they are both in the minority. This transfer to school because both had trouble with prejudice in school also.

    Read More

  • They All Just Went Away Summary

    1368 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the narrative, Oates recalls her high school years in which she reconnects with Ruth Weidel, who gave teachers the implication that “something had happened” and how they “treated her guardedly” (Oates 561). This ties into the theme of the individual versus society. When she lived with her family, Ruth and the rest of her family were treated as outcasts and were talked about behind their backs. Now in high school, she remained alone until Oates worked up the nerve to befriend. Something had caused her to mature quickly and in the midst of that growth, Ruth created a barrier to protect herself from anymore pain.

    Read More

  • Still Stands The House Analysis

    657 Words  | 3 Pages

    The latter is described as being pretty and lively whereas Mrs. Wright lives the life of an outcast, keeping to herself. The loneliness in the two women’s lives adds a dark atmosphere to the respective stories as well as an undeniable gloom. In conclusion, Ruth Warren and Mrs. Wright share many life experiences and struggles, but what makes them different is the way in which those struggles shape them. While Ruth Warren retains her cheerful attitude despite her gloomy situation, Mrs. Wright becomes a shell of her former self, yielding her happiness completely to her

    Read More

  • A Raisin In The Sun Conflict Between Ruth And Walter

    666 Words  | 3 Pages

    I listen to you every day, every night and every morning, and you never say nothing new.” Walter keeps trying to talk to Ruth about things with the liquor business, but she does not care which causes problems between them. Married couples are supposed to talk about their problems with each other, but Ruth and Walter do not which is one of the reasons why they are always fighting. When Ruth and Walter are arguing about things, Ruth gives up and usually just lets Walter win the argument. In the play, it says, “(She raises her head and stares at him vigorously-than says more quietly)”

    Read More

  • She Stood In Tears Afraid The Alien Corn Analysis

    780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ruth the Perpetual Foreigner and Model Minority by Gale A. Yee illustrates how the story of Ruth and the

    Read More

More about The Bonesetter's Daughter Analysis

Open Document