The Bonesetter's Daughter Character Analysis

Amy Tan is a contemporary American writer born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1954. She was born to Chinese immigrants Daisy and John Tan. Her works explore mother-daughter relationships and Chinese-American experiences. Tan’s best-selling novels were The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Hundred Secret Senses, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement. Chinese American Literature began in the 19th century and flowered in the 20th century. The common themes followed are the challenges, interaction between generation, and identity.

The researcher has chosen, The Bonesetter’s daughter and her focus is on the clashes found within the relationships throughout the novel. Relationships in the novel are

The novel compacts with the story of an immigrant Chinese woman and her American-born daughter. The researcher textures that there are two main stories in the novel. The first story moves with Ruth, a Chinese-American woman who lives in San Francisco and her fright about her mother, who is becoming more demented. The second major story is about the letters to Ruth, written by her mother, Lu Ling. The life story of Lu Ling in china has been written by herself. A three generation story has been accumulated by Tan in The Bonesetter’s Daughter. The title of the novel goes in parallel with the main character of the first generation mentioned as Precious Auntie, the daughter of a famous bonesetter. A bonesetter is a person who realigns the disjointed bones. The plot then moves with the second generation daughter, Lu Ling, followed by the third generation American-born women, Ruth. There is a story within the story and Tan has sustained the novel in a flashback

In Lu Ling and Ruth’s relationship, the major reason for their misunderstanding and the lack of communication is due to the cultural difference. Unlike the normal mother- daughter relationship, their interaction seems entirely diverse. As Lu Ling grew up in a Chinese setting, she tries to impose Chinese culture and ideology to her daughter, Ruth. Ruth was not ready to accept the actualities by her mother, justifying that she was an American. Lu Ling believes in ghosts, and fears that the ghost has a power to haunt her whole family ruining Ruth’s