Oya, sudah lama aku tidak berbagi tentang tugas-tugas anak sastra Inggris. Well, di postingan kali ini aku bakalan sharing salah satu essay di kelas Minority Literature beberapa semester yang lalu. Jadi untuk kelas ini, biasanya tes memang berupa paper. Tapi untuk problem statementnya memang sudah ditentukan dari dosen, tidak seperti paper pada umumnya yang biasanya problem statement kita sendiri yang menentukan. So, ini adalah contoj pertanyaan essay yang diberikan dosen setelah kita selesai membaca novel The Woman Warrior.
Find and explain the example illustration related to
Identity Plot by Amy Hungerfold: The character is at odd with the minority
group of which he or she is part, as well as with majority group he or she is
part” in the novel entitled The Woman Warrior.
Answer:
In the first chapter of The Woman Warrior I find
the story from Maxine’s mother about her aunt in China. In this chapter Maxine
indirectly delivers not only the story of her aunt but also the Chinese culture
regarded to woman told by her mother. Maxine as the first generation of Chinese
in America feels curious about her identity. On the one hand, her mother told
her about Chinese culture and story about her aunt but the story happened at
China. In fact, Maxine lived in America. On the other hand, she never knows
about how china looks like and what Chinese cultures are. She has to find
herself in America the place where there are so many immigrants from around the
world. She was told stories about Chinese culture but in the real life she
lives in the world that Chinese was the minority group and has small chance to
develop their own culture.
As a member of minority group, Maxine
had to negotiate between her mother’s cultural values. Moreover, as the second
generation she should be able to adapt the country’s cultural values. As what
she mentioned on her novel
The emigrants confused the gods by diverting their
curses, misleading them with crooked streets and false names. They must try to
confuse their offspring as well, who, I suppose. Threaten them in similar
ways-always trying to get things straight, always trying to name the
unspeakable. The Chinese I know hide their names: sojourners take new names when
their lives change and guard their real names with silence. (taken from No Name
Woman)
Based on that paragraph we can see that Maxine as a
Chinese American confused why Chinese had to change their name. However, if we
take a red line between changing a name and silence, there is a relation on
those two. In this book, Maxine also tells us that in Chinese tradition, people
need to keep silence in order to keep their good image. There would be a
negative effect if people knew about the bad experience and notorious story of
Chinese people in their home country. This is also what made Maxine’s mother
asked her not to tell her father that her mother told about her aunt. This is
because her father wanted to burry this story and started a new life in
America. He was afraid if people knew that story it would give bad impacts to
his family.
The other example with the same idea of silence is
about Maxine’s friend who always keep silence in her class. Her friend was
afraid that people know about her father who is a drinker and gambler. She
thought that if people know about her father she would be deported from
school.
Maxine as a Chinese American woman found herself
difficult in adapting the culture in America. America which is dominated by
White Anglo men, gives a little space for her to develop herself. This is not
only because she is a Chinese but also she is a woman. Facing the
discrimination toward her society, she also mentioned the story how Chinese has
a legendary woman warrior known as FaMulan. But here, I do not concern on that
story but more focus on the Maxine life in the Woman Warrior. As she mentioned
that it is hard for her to get a good job. Even when she was at school, there
is no guarantee of appreciation whether she got good or bad score.
In her place (America) she feels wrong or odd
because of how the society treat her. Then she wrote the White Tiger that tells
about a woman warrior from China named FaMulan. In this case, she sees that
Chinese culture has a woman warrior and woman has power and ability to become a
knight. Fa Mulan which is told to show the woman power role in China, is
actually the weakness of woman role in China if we really understand the story.
Even though FaMulan is a woman warrior, when she became a warrior she acted and
pretend that she was a man. She wore a knight armed uniform when she was at the
battle. It is indeed she is a strong woman but what people know is that she is
a man. If Chinese people also treat woman equal as man, why FaMulan has to
pretend to be a man. It shows that even in Chine woman also has less dominant
role in the society.
Maxine’s mother who is actually a doctor (Shaman) in
China cannot become a doctor when she is in America. Using many herbs to cure
people in China does not help in America. People in America were not common
with woman who has ability more than man. It made her mother only becomes a
housewife after living in America. Those story shows that Maxine even in
America still confused about her identity. She only knows Chinese culture from
the story of her mother, in the other hand she is uncommon with the society in
America which is different with the story of her mother.
In the next example, Maxine shows how her mother
gives or in this case “forces” ghost druggist to do what normally Chinese
druggist do to their customers by giving candy along with their drugs. It is
actually a tradition of Chinese people that shows their hospitality to other
people. In this narration Maxine also shows the Chinese tradition towards
superstition. As stated in the chapter “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, her
mother believes that the druggist who is wrong bringing a sick medicine to her
house brings bad curse and it should be change with sweetness which will be get
by giving candy. That is what Maxine’s mother reason to ask Maxine to go to the
drugstore and ask her to ask candy from the druggist.
Maxine does not believe such a superstition.
Actually she has said to her mother that there is no such curse as what she
said only because of wrong druggist. She also adds that by asking candy to a
druggist in the drugstore makes her become a beggar but her mother still
insists her to go to the drugstore. It shows that Maxine herself feels odd with
the tradition of her mother which is actually a tradition from her group as
Chinese.
Based on above examples, I can conclude that The
Woman Warrior is a story which shows the readers how Maxine as I in the novel
adapts herself as the first generations of Chinese American who also looks for
her identity whether she wants to know her original traditions (China) or the
new tradition where she lives as American. In adapting her situation, Maxine
does what her mother told to her. However sometimes she has the opposite argument
but her mother has stronger reason. She also tried herself so hard to adapt
with the society in her environment by learning English as we know that Chinese
language is so different from English. Moreover, she tried to speak louder than
the other Chinese girl which is well-known as very soft voice. However, the
soft voice of Chinese girl is to show what Chinese American feminine is.
