Themes of The Bonesetter's Daughter (The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan)

Member Name: castleofdreams

Product:	The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
Date:	12/11/05 (2905 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its striking style of a book within a book within another book

Disadvantages: Could be too wordy at times

I think that the Bonesetter's Daughter is a captivating novel. Amy Tan had been able to capture the Chinese culture, thinking and used vivid imagination to illustrate this. What is unique is that she is able to inculcate both the Chinese and American cultures in a humorous and amazing way.

Within the novel itself, contains many different themes. The most obvious theme would be mother-daughter relationships where it consists of three generations, Precious Auntie mother of Lulling, who is in turn mother of Ruth. However, what is striking is that all three of them display the same burden of being tied to superstition and it is vital for Ruth to be able to break free from this pattern. To be able to break free, Ruth must first improve her relationship with her mother to piece the memories of the past together in order to understand and let go of this burden.

"As Ruth now stares at the photo, she thinks about her mother as a little girl, about her grandmother as a young woman. These are the women who shaped her life, who are in her bones. They caused her to question whether the order and disorder of her life were due to fate or luck, self-determination or the actions of others. They taught her to worry. But she has also learned that these warnings were passed down, not to simply scare her, but to force her to avoid their footsteps, to hope for something better. They wanted her to get rid of the curses"

Another note about mother-daughter relationships is that all of them seem to have communication problems. Luling and Precious Auntie had problems communicating due to Luling's rebellious nature, while Ruth and Luling had communication barriers due to lack of understanding for each other. Ruth sees herself as American where love and affection was openly displayed, yet for Luling, being brought up in China was more reserved and Chinese where "If she didn't love you, why did she bother to criticize you for you own good?" Thus, due to this verbal barrier, it seemed appropriate that their way of communicating is through writing. Each mother told their daughter of their deepest darkest secrets through an autobiography. Unfortunately, in Luling and Precious Auntie's case Luling did not read it until it was much too late, which cause her to be guilt-stricken and make Ruth's childhood unhappy.

Women who are independent are also a clear theme in this book. The book is about how women in different era are able to be independent and solve their problems. In China, bound feet was used to keep the women from running away and to be housebound, yet in Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan is able to play with the idea that women could still find some power in the home. Luling's paternal family, known as the Liu Clan display this strength where the women were indispensable. Precious Auntie was also a woman too modern for her time and was able to face many problems and change it to her advantage. This trait apparently ran in the family line and thus soon, Luling and Ruth developed it too.

There are also the other themes such as Bones, where it is used in different forms such as for communication, medicine and the legacy passed from generation to generation. Another theme would be Boy-Girl relationships and Amy Tan has amazingly weaved into the story. While Ruth was a journey to improve relations with her mother, her relationship with her lover, Art, had also gradually developed.

All in all, The Bonesetter's Daughter is a masterpiece that inculcates so many different ideas and perspectives that only reading it once would not be sufficient to fully grasp all its meanings. Many of its ideals could also be learnt which makes it an inspiring novel.

Summary: A beautiful novel on love and life itself.