The Bonesetter’s Daughter is a novel about three generations of Chinese women. The novel starts off with a short prologue told in the perspective of LuLing Liu Young. LuLing is the daughter of “Precious Auntie”, a horribly disfigured nursemaid who is later revealed to be her mother, and the mother of Ruth, a “ghost-writer” who authors self-help books. Ruth lives with her boyfriend Art and his two teenage daughters, Dory and Fia in an apartment in San Francisco.
She mysteriously loses her voice for several days per year around August 12. Ruth is nearly driven to the brink of exhaustion from trying to cope with everything life is throwing at her- her job, her boyfriend, her mother, as well as her past. The novel is divided into 3 parts; Part One includes Ruth’s present life with flashbacks to her younger life with her mother.
She revisits the most important moments of her past, including the first time she met Art; when her mother began believing that Precious Auntie would speak to her through Ruth; when she thought she had been impregnated by her much older, married neighbor, sent him to jail, and then was nearly raped by him; their move to San Francisco, and finally, her rebellious stage where she ultimately told her mother that she wished her suicide threats would come true. At this point, Ruth finds her mother’s handwritten recollection of her life story.
She’s already concerned about LuLing’s health because of her recent diagnosis of dementia. Ruth was surprised to find that LuLing is aware that she is losing her memory and that she’s written it down her memories before she forgets them completely. Upon discovering the papers, she takes up the task of translating her mother’s writing into English. Part 2 is in LuLing’s point of view. It details the lives of Precious Auntie and LuLing in the past; LuLing was insistent on marrying Fu Nan Chang to boost her status, to which Precious Auntie was highly opposed.
It is revealed that a Chang had proposed to Precious Auntie in the past, but she declined and chose love over status. The rejected man killed her fiance in revenge; devastated, Precious Auntie attempted to kill herself with scalding hot ink, only to fail and mutilate herself. Then, LuLing was revealed to be the illegitimate child of Auntie and her late fiance. Auntie’s true relation to her child was hidden and she served as her nursemaid instead. LuLing’s insistence on marrying into the family that had caused Auntie so much pain drove her mother to suicide.
As her “family” believes that Auntie’s ghost is haunting them, LuLing is kicked out and sent to an orphanage. There, she is taught Christian values and becomes a teacher in the school provided. LuLing falls in love and gets married to one of the teacher’s sons, who works with the scientists studying old bones that the girls often interact with. War breaks out, and her husband is forcefully recruited to fight. He returns briefly, but is eventually sent back. After some short time, the news of his death reaches the orphanage.
The girls and students flee to a safer area, living out their days there as LuLing is reunited with her “sister”. After some more time, they decide it’s best to go to America and start anew. Only 2 people can go at that time, so LuLing’s sister goes with one of the other teachers. LuLing must wait in Hong Kong for her visa to be able to visit. After a while and some difficulties, LuLing’s sister is able to bring her over by sea. Part 3 begins here, and it contains Ruth having the book translated.
Once she does, she reads it and makes it her mission to give her mother the care she deserves, the care she didn’t give her when she was younger. Art supports her decision and they decide to send her to an assisted-stay residence. Ruth talks to Gao Ling, LuLing’s sister about this, and naturally she doesn’t agree with the idea. The conversation then turns to LuLing’s life story and she explains some more about what happened, minor details mainly. However, Auntie’s name is finally revealed-Gu Liu Xin.
Art and Ruth are living a lot more happily than before, as Art realizes he’s just getting to know the real her, and really wants to know. LuLing is much less cynical ever since the move to the assisted-stay residence, but Ruth also thinks it may be because she’s found love again- this time in the translator of LuLing’s life story. For now, all is well and new beginning have been made. Overall Meaning: The main themes of The Bonesetter’s Daughter are the importance of family, no matter what they’ve put you through, and how destructive lies can be even if they’re made for a seemingly good reason.
In part one, Ruth describes her dark and depressing past with her mother who told tales of ghosts, curses and suicides. Ruth seemingly wishes to escape her past and her mother’s volatile behavior. However, when her mother begins to show signs of dementia, Ruth goes back to relive her mother’s past through her autobiography and learns of how much her mother truly loves her. Amy Tan, the author of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, didn’t learn her mother’s true name until after her mother’s death and Ruth reflects this by not fully knowing her mother’s past before it was too late to talk to LuLing about it.
Clearly, Tan wishes to emphasize the important bond that is ever-present within a family and how as Tan puts it,” A person should consider how things begin. A particular beginning results in a particular end. ” p. 153. In order for someone to truly understand who they are and how they got to this point, they have to understand their past and what experiences had shaped their lives before. The second theme is that of how lies can destroy even if original intents were benevolent. Ruth, as a “ghost-writer” doesn’t actually write for herself, rather she writes for other authors.
In her childhood, she also symbolically wrote for Precious Auntie whenever LuLing asked her. These lies she told were in many ways selfish towards her own desires but she also said many reassuring things to LuLing. However it was these small lies that led to Ruth saying that her mother should just kill herself in her diary. Ruth used her lies to create a disastrous situation that almost led to her mother’s death. Lies and hiding the truths recur everywhere in this novel and in many cases prevent the main characters from being unbiased.
LuLing didn’t read Precious Auntie’s account because she had been convinced that Auntie had just been crazy and lying. Ruth hadn’t read LuLing’s account due to her refusal in learning Chinese as a form of rebelling against her mother’s strange behavior. Tan was trying to show readers here that although little lies may protect people, eventually the truth gets out and by then it may be too late to try to fix the damage that had been done. Opening Sequence: This novel begins with a small prologue titled “Truth”. It is expressed from LuLing’s point of view and later it becomes apparent that it is the beginning of LuLing’s story.
She starts by explaining who she is, as well as naming her daughter and her past husbands. She recalls a memory of one sleepy winter morning when her mother reveals to her her true family name. As she gets to the part when her mother, “Precious Auntie” is about to reveal it, she finds that she cannot remember the name at that moment. She spends some time thinking it over and wondering why she can’t remember it when it’s clearly the most important name she knows. Then, Part One, now from Ruth’s point of view, begins. Ruth’s introduction is in the third person, limited to only what Ruth thinks.
She begins by explaining the times she lost her voice and wasn’t physically capable of speaking. This opening sequence brings up one of the most pertinent motifs in the novel. LuLing senses her memories are failing, so she writes them down just as her mother before her did. She writes her story not only so she wouldn’t forget, but also so her daughter, Ruth, could read about her story too. This opening also introduces the audience to Ruth and her bizarre habit of not speaking for what seems as reasons unknown. She expresses her pleasure at not talking and the readers are confused as to why.
This introduction leaves readers wanting to know more and helps introduce the characters and their motivations. From this first scene, we learn that LuLing wants to remember her mother’s name and that Ruth wants to be heard, but doesn’t know how. Closing Sequence: In the ending of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Ruth has just read her mother’s life story and is introduced to the pain and struggle her mother had to go through in her own life. She’s filled with a deeper understanding of most of her mother’s antics when Ruth was a child, and makes it her mission to have her mother be her top priority.
She goes to live with her mother to make sure she’s safe, leaving Art wondering if he did something wrong. In reality, Ruth is determined to treat her mother with the care she should have as a child, and explains this to him. To her surprise, Art agrees and supports her, even taking out the money to send her to an assisted-living residence. After he explains to her that it is not a nursing home and will treat her like a human being, as well as give her the proper care, they still must trick her into living there as they know the difficulty of her mother and money.
This ending sequence brings back the root of their problems- lying. They’ve seen where lying lands people, even little white lies, they still insist on tricking her. However, the catch is that this is for LuLing’s benefit, not completely anyone else’s. As Art admits, “I don’t mean it as a condition for getting us back together or getting rid of your mother or any of that. It’s not a condition for anything,”(Tan, 367) He is genuinely supporting Ruth because he really wants to help LuLing. The only way to get her to agree to this help is by lying about it, and in this way, t’s perfectly fine.
This act counters the selfish lies that started 3 generations of problems, as for once, lying is used to help, and won’t and can’t be taken advantage of. HTRLLAP: The HTRLLAP chapter, “Marked for Greatness”, connects to the first chapter of The Bonesetter’s Daughter. In this chapter, we are introduced to LuLing Young’s mother, “Precious Auntie”, whose self inflicted facial injuries rendered her mute. The scars on her face and body were a result of a failed suicide attempt after the man whose hand in marriage Precious Auntie had rejected killed her fiance.
Unable to communicate through words, Precious Auntie would “speak” to LuLing through facial expressions and gestures, but no one else could understand her the way LuLing could. This inability to communicate as well as her physical disfigurement symbolize the trauma that Auntie had suffered and altered the way that society treated her. Despite the tragedy that occurred and despite surviving a suicide attempt, Auntie’s family treated her like a leper and a pariah. “‘Ai-ya, seeing her, even a demon would leap out of his skin,’ I once heard Mother remark. ” (Tan, 3)
People tend to notice her face first, and judge it immediately as “disgusting”, “disfigured” or “wrong”, much like the way they view her bold, loud, rebellious personality. However, despite her gruesome outward physical appearance, Precious Auntie is beautiful in her personality and actions. Her maimed face isolates her from the rest of the world which consequently brings her closer to her daughter, LuLing. As much as her scars represent her past troubles, Precious Auntie’s scars also foreshadow pain that is yet to come- LuLing’s insistence to marry a man whose family killed her father- which would end in Auntie’s suicide.