Yonas Ambaye

APLA
Saunders
3/22/14
The Bonesetter's Daughter
In the book "The Bonesetter's Daughter" by Amy Tan, a daughter Ruth suffer's from a
rough relationship with her mother but then finally understands her mother's past and
problems with it.Ruth struggles to build a meaningful relationship with her boyfriend, and
slowly begins to lose it while dealing with her mother's illness of dementia and possibly
Alzheimer's. To begin the book, Amy Tan deeply foreshadows the secrets that lie within
the mother of Ruth, Luling and her past. With a great hook in the beginning of the book,
Tan nearly loses her reader part one of the book where the spotlight is mainly on Ruth
and her family. A flashback to her mother's life to begin the book was an amazing job of
forshadowing because it allows the reader to realize what needs to be answered
throughout the book; the real name of "Precious Auntie". While reading about Ruth and
how she can not figure out who she is, the book becomes incredibly boring. Ruth just
argues with her boyfriend Art, participates in battles full of negative remarks with her two
step daughters, and lightly touches on what has become of the pass. Intead, it focuses
on the life of Ruth and how her relationship with her mother has been. However, I fully
support the hook and Ruth's problems to be fully explained throughout the book
because it gives you and idea of how she feels about herself and her mother. When
Ruth can feel "the blood draining out of her head", this metaphor greatly introduces the
reader into the world of Ruth while she speaks to her mother. I support this part first part
of the story that can be rather boring because it touches on the real world problems that
a woman may face when having to deal with a family and slowly losing a mother to
illness. Luling only gets worth as the story progresses, and that's exactly how the real
world is. When an illness such as dementia is concieved, the only thing that can be
done is to be supportive because there is no cure for this disease. Ruth just does that
and willingly puts her relationship in jeopardy to prevent her mom from completely
losing her memory. Ruth hates that her mom can't rememeber her past and constantly
thinks to herself that her mom will never get out of her mindset.
The author Amy Tan also does an incredible job of representing the broken
English that Luling speaks. Luling constantly says "Ai-ya" before her sentences and
says things like "We go shop dinner now or go later?". This also reflects the culture of
an American-immigrant household. Many immigrants come to America and hardly ever
learn fluent English, which becomes a disadvantage later on. Ruth wants to take her
mom to see a doctor, but Luling refuses because she doesn't like "American medicine"
and prefers to use natural herbs like back in her country. I have seen this problem occur
many times in my household and to those around me. Too stubborn to believe doctors,
the elder immigrants prefer to use more natural and spirited ways of being cured. Luling
is eventually tricked into going to see a doctor/psychiatrist and is discretely tested. This
book speaks to the public because it represents the rejection of American medicine by

the outside world. But by showing that Luling is eventually put in the correct home with
the correct help, Tan is able to tell the audience that it is important to accept the help
that is around you. This area of the book shows the moral and cultural values of China
because Ruth is expected to take care of her mother from day one. She didn't need to
between Ruth and her sister Gaoling, they knew what was expected of them when their
mother was getting sick. Even though one is born and raised within American culture,
the traditions from the family are carried on to future generations. The value of taking
care of your parents has increased over the years and more expectations have risen of
the children from developing countries once they arrive to the land of freedom (U.S).
Amy Tan also is able to touch on the adversaries that immigrants face before
coming to the U.S. This book does a great job of going into detail with many things such
as Gaoling's husband that was addicted to Opium and how she would suffer forever if
she were to stay. When Luling states, "I sailed for America, a land without curses or
ghosts", Tan accurately points out the worries that a Chinese immigrant leaves behind
when coming to America. While subtly using juxtaposition, Tan is able to convey the
happiness that Luling feels when she finally comes up with the money that she needs to
travel to the land of freedom and pinpoints the cultural believes that is present in
Chinese culture. "Many Chinese people today consider that it is possible to contact the
spirits of their ancestors" which goes to show that ghosts play an important part in
Chinese culture, and Amy Tan is able to touch on that subject in as little as 10 words
which is amazing. Paired with the ghost of Precious Auntie that lays a curse upon
Luling's family, Tan is able to reach out to the cultural values of China. Luling is able to
leave her worries and problems behind with her sail to China. Also, the book uses vivid
imagery to describe the struggles that Ruth faces. Ruth pays so much attention to the
things around her and the reader is able to put themselves in Ruth's spot and the
discomfort of herself and her environment.
A writer for the New York Times, Nancy Willard states that "Reading this tripartite novel
is like peering into a carved ivory ball that contains numerous smaller balls, each
revealing a different design but all worked from a single source. Tan's concern for what
memory keeps and what it elects to hide is that single source, allowing her characters
subtly to illuminate one another's perspectives. And what marvelous characters she
gives us..." Willard is able to justify Tan's reason for switching between a third person
and first person point of view and is able to reveal the reasons why. Although I do
believe that the book is extremely complicated due to the switching in not only
characters, but points of view as well, this book does a great job of slowly revealing
secrets and thoroughly explaining puzzling situations. Luling never regains her memory
in the end, which speaks to the reader in terms of not every ending is a happy ending.
In the end, Ruth is barely beginning to figure out who she really is and can only wait for
things to go uphill as her mom is in a nursing home. Amy Tan does an amazing job of
telling the story through a mother and daughter whose relationship is almost crushed
but patched together just enough to make it through the end.

Commentary
I managed to find one of my final essays from my AP Language Arts class and it has
given me the chance to look at where I was as a writer over an entire year ago. I began
my introduction poorly by leaving an incomplete package at the beginning of the essay,
and not expanding on it later. In my APLA class we were taught to read the prompt,
brainstorm ideas and write the essay all in the whole class period, which was about 40
minutes. These SAT style prompts dont allow us to fully develop our thoughts and ideas
and result in a mediocre paper. I feel that the way Shannon had us work on one project
to whole quarter was very helpful and successful to an excellent essay. As I read my
essay, I noticed how robotic I sounded and doesnt sound like anything I would say in
real life. While my essays in English 101 have been much different and through weeks
of revision and thoughtful drafting, I have finally been able to introduce my own ideas
both emotionally and academically.