An Analysis Of Escapism In Bone

Fae Myenne Ng is one of the most famous modern American writers and also an outstanding Chinese-American literary star after Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Gus Lee and David Wong Louie. Because of her terse and condensed language and prose-styled text, she gets attention and good reputation from the readers and critics at home and abroad. Her novels are collected into Pushcart Prize Anthology as well as the nomination of Faulkner Novel Prize. Her masterwork Bone also brings her quite a lot of honors and prizes such as: Lila Wallace Readers'Digest Literary Prize , National Literary Prize, Mc Dowell Prize and America Literary Art Prize, etc, and at the same time, Bone becomes another novel which draws American people's attention to the Chinese- American world.Like many Chinese-American novels, Bone is based on Fae Myenne Ng's personal life experience, which narrates a story of a family with three daughters living in Chinatown. After mother Mah is deserted by her first husband—the oldest daughter Leila's blood father, she remarries Leon—a paper son. However, Leon leads a wandering life on the sea in order to earn a living throughout the year; Mah also has to work overloadedly in a clothes factory; Leila is an educational consultant; the second daughter Ona falls in love with Osvaldo, the partner's son of Loen, but the bankruptcy of their laundray not only cuts off two families'relationship but also their love. So parents are against Ona's love violently. Finally, Ona chooses to commit suicide by jumping off a building desperately; the third daughter Nina travels a long way to New York, trying to escape the shade of the family tragedy as well.This thesis makes an effort to explore the theme of escapism in Bone from the point of Chinese immigrants'cultural conflicts between China and the U.S.A. Based on the different attitudes toward present life of the Leons, this thesis intends to discuss Ng's effort in exploring the escape behaviors: Leon would not like to face his real life but to work as a seasonal worker, go to sail or live in"San Fran"apartment by himself; Mah has illicit relationship with her boss Tommie Hong under extremely big stress from busy family and work; the second daughter Ona chooses a kind of extreme escape method--committing suicide; the third daughter Nina determines to be far away from the family covered by the sad atmosphere; only Leila redefines her own identity and life, then decides to leave Chinatown to strive for her own happiness. It is proposed that escape should be a behavior form as well as a consequence of ideological struggle. When assimilating into the new American culture, Chinese-Americans should follow their native cultural heritages and try to step over the two cultures through dialogues and communication.The thesis falls into three parts: an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. The introduction discusses the research situation of Bone at home and abroad after which the theme of this thesis is put forward: an analysis of escapism in Bone, and the characters'different escape behaviors are expounded one by one, which lay the foundation for the development of the thesis, then its value and theoretical meaning of academic achievement are explained in the end.The main body consists of three chapters.Chapter One introduces Chinese-American literature and escapism including its features, the historical development process from the unknown situation, being denied its national devotion to being absorbed, admitted, and appreciated, not only their painful life and difficult work after travelling across the Pacific Ocean, but as one of the American ethnic minorities, their contradictory feeling under the influence of the two cultures'conflict.Chapter Two mainly analyses different escape behaviors of the family members when they confront the culture conflict between China and America:Father Leon fails to look for work here and there to support the whole family and especially after his lovely Ona commits suicide, Leon plunges himself into extreme agony and he hates this lying country, usually sails out on the sea for several days; Mother would not like to face the tragedy, either, she stays at the factory for such a long time that under the stress from the reality, she has affairs with her boss; the oldest daughter Leila chooses to leave Chinatown finally; the second daughter Ona would rather commit suicide than torture between filialness to parents and her lover Osvaldo; the third one Nina prefers to be a flight assistant rather than stay around her family members.Chapter Three mainly focuses on the internal reasons and the external ones for their escape behaviors. The former one consists of the American Dream in parents'mind from its birth to its disillusion, the reveal of his paper son identification and his opposite attitudes towards it, people's living status quo in Chinatown and the mother-daughter relationship between three daughters and one mother; what's more, the external culture conflict and ethnic relationships Chinese immigrants meet deepen the inner misery of every family's mind, and their lonely and struggle from their hearts are demonstrated profoundly.The concluding part summarizes the whole thesis. It can be naturally arrived at that Chinese-Americans'culture conflict and ethnic relationship could be coped with correctly, then the theme is pointed out at the end of the thesis: if Chinese immigrant people long for living a happy life in USA, they should blend the best part of Chinese and American cultures harmoniously, desert those unsuitable elements; that is:"absorb the essence and discard the dross".