On "Scapegoat" Motif In Saving Fish From Drowning

The prompt rise of the Chinese American writers has featured the Americanliterary arena. Meanwhile, the development of the Chinese American literature hasenriched the connotations of American literature to a large extent. Being one of themost reputed and best acclaimed Chinese American female writers, Amy Tan makesgreat contributions to the progress of the Chinese American feminine literature andprompts it to a new level.As the fifth novel of Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning, once published, isranked among the top ten New York Times bestsellers in fiction. It also commendablyrepresents the writer’s creativity. Currently, quite a few scholars have analyzed thethemes and writing methods of the novel from different perspectives; however, up tonow there has been no research on the “scapegoat” motif in the novel. This thesiswill approach the “scapegoat” motif in the novel.The thesis is constituted of five chapters. Chapter One first introduces the lifecourse and creative techniques of Amy Tan. Then, the thesis summarizes the researchstatus of Saving Fish from Drowning both at home and abroad. In the end of thechapter, the significance and framework of the thesis are pointed out.Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the main body of the thesis.The second chapter probes into the tranquil conditions of the American tourists andBurma, and the sudden befalling of catastrophe. To be more specific, these areembodied by the unity of the tourists before the journey, their suffering of themalaria during the trip and the successive outburst of wars in Burma after itstemporary peaceful life.Chapter Three is the key part of the whole thesis. It mainly dissects that for thesake of resolving the crisis, the American tourists and the Burmese government bothselect and dispose of the Karen tribe as the scapegoat. Either from the stand of thetourists or the viewpoint of Burma, the minority tribe carries distinct characteristicsof sacrifice. Therefore, it is chosen as the “scapegoat” taking away all the disasters.The disposal of the “scapegoat” is divided into two steps: in the beginning, it is driven into the No Name Place in the deep jungle; after that, the tribe as a whole isslaughtered by the Lord’sArmy by all means.Chapter Four expounds on the physical stability and spiritual recovery after thesacrifice of the “scapegoat” for the whole group. They are manifested concretely inthe American tourists’getting rid of the disease and getting together with their familyto begin new lives, and in the regained peacefulness of Burma combined with thefarewell to the past turmoil.The last chapter sums up the thesis by reviewing the whole scapegoatmechanism and pointing out such problems as the still-existing fusion and collisionin the eastern and western society and the living condition of the ethnic minority andthe ways of solving those problems. At last, this thesis briefly states the limitationsof the research and makes tentative predictions of the future study orientation ofSaving Fish from Drowning.