Bones constitute on important part in "The Bonesetter's Daughter". What is the significance of the book's title?
Pavel Year 11 Literature 16.11.2004
Bones constitute on important part in "The Bonesetter's Daughter". What is the significance of the book's title?
"The Bonesetter's Daughter" in my opinion holds a deeper meaning as a title. Amy Tan could have called the book "Precious Auntie" or "Liu Xing Gu" if you directly translate the bonesetter's daughter. Why did Amy Tan choose this title? These three words must contain some deeper meaning and therefore we should not judge the title at face value. The first thing that we should look at is what these three words are signifying. They are putting emphasis on the bonesetter by saying that this book is about His daughter. Tan could have paraphrased the title into "The Daughter of the Bonesetter" This means that there must be some importance laid on this bonesetter. The term "daughter of the famous bonesetter" is only used a few times within the contents. Amy Tan wanted to accentuate two bits of information. One of those words is daughter. Since most of the book is mostly feminine based, it should, naturally, have a more feminine title. Before reading the book we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her father. However, we are not told about the bonesetter's daughter until page 155. This is telling us something. We thought that the main character in this book had to be the bonesetter's daughter. We now find out that this is perhaps not so and that it will be difficult to pin point the main character in this book. The main difficulty is within the fact that this book has no immediate plot. It is more of a mixture between psychological drama and the autobiography of a woman. Nobody can summarize the book effectively within one sentence. The story is far too intricate. This is exactly the opposite image that I personally obtained from the title. Also what surprised me most of all was the word "Bonesetter" which I had never come across. Taking that word apart we can see that it represents a person who sets bones, or basically, someone who fixes bones. This, I thought, is a very strange profession. Why isn't he called a doctor? There must be some significance with the bones. And there was.
Upon reading the first seven chapters there is almost no mention of any bones, any bonesetters or anything else from the sort. However, one you delve into the second section of the book, you find that this is the main point of these manuscripts of a person's life. The person who wrote them has been greatly influenced by these bones. This person is none other than LuLing. As a very young child she had no idea that her fate had already been drawn out by these bones which she had never heard about. The first time she realizes how important they are for her life was when she reads the pages given to her by her mother. She learns about the curse that has caused her grandfather and mother such great pains and which will follow her until her death. It is not sufficient to state that bones are important add on to the story. They are one of the main ingredients. In fact if it wasn't those particular bones from Peking Man none of this would have ever happened. This is why bones had to be part of the title. The bones from Peking Man are very closely related to LuLing herself. Actually, it is probably true that Peking Man was her ancestor who lived close to a million years ago. It is possible since perhaps only the Gu family knew about the Monkey's Jaw and since bones from there have proven to have belonged to Peking Man it is only logical to say that this Peking Man could be none other than a Gu himself who had died in there. This is where the curse begins to evolve. It is based on the fact that the bones taken out from that cave by the generations of bonesetters and used for medicine had actually been bones from a dead ancestor which means they will be unlucky until their bones are put back where they belong. A curse hang over Precious Auntie's father who had his wife and son die from an infection and then he followed. The curse passed on the Precious Auntie whose father and husband died in the same evening and she herself lived an unhappy life until she finally committed suicide. The Bonesetter's Daughter has a tragic story which in itself deserves to have our pity. This is why she is such an important person in this story. We can then relate LuLing's and Ruth's lives all the way back to Precious Auntie's. Has the curse followed them too? Or has the family been forgiven for having suffered so much.
Bones constitute on important part in "The Bonesetter's Daughter". What is the significance of the book's title?
"The Bonesetter's Daughter" in my opinion holds a deeper meaning as a title. Amy Tan could have called the book "Precious Auntie" or "Liu Xing Gu" if you directly translate the bonesetter's daughter. Why did Amy Tan choose this title? These three words must contain some deeper meaning and therefore we should not judge the title at face value. The first thing that we should look at is what these three words are signifying. They are putting emphasis on the bonesetter by saying that this book is about His daughter. Tan could have paraphrased the title into "The Daughter of the Bonesetter" This means that there must be some importance laid on this bonesetter. The term "daughter of the famous bonesetter" is only used a few times within the contents. Amy Tan wanted to accentuate two bits of information. One of those words is daughter. Since most of the book is mostly feminine based, it should, naturally, have a more feminine title. Before reading the book we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her father. However, we are not told about the bonesetter's daughter until page 155. This is telling us something. We thought that the main character in this book had to be the bonesetter's daughter. We now find out that this is perhaps not so and that it will be difficult to pin point the main character in this book. The main difficulty is within the fact that this book has no immediate plot. It is more of a mixture between psychological drama and the autobiography of a woman. Nobody can summarize the book effectively within one sentence. The story is far too intricate. This is exactly the opposite image that I personally obtained from the title. Also what surprised me most of all was the word "Bonesetter" which I had never come across. Taking that word apart we can see that it represents a person who sets bones, or basically, someone who fixes bones. This, I thought, is a very strange profession. Why isn't he called a doctor? There must be some significance with the bones. And there was.
Upon reading the first seven chapters there is almost no mention of any bones, any bonesetters or anything else from the sort. However, one you delve into the second section of the book, you find that this is the main point of these manuscripts of a person's life. The person who wrote them has been greatly influenced by these bones. This person is none other than LuLing. As a very young child she had no idea that her fate had already been drawn out by these bones which she had never heard about. The first time she realizes how important they are for her life was when she reads the pages given to her by her mother. She learns about the curse that has caused her grandfather and mother such great pains and which will follow her until her death. It is not sufficient to state that bones are important add on to the story. They are one of the main ingredients. In fact if it wasn't those particular bones from Peking Man none of this would have ever happened. This is why bones had to be part of the title. The bones from Peking Man are very closely related to LuLing herself. Actually, it is probably true that Peking Man was her ancestor who lived close to a million years ago. It is possible since perhaps only the Gu family knew about the Monkey's Jaw and since bones from there have proven to have belonged to Peking Man it is only logical to say that this Peking Man could be none other than a Gu himself who had died in there. This is where the curse begins to evolve. It is based on the fact that the bones taken out from that cave by the generations of bonesetters and used for medicine had actually been bones from a dead ancestor which means they will be unlucky until their bones are put back where they belong. A curse hang over Precious Auntie's father who had his wife and son die from an infection and then he followed. The curse passed on the Precious Auntie whose father and husband died in the same evening and she herself lived an unhappy life until she finally committed suicide. The Bonesetter's Daughter has a tragic story which in itself deserves to have our pity. This is why she is such an important person in this story. We can then relate LuLing's and Ruth's lives all the way back to Precious Auntie's. Has the curse followed them too? Or has the family been forgiven for having suffered so much.
