The Bonesetter's Daughter Literary Analysis

Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is the story of a conflicted mothers and daughters who are discovering the family history and the lost relationships of their matrilineal line. Ignorant and blind to the past, Ruth’s mother, Liu Ling, is becoming forgetful, consequently Ruth sets out to rediscover her family. She acts upon her realisation to decide that the gap between her and her mother needs to be closed. Set between San Francisco in the late 20th century and Peking, China during World War II, this novel conveys the cultural differences, situational differences and importance of home and that home is where the family is. Ruth sets out to discover her mother and therefore her grandmother whose death changed the lives of both Liu Ling and her own. Their lives are affected when they must leave what they know, accept the outcomes of situations and the daughters attempt to understand the elder generation(s). The death of Precious Auntie, is so impactful that is the driving cause of why Liu Ling has developed the way …show more content…
At the dinner with Ruth and her family along with Liu Ling and Art’s ex-wife, Liu Ling explicitly mentions that Precious Auntie is her mother, and not her titular mother, “Waipo”. This new information also helps to illustrate what importance that her real mother had and what her death meant to Liu Ling. This event also helps Ruth in her quest for knowledge about her family and that it reaffirms the significance of Precious Auntie and that she is also family. Liu Ling, after her Precious Auntie kills herself, later finds young love at the orphanage that she was sent to. This young man, Kai Jing, is killed after the Japanese attack. Liu Ling associates this death with the curse that her mother was so worried about. The curse affects her until the end of the novel and haunts her and her dementia only complicates her