The Bonesetter's Daughter Conflict

Amy Tan’s, author of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, displays that Family is stronger than power, love is wider than fields, the bonesetter is more broken than the bones he heals. This entire story is based inside the mind of Ruth Young, daughter to LuLing Young, and granddaughter to Precious Auntie. Ruth’s character, thoughts, and feelings are being reveals how she views her family; therefore, as she talks about those characters and interacts with them their personalities and backgrounds unveil. To the Young family healing is more than physical it is emotional the conflict between mothers and daughters discontinuity them like bones- shattered, broken, and painful, yet with those ruptured pieces they heal and sculpt themselves into what they’ve

grown up to be. No matter how broken, they may be, they will always heal and come together to become stronger than steel yet malleable to convalesce their mistakes.
Mistakes come with consequences; not only do they help to fix and correct to be prepared for the next time but they come with fear causing conflict.

The conflict happening in The Bonesetter’s Daughter is revolved around all of the mistakes that have arised from the past, not letting them sleep because they are too fearful to even close their eyes because they fear they will make the same mistake again causing them to pressure their children into not making the same mistake resulting in extreme and horrendous conflict. The conflict is crucial to the whole story because it shows character development, feelings, and how it sculpts the characters as a whole. The way Ruth talks to her mother (LuLing) by exclaiming “I really don’t care” (Tan 158-159) and “I hate her” when her mother asks “ You want I die?” shows

that Ruth is straying away from her mother’s arms and love is tearing farther and farther from each other. Ruth is no longer interested in pleasing her mother, but better yet she wishes to please herself and let herself be happy. Ruth feels she is old enough to have privacy and happiness in her life little did she know that these little things she wished for will result in a conflict, conflicts that ended in regret and downheartedness. From that moment on Ruth will learn to appreciate her mother more for everything she has been through and everything she has done in her life for the better of Ruth; she will learn that her mistake can never be made ,under any circumstances, ever again unless she wishes to cause an eternity or heartbreak and pain. The young family has had conflict for generations the main conflict began between LuLing and her real mother, Precious Auntie this is conveyed by displaying that
LuLing's nursemaid, Precious Auntie, left with no voice after the suicide attempt that destroyed her face, is superlatively gifted in calligraphy and drawing.

Truth and love are handed on via letters and stories, while conversations between mothers and daughters usually end in fury and misunderstanding. (Merritt)
this quote displays that even though they fight and they end up in ghastly conflict, they still love each other and “Truth and love” are always passed down to each other ;therefore no matter how big the conflict, they will always love each other and even though they sometimes do not look like it they do dearly love each other and would not trade anything in the world for each other's

love.
All these characters have unique personalities and characterizations; even though, they are all related they have nothing in common. These three women are sculpted due to their encounters and their past, making them stronger or breaking them to not being able to walk into the future, but instead keeping them in the past to live in their eternal mistakes and regrets. As Ruth and LuLing grow, they begin to respect their mothers more because they begin to realize they would be nothing without their mothers, they would have nobody to love them, they would be left hopeless, they would be alone in a dark oblivious world that shows no light and no mercy. Even though they will never be able to travel to the past to fix their mistakes, they will always be be better prepared to share their wisdom so their daughters won't make, will not make the same mistake and so in case the same problems occur they can make the right choice. One of these mistakes is when LuLing is fighting with her mother because her mother does not agree with the man LuLing is going to marry; therefore, they begin to physically fight and LuLing stands up strong after catching her breath she says “ I need to go help mother and GaoLing”(237) by saying this she no longer sees Precious Auntie (her real mother) as her mother causing distance and heartbreak between both of them. Once LuLing grows older to birth her own children, she tells Ruth (her daughter) “This one right here, she’s my mother.” (102) after the death of Precious Auntie, Luling began to appreciate her more and finally be able to say again with pride that her real mother is her mother.
Furthermore, when all these conflicts and tragedies happen, they don’t absolutely mean they are negative, there is a meaning behind them, a reason for everything that is happening, everything they are going through ,even though painful, will help them in the future to be better to lift the “curse”(402). Symbolism is well spread out in this novel; every little thing that seems like nothing is actually a very important milestone in the story. In this novel the symbolism is more about family and the conflicts and forgiveness for example, as Ruth says “ [as she is looking at a picture of her grandmother (Precious Auntie)]These are the woman who shaped [Ruth’s] life, who in her bones.They caused her to question whether the order and disorder of her life were due to fate or luck, self determination, or the action of others.” this quote symbolizes forgiveness and appreciation not just a pondering question in Ruth’s mind. As each generation grows, they teach the next generation to fray away from danger and to “worry” “These warnings were passed down, not simply to scare [Ruth]”; these life lessons were not just warnings they were stories passed down to every upcoming generation, so they do not repeat the same mistake and so they do not need to go through the same pain the older generation went through. The relationship between mother and daughter is strong from birth to forever a mother will do anything for her child, to protect them, to care for them, help them “to avoid their footsteps, to hope for something better” for their children. The real issue of the Young family is the “curse” not only is it symbolic, but it is realistic; realistic in a way that every family does go through the same things as well, “to get rid of the curse.” is all every family wants, some may call it mistakes, but others that know their mistakes follow them even to their children know it as a curse that they will inevitably have and they will bread that curse to another generation. To extinguish the “curse” is all they plead for, to be released for the “curse” is all they pray for, to roam freely is all they would die for. This “curse” is not simply a ball of mistakes that can be forgotten, the only antidote for this “curse” is forgiveness; they spend so much time fighting, they forget to forgive each other and themselves, but the moment, the very exact moment, they forgive, the “curse” will be lifted ,it will no longer be hovering over them waiting for it’s moment to attack, this power of forgiveness will make their love stronger and wider than ever before there will be no more torn pieces, no more pain, no more heartbreak but only happy and peaceful bliss.
In all and all, Amy Tan’s beautiful and exquisite writing has told a story of the pain in beauty and the beauty in pain. She has told a story of family, love, faith, pain, and forgiveness; she has shown how no matter how broken something may seem the “bonesetter” can always fix it, the bonesetter symbolizing family being able to fix anything that breaks them so they may piece each piece back together making them wiser, stronger, and better prepared than before. To become stronger than power it takes a family to build up that strength, to expand the field with love it takes faith and trust to travel the great lengths, to be the bonesetter it takes great knowledge on how broken the human heart can be yet still be able to heal others for the greater good of them so they may never feel the real pain a human heart can feel so they may never repeat the same mistakes so they may never, ever, ever, be able to have the knowledge on how much a human heart can break very close to extinction almost whipped off the face of the earth into “ethereal”(102) black darkness.