Using Cultural I.D. Characters as Theme Carriers

As a culture writer, you have access to several important tools: Cultural Constructs, Functional Constructs, and Cultural I.D. Characters to name a few.

Today, we will be looking at how you can create a cultural I.D. character as a “carrier” of your story’s theme.    First, let’s define the term.  A cultural I.D. character is a character whose identity, heritage, story action, and message blend together to support your story’s theme.  Amy Tan is a master at this.  Because we have been examining aspects of Chinese culture, let’s look at  how Amy Tan created a cultural I.D. character to carry the story theme in The Bonesetter’s Daughter.

In the story, Precious Auntie carries important family secrets, but she is voiceless, unable to share her secrets with her daughter, LuLing.  LuLing grows up and, like her mother, she is also unable to speak. Eventually, there comes a time in LuLing’s life when she wants to share her secrets with her own daughter, Ruth.  Yet, LuLing is trapped in her voiceless state by a new enemy, Alzheimer’s.    The Bonesetter’s Daughter is an incredibly layered story.  It brims with nuance, and is a wonderful example of cultural constructs, functional constructs, and the use of culture touchstones.  Let’s break it down into components.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Possible Shadow Belief:  It is important to share family history.

Cultural I.D. Character: Ruth, a young Chinese American woman, is raised in a Bohemian fashion, having elements of both Chinese and WASP culture in her upbringing.  She works to distance herself from  her Chinese heritage in an act of rebellion against her mother’s ghost-chased past and generational voicelessness (which she does not even realize is generational).

Cultural Construct:  The Bonesetter’s Daughter spans three generations.  The story shows the changes in culture that take place as a result.  Historically, the Chinese family structure was based on ideals set down by Confucius.  Confucius identified Five Family Relationships:  Subject/ Ruler, Father/Son, Older Brother/Younger Brother, Husband/Wife, and Friend/Friend.   These relationships were, of course, patriarchal.  According to Confucius, raising daughters was like raising another family’s child because the daughter would eventually leave and move in with her husband’s family.  There, she had no power unless she bore a son.  If a wife did not bear a son, her husband could bring another woman, or many women, into the household.  Many changes occurred in family structures during the Communist Revolution.  We won’t go into them here.  Tan does show both of these cultural aspects in the story.  For our purposes in observing how she used cultural constructs in the story, we have to look at what the author implies.  In my mind, it is this: Women were powerless in Chinese culture unless they bore a son.  Precious Auntie is not only voiceless.  She is powerless.  Her silence and lack of power are enforced by the culture of the time.  Brilliantly, Tan incorporates the traits as generational legacies, thereby transforming something that is historical social culture, into a female legacy within that family.

Functional Construct: An accident prevents Precious Auntie from sharing her family story.  Alzheimer’s disease prevents LuLing from speaking.  Ruth must break free of the external “cultural” barriers and learn to speak.

Theme:  In the end, Ruth comes to understand the betrayal that led to her mother’s voicelessness.  She realizes that she, too, is voiceless.  Tan then deploys culture as a plot device to bridge the divide between mother and daughter.  In the end, not only are we convinced that Ruth must speak, but we, as readers, know that we must speak our own truths.  Moreover, we must share our stories, our secrets, and our legacies with those in our lives who are bound by that legacy; not in a way that will hobble them, but in a way that will free them from the pain of the past.

In conclusion, the  Culture I.D. Character can be used to convey complex, difficult themes.  They are stand-ins for the reader, allowing the reader to experience the emotional highs and lows of story truth in a more profound way.  Obviously, everyone cannot be Amy Tan, but for the culture writer, she is a must-read author.  Her handling of culture, her understanding of how to deliver culture messages, and her ability to use nuance, mark her as a writer whose techniques are well worth studying.

In Memorandum: Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height was the epitome of black achievement, during a period of history in which such achievement was all the more difficult due to legislative barriers.  Nevertheless, Ms. Height  graduated from New York University with both bachelor’s and  master’s degrees in educational psychology.  She worked alongside First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, with the United Christian Youth Movement.  Ms. Height worked tirelessly to promote equal access to education, and to promote the strength of the black family.  After a chance meeting with Mary McLeod Bethune, Ms. Height became involved with the National Council of Negro Women.  She held the post of president of that organization for more than 40 years.  During that time, she traveled the world, working to secure equal rights for people of color, and for women.  Her loss will be  felt deeply by those of us who held her in esteem.

I have always been grateful for those who fought for Civil Rights.  So many of the blessings that I have been able to attain are the result of efforts made by strangers.  As I reflect on all that Ms. Height was able to accomplish in her life, it is a reminder to me of just how great a debt I owe to those who sacrificed so much.  The only way to pay that debt is to live my life with my eyes firmly on the prize.  Just as there were those who came before me, there will be those who come after.  My responsibility to them is to live a life measured not by the color of my skin, but by the content of my character.  Why? You only need look at  women like Dorothy Height, Mary McLeod Bethune, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and so many, many others to know how great the debt I owe.