Fighting For The Chance Of The Second Sex

Amy Tan is one of the famous Chinese-American women writers and shesearches the meaning of Chinese-American females’ identity in a series of her works.Among them The Bonesetter’s Daughter is nearly recognized as the autobiography ofAmy Tan. By writing this novel, she gains power and achieves liberation from thefemale identity. As a book about women’s writing, The Bonesetter’s Daughterdescribes the women’ s life experience of the three generations and explores thedifferent situations of women in different times and society. Thus it reveals a fact thatwomen’s survival situation does not change with the changes of times and thedevelopment of the society in essence. Women still belong to the masculine world andthe denied category.The Second Sex is the master-piece of Simone de Beauvoir, a famous Frenchwoman writer. The Second Sex is known as a classic work of feminism. It is the firstwork about women with sui generis and theoretical features. It is the fighting voice tothe masculine world. This paper attempts to interpret The Bonesetter’s Daughter indetails based on the theory—feminism. This thesis tries to research the followingquestions. The first is how did Precious Auntie who was a mother of the nursemaid inThe Second Sex struggle against the male-dominated society with her life. The secondis how did LuLing who was an illegitimate daughter change her passive position in her family and the society. The third is how did Ruth who was fettered by femininitysay no to the object and achieve liberation at last? This paper discusses thesequestions to analyze the different survival situations of the female protagonists andconfronts the women’s oppression which is denied by the masculine world. It tries tohelp the women free from the dilemma of the relationship between the two sexes andchange the unreasonable second sex. At last, this paper comes to a conclusion thatWoman who hopes to change the unreasonable second sex needed much more effort.Economic independence is the material base to change the passive position for women.On this basis, only independence in mind can help woman to achieve the spiritualliberation. Liberating women means refusing to put them in the relationship betweenwomen and men. Women and men can confirm their good relationship only bytranscending the natural difference between them.