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PLAGIAT
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TINDAKANTIDAK
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THE STRUGGLE OF CHIZUKO SAKATA AS AN ISSEI WIDOW
IN WAKAKO YAMAUCHI’S THE MUSIC LESSON
(A POSTCOLONIAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE)
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
PRISCA ARMILDA NUGRAHANTI
Student Number: 104214030
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
PRISCA ARMILDA NUGRAHANTI
Student Number: 104214030
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been
previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,
to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material
previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text of the undergradute thesis.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK
KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma
Nama
: Prisca Armilda Nugrahanti
Nomor Mahasiswa
: 104214030
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas
Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada
Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk
media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas,
dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu
meminta ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap
mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
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Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
Amen.
(Our Father)
Ajining diri ana ing lathi.
Ajining raga ana ing busana.
(Javanese Proverb)
You don’t need anybody to tell who you are or what you are.
You are what you are.
(John Lennon)
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This thesis is dedicated to
My beloved parents,
My lovely sister,
My lovely brother,
and my dearest nephew.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, I would like to praise the Lord for his blessings upon me and
for always with me, without him I am absolutely nothing and I cannot finish this
thesis well. My deepest gratitude goes to my thesis advisor, A.B. Sri Mulyani,
M.A., Ph.D. for her patience, time, suggestion and guidance from the beginning. I
thank her so much for the books and references that she gave me, those were
helpful. I thank my co-advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd.,M.Hum., for criticizing
and giving advice to this thesis. I also thank Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, for lending
me a book and giving me this The Music Lesson playscript that I conducted a
study on. I thank all lecturers for their guidance during my college days and also
Mbak Ninik who helped me during that time. I realize that without them all, I
would be lost and cannot write this thesis.
My special gratitude goes to my parents, my brother, my sister, my
nephew, my aunties, my uncles and my cousins for their never ending support and
pray, I love them all. I thank Augustina Kresia “Cia” , Theresia Anna, and Sinta
Fitriani who have the same thesis advisor with me for the sharing and
encouragement, I will be missing those days when we used to support each other
during the thesis writing, indeed. The last but not least, my last gratitude goes to
my friends who always support me for all this time, whose names I cannot
mention in this acknowledgment page.
Prisca Armilda Nugrahanti
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................................
APPROVAL PAGE ...............................................................................................................
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..........................................................................................................
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ...................
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .....................................................................................
MOTTO PAGE ......................................................................................................................
DEDICATION PAGE ...........................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGMENT .......................................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................
ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................................
ABSTRAK ...............................................................................................................................
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1
A. Background of the Study ............................................................................................. 1
B. Problem Formulation ................................................................................................... 5
C. Objectives of the Study ................................................................................................ 5
D. Definition of Terms ..................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................... 7
A. Review of Related Studies .......................................................................................... 7
B. Review of Related Theories ........................................................................................ 11
1. Theory on Character and Characterization ........................................................
2. Theory of Postcolonial Feminism .....................................................................
3. Theory of Hybridity ..........................................................................................
4. Theory of Gender Stereotype .............................................................................
C. Review on Historical Background ..............................................................................
1. Japanese Immigrant in the USA ........................................................................
2. The Japanese Immigrant Family in the USA .....................................................
D. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................
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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 23
A. Object of the Study ...................................................................................................... 23
B. Approach of the Study ................................................................................................ 24
C. Method of the Study .................................................................................................... 25
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS (RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS) ........................................ 27
A. The description of Chizuko Sakata ..............................................................................
1. Chizuko Sakata as a Breadwinner..........................................................................
2. Chizuko Sakata as a Japanese Woman ..................................................................
3. Chizuko Sakata as a Mother .................................................................................
B. The Struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an Issei widow ..................................................
1. The Struggle to Maintain the Native Culture ........................................................
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a. Gender roles and gender spheres ..................................................................... 35
2. The Struggle to Establish Identity ........................................................................ 38
a. “American” Identity ....................................................................................... 38
b. Hybrid Identity ................................................................................................ 40
c. The Search of Identity ..................................................................................... 42
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 52
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................ 54
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ABSTRACT
NUGRAHANTI, PRISCA ARMILDA. The Struggle of Chizuko Sakata As An
Issei Widow In Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lesson (A Postcolonial
Feminist Perspective). Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.
Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lesson tells about the struggle of an issei
widow, Chizuko Sakata, to adjust to a very tough life in an isolated area in
Imperial Valley, California. During her settlement in the USA, Chizuko has to
face discrimination, segregation and prejudice due to her immigrant status.
Realizing that she lives in hard circumstances, Chizuko works hard like a man,
she strives to support her family alone.
This research focuses on revealing the struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an
issei widow perceived through a postcolonial feminist point of view. In this
research, there are two questions related to the topic. The first question is how the
character and the roles of Chizuko Sakata is described in Wakako Yamauchi’s
The Music Lesson and the second question is how the struggle of Chizuko Sakata
as an issei widow is seen through postcolonial feminist perspective.
The writer uses the library research method as the primary source. The
writer also collects the data from the internet and some theoretical books to
support the thesis. The approach that is used in this research is postcolonial
feminist approach because this research highlights the struggle of Chizuko Sakata
as a woman and issei widow in a foreign land, the USA. Therefore, postcolonial
feminist approach is relevant to apply in this research.
From the analysis, it turns out that Chizuko as a breadwinner is an
independent hard-worker who also has a high self-esteem. Second, the writer
reveals Chizuko characteristics as a Japanese woman who is still traditional and
she tries to maintain Japanese culture in her family. Thirdly, Chizuko as a mother
is described as a persistent, protective and caring mother. Furthermore, the
struggle of Chizuko Sakata is divided into several spheres based on postcolonial
feminist perspective namely, the struggle to maintain the native culture that
related to gender roles and the struggle to establish identity.
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ABSTRAK
NUGRAHANTI, PRISCA ARMILDA. The Struggle of Chizuko Sakata As An
Issei Widow In Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lesson (A Postcolonial
Feminist Perspective). Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas
Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2014.
The Music Lesson karya Wakako Yamauchi menceritakan tentang
perjuangan seorang janda imigran Jepang generasi pertama, Chizuko Sakata,
untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan kehidupan yang berat di sebuah wilayah yang
terisolir di Imperial Valley, California. Selama hidupnya di Amerika Serikat,
Chizuko harus mengalami diskriminasi, pemisahan dan ketidakadilan karena
statusnya sebagai seorang imigran. Menyadari bahwa hidupnya sangat sulit,
Chizuko bekerja keras dan berjuang untuk menghidupi keluarganya seorang diri.
Penelitian ini difokuskan pada perjuangan Chizuko Sakata sebagai janda
imigran Jepang generasi pertama yang dilihat melalui sudut pandang poskolonial
feminis. Penelitian ini terdiri dari dua pertanyaan yang berkaitan dengan topik.
Pertama, bagaimana karakter dan peranan Chizuko Sakata dalam The Music
Lesson dan yang kedua adalah bagaimana perjuangan Chizuko Sakata sebagai
seorang janda dan imigran dilihat melalui perspektif poskolonial feminis.
Penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka sebagai bahan utama. Penulis
juga mengumpulkan data-data dari internet dan beberapa buku teori untuk
mendukung penelitian. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan
poskolonial feminis. Pendekatan ini digunakan karena tujuan dari penelitian ini
adalah bagaimana perjuangan Chizuko Sakata sebagai janda imigran Jepang
generasi pertama yang dilihat melalui perspektif poskolonial feminis.
Dari hasil analisis, dapat diketahui bahwa karakter Chizuko sebagai
pencari nafkah digambarkan sebagai seorang pekerja keras yang mandiri dan
memiliki harga diri yang tinggi. Karakter Chizuko sebagai seorang wanita jepang
digambarkan sangat tradisional sedangkan sebagai seorang ibu, ia sangat keras
hati, melindungi dan perhatian. Perjuangan Chizuko dibagi menjadi dua bidang
berdasarkan perspektif poskolonial feminis, yaitu, perjuangan untuk
mempertahankan budaya asli yang berkaitan dengan peranan gender dan
perjuangan untuk menentukan identitas.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literary works, as we know, always contain ideas, perspectives and
representations about certain topic that interest the author to expose.
Therefore, through literature we can enrich ourselves with knowledge and
gain awareness in respect to issues in particular society or era. Moreover,
it is not impossible that a literary work may contain a hidden message that
the author wants to tell to the reader. There are many literary works telling
about various issues in human lives, one of them concerning women
issues. We can learn about women‟s roles, positions, hardships, way of
thinking, even unfair treatment and oppression toward them by reading
some works.
In the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century,
many Japanese went to the USA trying to get a better job to improve their
lives. The first-generation Japanese immigrants, known as Issei, came to
America between 1870 and 1924, they found employment as agricultural
laborers, ran a small business or established a shop of their own. Some
Issei men returned to Japan in those early days considering themselves
successful and looked for a wife to bring to the US. During their settlement
in the US, Issei had to face prejudice, discrimination and segregation. They
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lived in isolated area and were limited in their opportunities for any kind
of equal status contact due to laws and customs applied there. (Kitano,
1996:239). It is hard for Japanese people to live in the California in 1935.
The local government insisted that California was a country for white
people and Japanese immigrants could not apply for citizenship due to
their racial characteristics, heredity and religion, it applies to all Japanese
regardless of the gender.
The policy of California‟s government, of course becomes
unfavorable for Issei women because neither in Japan nor the USA, they
are always inferior. Women are usually delicate and long-suffering in their
dealings with their menfolk, married women have a very little place in
social life. In the Japanese society, this kind of stereotype still exists until
today because of the huge influence of Confucianism and Samurai based
on feudalism, as we know Confucianism was the product of a patriarchal
and strongly male-dominated society in China (Reischauer, 1980: 128129). Ryoko Kato in International Journal of Sociology of the Family,
Japanese Women: Subordination or Domination? states that traditional
role of Japanese women are seen as helpless and exploited. She also adds
that our values, beliefs and assumptions often lead us to see things in a
particular way (Kato, 1989:49). The combination of Confucian adage and
long Feudal experience restricts women‟s freedom and forces them to be
fully subordination of men.
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Meanwhile, when the Issei women arrived in the USA, they first
came as picture brides and unfortunately, everything was not as good as
they expected. Taylor Sakamoto in The Triumph and Tragedies of
Japanese Women in America: A View Across Four Generations says,
“Kazue Aoki, my maternal great grand-mother, after a month long
harsh voyage abroad the Shinyo Maru, she arrived at Angel Island
Immigration Station.“I had never seen a prison-like place as Angel
Island.. I wondered why I had to be kept in a prison after I‟d
arrived”.” (Sakamoto, 2007:99).
Sakamoto notes that many Issei women struggled as there were limited to
low-paying domestic jobs or farm work with their husband.
Roberta Uno in Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian
American Women, states that Asian-American plays written by women
playwrights are often carry the themes of isolation and captivity, both
physical and metaphorical. These plays offer special views into the lives,
roles, and relationships of Oriental women. Moreover, they also give
images of Asian-American women whether they have to be real women
behind the stereotypes or become women whom they have never thought
of before, like the tenant farmer and the newly arrived immigrants. Most of
heroines in the plays are getting married in hopes of a better life and
because of their lack of opportunities as immigrants, they have to do
demeaning jobs, cultivate earth or just to be independent women in order
to survive.
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Wakako Yamauchi in The Music Lesson explores the sufferings
and hardships of the first-generation issei women just like in her first play
entitled And The Soul Shall Dance. Women who lived in 1935 not only
had to adjust to their settlement in Imperial Valley, California, but also to
an often bitter arranged marriage. Chizuko Sakata is an Issei and the major
female character here. She experienced a bitter arranged marriage and sent
to the USA as a picture bride. She is a widow and has three children.
Chizuko is portrayed as tough and independent. She lives her hard life in
California and tries to survive by running a small piece of land to grow
crops. Mary Jo Maynes, Ann Walter, Birgitte Soland and Ulrike Strasser in
the journal Gender, Kinship, Power: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary
History summarize that there is a political slogan namely, “Woman
without a man is like fish without bicycle”. The meaning of that slogan is
women actually are capable of doing their roles quite well in the absence
of men. Women alone can be essential within patrilineal system (Maynes,
1996:8). In Japanese family, father is described as someone who is never
at home because he has to work, that is why mother becomes influential
because she handles everything related to household and child-rearing.
Based on the background that is already explained above, the
writer wants to study and conduct a research which focused on Japanese
woman immigrant‟s struggle for survival depicted in Yamauchi‟s play
entitled The Music Lesson. The concern of family daily survival affects the
role and attitude of the main female character, Chizuko Sakata in her
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adjustment to unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, in this research the
writer wants to see her struggle as an immigrant who lacks in any
opportunity for surviving in the USA through postcolonial feminist
perspective.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How is Chizuko Sakata described in Wakako Yamauchi‟s The
Music Lesson?
2. How is the struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an Issei widow seen
through postcolonial feminist perspective?
C. Objectives of the Study
In this research there are some goals which are needed to be
accomplished by the writer. First of all is to identify how the author gives
descriptions of the main female character in the play. Secondly, the writer
wants to find out how the struggle of main female character as an Issei
widow portrays the idea of postcolonial feminism in the play.
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D. Definitions of Terms
1.
Issei
Issei is the first-generation Japanese immigrants who came to the
USA between 1870 until 1924. They were relatively homogeneous; most
were young and had had four years of schooling. Most of them were
male and most came from rural Japan. The Issei came primarily from
southern Japan, particularly the prefecture of Hiroshima, Fukuoka,
Kumamoto, Wakayama, and Yamaguchi (Kitano, 1985: 239).
2.
Postcolonial Feminist
Postcolonial feminist is a person or a group of people who
challenges the concept of universalism in feminism. They critique
European and North American feminists for „universalizing‟ the
conditions of women, they argues that the distinctions among women out
of their race and cultural background should be emphasized as well
(https://blogs.stockton.edu/postcolonialstudies/digitizing-postcolonialfeminism/).
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A.
Review of Related Studies
Since this thesis discusses how the sruggle of Issei widow in Wakako
Yamauchi‟s play, some reviews on her works are important to see in order to get a
better understanding about them and how Yamauchi describes Japanese women
immigrant‟s lives in the USA in her works.
Shelley R. Terry in the thesis entitled Five Female Characters Driven to
Suicide in Plays by 20th-Century Female Playwrights as a Result of Domestic
Violence in a Patriarchal Society
discusses a female character in Wakako
Yamauchi‟s And The Soul Shall Dance named Emiko who experiences an
arranged marriage. Her relationship with her husband, Oka, is not harmonious and
often filled with emotional and physical abuse.
A male-dominated Japanese American society, verbal and physical abuse,
and societally imposed oppression also drove unwilling Japanese emigrant
Emiko to become unbalanced and commit suicide in Wakako Yamauchi‟s
And The Soul Shall Dance (Terry, 2010: 25)
Since Oka has no control over choosing a wife, he decides to physically dominate
his wife. Meaning to say, eventhough Oka does not choose to marry Emiko, he
can choose to abuse her. Oka‟s incapability of controlling his own life and
overcoming financial oppression cause him to be abusive. In this play Orientals
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are treated very poorly for being a successful farmers, therefore, white people hate
them and considered them as the enemy of white dominance.
Emiko, here, is described as depressed, isolated and victimized. The
money she saves to go back to Japan has been stolen by her husband. Her dream is
already crushed and she changes her strategy. She commits suicide as she is
dancing and singing to her favorite song, “And The Soul Shall Dance”, she
chooses death over a life of abuse and servitude at the hands of her husband. Terry
explains that Emiko‟s death is a form of freedom, a freedom from the oppression
she had experienced back then and finally, her soul is free to sing and dance.
Roberta Uno in says that Wakako Yamauchi based the main character in
her play entitled The Music Lesson on a widow she once knew in her
neighborhood when she was just a girl. Yamauchi, as cited by Uno, said that she
admired this woman back then, that woman worked in a field and always wore her
dead husband‟s clothes. Yamauchi described her as a woman who looked so
fragile yet she was able to drive truck, ran a piece of land and raised children
alone. In The Music Lesson, Yamauchi implicitly comments on the lack of choices
for many Issei women and their misery because of the sense of sacrifice and
obligation.
Yamauchi also points out the suffering of those women who failed to
adjust to their arranged marriages when Chizuko, the main female character, gives
responds to her daughter accusation that she never loved her dead husband, says,
“How could I love him? I didn‟t know him.” Furthermore, Uno states that the
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sense of people who are isolated from each other by physical distance, occupied
by their burden of labor, challenged by different culture values, gives impression
that The Music Lesson is not merely a simple love story, it also presents a
chronology and problems of Asian-American seen through women‟s perspectives.
Another study about Wakako Yamauchi‟s work comes from Valerie
Matsumoto in the journal entitled Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays,
and Memoir, by Wakako Yamauchi, she writes,
Mother-Daughter Relations often form the axis around which Wakako
Yamauchi‟s stories revolve. Her women—strong willed farmers, awkward
adolescent, middle-aged divorcees—struggle to sort through the lessons
their mothers tried to instill (Matsumoto, 1994: 8)
In The Music Lesson, an Issei farm widow and her stubborn teenage daughter
argues over the attentions of an appealing nomadic worker. Their conflict, as
Matsumoto says, reflects the big difference in women‟s expectation and
experience. The Issei woman character, Chizuko, described as a mother who
always concerns about how she can support her family in order to keep alive. She
is influenced by American‟s ideals of individualism and personal fullfillment.
Meanwhile Aki, her daughter, gets tired of her mother‟s monotonous work and
start demanding more. Yamauchi‟s stories often depict the relationship between
mother and daughter, the tie they have, construct a source of their hugest
vulnerability and their deepest grounding.
In addition, Yamauchi always inserts art in her men and women
characters‟ hearts in her works. In And The Soul Shall Dance, for instance, the
Japanese song which is repeatedly played on a Victrola, provides a nostalgic
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memory to their homeland. For the Nisei teenager, Aki, in The Music Lessson, the
violin music she plays symbolizes her yearning of love. In writing her work,
Yamauchi tends to emphasize commitments, compassion, love rather than false
glamour and glibness. Matsumoto explains that Yamauchi‟s capability to explore
the relation between immigrants and their American-born children, gives a clear
picture of suspenses and delicate negotiations, as well as shared roots that bind
them.
In this study, the writer would like to reveal the struggle of Chizuko
Sakata as an Issei widow seen through the postcolonial feminist perspective. By
analyzing Chizuko Sakata, the writer wants to describe how a Japanese woman
immigrant strives for survival and adjustment to isolated life. This thesis,
examines how patriarchy emerges within immigrant community and restricts
women‟s movement. Moreover, the writer also reveals that conditional reason and
experiencescan give influence to the main character and play the important role in
constructing attitudes and perspectives about woman being independent.
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B.
Review of Related Theories
1.
Theory on Character and Characterization
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Christopher Russel Reaske in How To Analyze Drama argues that in a
play, there is no narration or description about the characters since all the
characterization is conveyed through dialogue. The combinations of speeches and
actions throughout a play, small asides and jokes, the short angry speeches, the
length diatribes help our mind understand the characters in a drama as people who
might really exist (Reaske, 1966:40). Reaske also says that there are some devices
of characterization made by the dramatist to help us analyze the characters in a
drama. Some of these devices as follow
a.
The Appearance of The Character
In the prologue or in the stage directions the playwrights often give
description on the characters‟ physical sense. We can learn from the stage
directions how they look, how they walk onto the stage and how they dressed up.
For short, from their appearances, we can put our first understanding of certain
characters in a drama.
b.
Asides and Soliloquies
All of the further characterization established through dialogue. We learn
how they speak, and we understand them specifically when they speak in short
aside or in longer soliloquies. From these, we can tell if the characters are
antagonists or protagonists.
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c.
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Dialogue between Characters
The language or diction that the characters use when they talk to other
characters throughout the drama also gives contributions in revealing their
personalities.
d.
Hidden Narration
The playwrights always implicitly give a clue about the characters through
other characters. It often occurs in a drama when a certain character narrates
something about another character.
e.
Character in Action
As characters become more engaged in the certain situations, we can
gradually learn more about them. When they get involved in the action of the
play, they must perform particular acts which later will slowly reveal their
motivations in behaving that way.
2.
Theory of Postcolonial Feminism
This thesis deals with feminism, therefore, it is important to know about
the general idea of feminism which is equality. Jo Freeman in Women: The
Feminist Perspective says that either men or women were born free and want to
place equally. In front of God, they have the same right in life. The purpose of
equality is to avoid the justice of some existing inequality treatment. It means that
women should have the same right as men have (Freeman, 1975: 439). Peter
Barry in Beginning Theory: An Introduction To Literary And Cultural Theory
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states that feminism also has a strong emphasis on „constructedness‟ of feminity
that concern with conditioning and socialisation, and how the images and
representations of femininity affect literary works and culture.
All these
formulations are ways of avoiding the assumption that femininity is universal and
unchangeable. According to the feminist criticism in the 1970s, female characters
created by male tend to represent stereotypes of actual women and constructed by
patriarchy. These women are fictional women who men think women actually are.
1970s was the period when the critical attention on mechanisms of patriarchy took
place; it is the cultural stereotypes „mind-set‟ in men and women which
perpetuated sexual inequality (Barry, 2002:122).
Female sexuality does not casually exist from the beginning, but it is
constructed by experiences and adjustments to particular situations. For instance,
in the nineteenth century fiction, it hardly finds female characters who work for a
living unless they are urged by dire necessity. From the example, we learn that
women roles in the family can be changed out of the circumstances they live in.
Shulamith Firestone as cited by Rosemarie Tong in Feminist Thought argues that
women‟s sexual passivity comes from emotional, economic and physical
dependence on men, therefore, it is not naturally given (Tong, 2009: 133-134).
This thesis also uses postcolonial theory along with theory of feminism,
since it discusses the struggle of an Issei widow seen through postcolonial
feminist perspective. Postcolonialism concerns about issues of race, nation,
empire, migration, and ethnicity with cultural production. It is one of critical
theories which also focus on some specific issues including issues of gender or
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feminist criticism (Barry, 2002: 198). In the other words, postcolonialism can be
compared to concept of patriarchy in feminist thought, which is applicable to the
extent that it indicates man domination over women. Hans Bertens in The Basics
Literary Theory writes,
Postcolonial studies critically analyses the relationship between colonizer
and colonized, from the earliest days of exploration and colonization. It
examines how these texts construct the colonizer‟s (usually masculine)
superiority and the colonized‟s (usually effeminate) inferiority and in so
doing have legitimated colonization. It is especially attentive to
postcolonial attitudes—attitudes of resistance—on the part of colonized
and seeks to understand the nature of the encounter between colonizer and
colonized. (Bertens, 2008: 174-175)
Moreover, Helen Carr as cited by Loomba says that in the language of
colonialism, non-Europeans occupy the same symbolic place as women and they
are not seen as a part of culture but as a nature. Women are depicted as passive,
child-like unsophisticated and as a group of people with no initiative, no
intellectual powers and who are outside society. Meanwhile, in the relation with
racial discrimination, Loomba also cites that „lower races represent the „female‟
type of human species, and females the „lower race‟ of gender‟ (Loomba, 1998:
159-160).
Postcolonial feminism emerges as the response of a perspective that
feminism tends to focus on west women‟s experiences. In addition, it also
endeavors to make feminism can be applied to all women around the world. In the
other words, postcolonial feminism aids to direct feminism from universality to
individual experience because each woman has different experience out of their
culture, race and nation. Ania Loomba in Colonialism/Postcolonialism also states
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that postcoloniality is like patriarchy, it is articulated alongside other economic,
social, cultural, and historical factors, therefore, it works quite differently in
practice in various parts of the world (Loomba, 1998: 19).
3.
Theory of Hybridity
Hybridity is a situation in where individuals or groups belong to more than
one culture at once (for instance, that of the colonizer, through colonial school
system, and that of the colonized, through local and oral tradition) (Barry, 2002:
199). The hybridity becomes a central in postcolonial theory, as it attempts to
stabilize the status quo (Loomba, 1998:173-174). Homi Bhabha, as cited by
Loomba, states that hybridity emerges due to the failure of colonial discourse to
obtain fixed identity and it more adequately describes the dynamics of the
colonial encounter (Loomba, 1998:105). The first-generation Japanese
immigrant (Issei) tends to be the traditional ones, meanwhile their Americanborn children (Nissei) are more American as they interact with white people
more often than their parents do. Therefore, culturally, there is a gap between
Issei and Nisei. Nisei is mostly hybrid, because they adopt two cultures, a
culture of native Japanese and American culture.
Furthermore, the Japanese immigrant in America is a minority group, they
have tendency to live in a colony to keep their native culture exist while they
also try to assimilate with American culture. Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of
the Earth as cited by Peter Barry argues that the first step for „colonalised‟
people in finding a voice and a identity is to reclaim their own past ( Barry,
2002: 193). Fanon tries to convey that actually postcolonialism also concerns on
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recalling the past in order to get that feel to be accepted and to find a true
identity.
4.
Theory of Gender Stereotype
Jane Pilcher in Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies states that the notion
of stereotype was first introduced into social science in 1920s and it was
understood as a typical image that comes to mind when talking about particular
social group. In the other words, stereotype can be defined as a standarised and
often pejorative concept or image held about an individual on the basis of their
gender. Pilcher also shares some views about gender stereotype arguing that
masculine characters tend to be depicted dominating and have wider range of
roles, while feminine characters tend to be stereotyped in domestic settings.
Meaning to say, women are seen either as sexual objects, housewives or in jobs
that reflect their domestic/caring role. (Pilcher, 2004:167)
Mary Wollstonecraft, as cited by David Glover and Cora Kaplan in
Gender, notes that women are shaped, not born: every thing that women see and
hear will give impressions, call up emotions, and associate ideas, that bestow a
sexual character to mind (Glover, 2000: 10). Based on these views, we can tell
that gender stereotype has something to do with socialisation, such as families,
education system and media.
It‟s been discussed earlier that the practice of colonialism similar to
patriarchy, it oppresses the minority which is usually described as effiminate. In
colonial discourse, female bodies are considered as conquered land (Loomba,
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1996: 152). A group of Japanese immigrants is seen as inferior in The Music
Lesson, they are isolated, controlled and oppressed by white people that is the
dominant group there. Blauner, as cited by Kitano in Race Relation, theorizes
about domestic colonial perspective which has the same basic concept with the
idea of gender stereotype in term of marginalized group. Generally, domestic
colonialism is a form of unequal institutionalized contact and resembles a masterservant, paternalistic relationship (Kitano, 1985: 46). In the other words, domestic
colonialism is a term to describe the exploitation of minority groups within a
wider society which seems to be acceptable and considered normal since prejudice
and discrimination are universal and have to be faced by all who are strangers
(Kitano, 1985: 48).
C.
Review on Historical Background
1.
Japanese Immigrant in the USA
The Issei or first-generation Japanese immigrant came to the USA between
1870 and 1924. By 1884, Japan allowed the immigration to the Hawaiian territory
and California. They came primarily from southern Japan , particularly
the
prefectures of Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Wakayama, and Yamaguchi and
found jobs in agricultural sectors. Some Issei men returned to Japan in those early
days after considering themselves successful and looked for a wife to bring to the
US. Men and women were brought together through an exchange of photos, and
many young women were called “picture brides”, this practice, of course, made
their settlement in the USA more permanent. (Kitano, 1996: 239).
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Furthermore, the Anti-Japanese demanded the United States government
to restrict the immigration, which discouraged the first-generations immigrants.
Taylor Sakamoto in The Triumph and Tragedies of Japanese Women in America:
A View Across Four Generations says that, in 1907, President Theodore
Roosevelt negotiated an agreement with Japan to prohibit any further male
laborers from emigrating to Hawaii or the United States; the United States only
accepted the members of laborers family who were already in the USA. This was
reducing the number of males and picture brides, because that was the only way
for Japanese women to legally emigrate to the USA (Sakamoto, 2007: 98).
Because of their status as an immigrant, the Issei had to experience prejudice,
discrimination and segregation. The majority of the Japanese settled in California
had to face prejudice because the state had just passed through a period of a strong
feeling against Chinese. The Bureau of Sociological Research Colorado River
War Relocation Center in The Japanese Family in America states that The
Japanese were accused of lowering the “American Standard of Living” and of
unfair competition of white laborers. In 1920, Japanese could not apply for
citizenship due to their racial characteristics and incapability to assimilate to
American culture, therefore, they were not qualified as good citizen. In 1924, the
US government also prohibited interracial marriage between Japanese and
Caucasians and forbidded the Japanese to own land which made their lives in the
US even worse (1943: 152-153).
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The Japanese Immigrant Family in the USA
The Issei lived separated from the American mainstream, they mostly
interacted around their family and community. The most surviving Issei in 1940s
had actually acquired certain American orientations such as individualism and
self-reliance. Most of them already got enough knowledge about America in order
to be able to survive, but they left the major task to acculturate to American
culture and more focused on their American-born children (Kitano, 1996: 243).
The children of The Issei, called The Nissei, were generally born between 1910
and 1940 and by the 1970s were in their middle years. Although they got much
influence from their parents, they became more acculturated to America than The
Issei did. Sakamoto suggests that the eagerness of Nisei to be American causes
them to leave behind their cultural heritage and begin to follow Western way of
life with hopes of assimilating into the society they live in. (Sakamoto, 2007:100).
Even though, the Japanese had emigrated to the USA, they still maintained
their culture in term of family relation, especially mother-children relationship.
Ryoko Kato in Japanese Women: Subordination or Domination? provides a
comparison between Japanese mother and American mother in term of family
relation. In contrast to Japanese mother who emphasizes empathy and guilt
feeling, American mother tends to appeal parental authority. A high level of
psychological dependency seems to be a privilege for mother. Because amae or
psychological dependency of children also indicates a high level of being accepted
and cared for. The Japanese mother uses the guilt feeling and threat of
abandonment as a social control over her children. A traditional Japanese mother
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expects the children will come to think that their selfish deeds suffer the mother.
Kato also summarizes that Japanese children will soon regret their wrong doing
after realizing that their parents have been suffering because of them and then end
up following what their parents say. However, American people tend to think that
amae or physical dependency of children to their parents indicates immaturity and
negative quality. They assume that individualism is ideal since mature people
should be independent as well (Kato, 1989: 52-53).
In addition, The Japanese is a patriarchal society. Hsiao-Chuan Hsia and
John H. Scanzoni in Rethinking The Roles of Japanese Women says that, the
Japanese were influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism that changed
matrilineality system into patrilineality system. Women lost their legal privilleges,
for instance, they could not own property and divorce their husbands.
Confucianism and Buddhism not only changed the system, but also ascribed an
inferior social and religious status for women (Hsia, 1996: 310-311). Chris
Kincaid in A Look At Gender Expectations In Japanese Society states that in
Japanese society, gender identities are defined by culture more than physical
difference between men and women. Women are labelled into child-bearing
because men are physically cannot. However, child-rearing roles are a product of
a culture. Furthermore, Kincaid also adds a few key ideas about gender that persist
within Japanese society, namely:
a. Men should work outside the home.
b. Genders should be brought up differently.
c. Women are more suited to household work and child-rearing than men.
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d. Full time housewives are valuable to society because of their family
raising role.
(http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/a-look-at-gender-expectations-injapanese-society)
D.
Theoretical Framework
The first theory is the theory of character and characterization. The writer
uses this theory to answer the research question number one. By using this theory,
the writer is able to analyze Chizuko Sakata‟s character. It also embodies the
context of Chizuko, attitude, role, perspective, and function as a woman, mother,
and breadwinner in the play.
The second theory is the theory of Postcolonial feminism and the third is
Theory of Hybridity and the last is Theory of Gender Stereotype. The writer uses
the concept of feminism which is „constructedness‟ to analyze how experiences,
conditions and circumstances contribute in constructing the idea of postcolonial
feminism reflected through the struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an Issei widow who
lives in California. Meanwhile, theory of gender stereotype and the theory of
hybridity are used to support the theory of postcolonial feminism, therefore the
analysis on Chizuko‟s struggle as Issei widow can be strong and relevant.
Moreover, the historical background of Japanese immigrant is used to give the
context to the analysis.
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In the end, the writer finds out how postcolonial feminism reflected through main
character by analyzing data that already gathered using postcolonial feminism
approach, theory of gender stereotype, theory of hybridity and theory of
postcolonial feminism.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The work analyzed in this thesis is a play entitled The Music Lesson
written by Wakako Yamauchi. Yamauchi was born in Westmoreland, California.
This play is taken from Shawn Wong’s Asian American Literature: A Brief
Introduction and Anthology published on 1996 by Addison-Wesley Educational
Publishers Inc. Her mother and father both issei (first-generation Japanese
immigrant), were farmers in California’s Imperial Valley. Actually, there is not
much information related to this play, because it is not as popular as Yamauchi’s
first play, And the Soul Shall Dance. Even though those two plays share the same
settings which are dusty and isolated area, it was only And the Soul Shall Dance
that won the Los Angeles Critics’ Circle Award for the best new play of 1977.
The Music Lessons has forty-six pages from page 404 until 449,it consists of two
acts and ten scenes. It was first adapted for stage in 1980. The story in this play is
set in the dusty and isolated farming community in Imperial Valley, California,
September 1935. In addition, The Music Lesson was written based on Yamauchi’s
short story entitled In Heaven and Earth (1977).Wakako Yamauchi, like in her
first play, tries to explore the suffering and hardships of the issei women who
came to America in the early 1900s. These women not only had to adjust to their
settlement in America, but also to an often bitter arranged marriage. In this play,
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Yamauchi also shows how cultural imperatives brought on by American
education influences Nisei children (the children of issei) and how their desire to
assimilate is depicted throughout the story.
Generally, The Music Lessons tells us about the struggle of an issei widow
in the late 30s, Chizuko Sakata and her children. They live under poverty,
therefore, they have to work hard in order to survive. Chizuko is a farmer and she
runs a piece of land to grow crops in an isolated area. Unfortunately, during their
settlement in California, they have to face prejudice, discrimination and
segregation. They are limited in their opportunities for any kind of equal status
contact due to laws and customs applied there. Issei, for instance, they are not
allowed to own land and to vote.
B. Approach of The Study
Since this thesis discusses how the idea of postcolonial feminism is carried
by the main character in Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lesson, first, it is also
important to know the concept of feminist approach in general. Feminist approach
is an academic approach to literary study that brings feminist perspective in the
context of production and reception to analyze the literary works (Goodman,
1996:XI). Feminist approach sees the literary text from women’s point of view
and it concerns with a culture constructed by patriarchal system that aims to
silence and marginalize women in the favor of men.
Furthermore, feminism in relation with postcolonial theory, came out as a
critique against western feminism which was shaped from the perspective of white
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and middle class women. Postcolonial feminism uses women experiences as the
main focus, it embodies some factors like ethnicity, class and culture. Since
women have different experience, it is somehow not possible to make
generalizations regarding to all women. Postcolonial feminist approach attempts
to examine the relation between patriarchal culture which women live in and
workings of colonialism. In the other words, it concerns on women who lived in
colonialized and patriarchal societies as marginalized parties. Postcolonial
feminist approach is the most suitable to apply as this thesis conducts a research
on a Japanese woman immigrant living in a marginalized ethnic group in Imperial
Valley, California. This approach helps the writer find out how the idea of
postcolonial feminism perceived through the main female character as a Japanese
immigrant.
C. Method of The Study
The writer used a library research to do this analysis. The primary source
that was used in this thesis was a play entitled The Music Lessons written by
Wakako Yamauchi. The secondary source is some website from the internet,
theory books, essays and journals that related to this study as follows: A
Handbook of Critical Approach to Literature, How to Analyze Drama, The
Beginning Theory: The Introduction To Literary And Cultural Theory, The
Feminist Reader, Feminist Thought,Race Relations, Colonialism/Postcolonialism,
Gender, Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies.
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There were several steps required to work on this study. First, the writer
conducted a deeper reading on the play in order to comprehend the story well and
find the detail. After reading the play, the writer found something interesting to
discuss which was, the struggle of a japanese woman immigrant to adjust to the
isolated life in California perceived through postcolonial feminism point of view.
In order to do more research on it, the writer used several theories from internet,
essays and literary theory books after the writer finished collecting data from the
text.
The next step was applying theories and approach that is already presented
earlier to answer the problem formulation. The theory of character and
characterization and theory of gender stereotype were used to reveal the
characteristics of the main character through the dialogue and hidden narration as
the object of this study was a play, while the theory of postcolonial feminism was
used to reveal the postcolonial perspective seen through the main female character
in the play. After the first problem was answered, then the second problem could
be answered as well by reflecting the postcolonial feminism concept, theory of
gender stereotype and theory of hybridity to the first problem, then, the writer
would relate it to the Japanese immigrant historical background. By answering
those two problem formulation, the writer could analyze how the characteristics
and roles of Chizuko Sakata contributed to reveal her struggle as an Issei widow
seen through postcolonial feminist perspective and finally the writer could draw a
conclusion based on the analysis on it.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter aims to analyze how the struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an
Issei widow in Wakako Yamauchi‟s The Music Lesson is revealed through
postcolonial feminist perspective. First of all, it is important to know how
Chizuko is depicted in the play. Chizuko Sakata is chosen since the writer wants
to see how a first-generation Japanese woman immigrant who lacks of opportunity
attempts to adjust to an isolated agricultural life in California and her struggle to
maintain her culture in a foreign land. From the description of Chizuko Sakata, the
writer can see the way she strives to overcome the hardships and play her roles in
the family. In this part, the writer also discusses how patriarchy dominates the
Japanese woman immigrant‟s life.
A.
The Description of Chizuko Sakata
1.
Chizuko Sakata as a Breadwinner
It has been seven years since her husband‟s death and Chizuko realizes
that it is getting more and more difficult to survive in California without a
husband. It is not easy for Chizuko to play „double roles‟ both a homemaker and a
breadwinner. In patriarchy, breadwinner is to define a man while homemaker
defines a woman. Right after her husband's funeral, she continues working and
does not waste even a second to mourn because she has to pay all her husband's
debts. During her settlement in California, she runs a piece of land and grows
crops to earn money. Her children, namely, Ichiro, Aki and Tomu also help her
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farm. Chizuko is willing to work from dawn to dusk to support her family even
without a husband.
NAKAMURA. (looking around and lowering his voice) That women
never lets up. Works like a man. Maybe better, eh? (Yamauchi, 1996:411)
NAKAMURA. And the day after he was buried, she‟s out there plowing
the field. (Yamauchi, 1996:413)
NAKAMURA. Can you believe it? A woman behind the ass of a horse the
day after her man's funeral. It ain't right. So I tell her, "Chizuko-san, you
got a right to cry. Take time out to cry." She says no. So I say, "I'll do your
plowing. Stay home for a while." And you know what she said?
(Yamauchi, 1996:414)
NAKAMURA. She says that's the way she cries, by working.
What Nakamura says in his conversation with Kaoru shows us the
toughness of Chizuko as a breadwinner. It also proves how she attempts to bear
the pain of losing a husband in order to make a living for her family because she
knows that everything is no longer the same, she has to go on struggling no matter
how hard life will be.
NAKAMURA. Yeah. She got lucky with tomatoes a couple of years ago
and paid back all her old man's debts. People never expected to see their
money again, but she did it. She paid them back. Now she never borrowslives close to the belly-stingy, tight. That's the way she stays ahead. Not
much ahead, but... (Yamauchi, 1996:413)
Chizuko endeavors to stand on her own feet, since there is nobody she can
depend on but herself. She cannot count on her children too much because they
have to go to school therefore they cannot help her mother so often. Chizuko
makes an effort to pay all the debt even though she does not make much money
from farming, it means she does not want to owe anybody. From her attitude, we
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can tell that she is not only hard-worker and independent but also a woman who
has a high self-esteem.
2.
Chizuko Sakata as a Japanese Woman
In The Music Lesson, Chizuko is depicted as a traditional woman and
mother. She still perpetuates Japanese culture even though she already immigrates
to the USA where civilization has rapidly developed.
KAORU. Ah! I am Kawaguchi.
Kaoru extends a hand and Chizuko reluctantly takes it. It’s not a Japanese
custom to shake hands.
CHIZUKO. Kawaguchi-san?
(Yamauchi, 1996: 407)
Kaoru has been living in the USA since he was sixteen, therefore, he
would have adopted and learnt American behaviors since then. Meanwhile,
Chizuko feels awkward and hesitant when Kaoru extends a hand to shake hands
with Chizuko. Japanese usually bow to each other when they have guests at home
to show respect. However, Non-Japanese people mostly are not familiar with
bowing, they more get used to shake hands.
Moreover, throughout the play Chizuko and her daughter, Aki, are often
shown to be involved in an argumentation. In contrast to Aki, who is eager to
assimilate to the western culture, Chizuko tries to preserve the culture she has
strongly held onto since she was born.
CHIZUKO. Enough. I‟m not trying to tell everyone what to do.
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AKI. Yes, you are! You‟re trying to control everything. It‟s a free country.
If we want to talk, what‟s wrong with that?
CHIZUKO. I mean other people! How do you think it looks: you all the
time in a man‟s room?
AKI. I don‟t care how it looks.
CHIZUKO. (lowering her voice) I‟m not saying you‟re doing anything
wrong. I‟m saying (that) ....
AKI. You‟re saying you don‟t like it. No one else cares. You‟re saying ...
CHIZUKO. Aki-chan It‟s not like that. You don‟t understand. Kaoru-san
is a grown man.
Aki is a second generation of Japanese immigrant or Nisei. Even though
she was born and raised in a traditional Issei family, she ploddingly leaves her
cultural heritage as a Japanese and start adapting the western culture. Chizuko
who is an Issei, she emphasizes the Eastern culture within her family that a girl
should not visit a man‟s room until late at night because people will talk this over
as if they have done something in that room. However, Aki insists there is nothing
wrong with that, to visit and talk with a man in a shed, she argues that it is alright,
it is not important what people will say and how they will look. Meanwhile, from
the dialogue, Chizuko assumes that what people will say about them does matter
to their life, therefore, as a Japanese people, they should always maintain a good
image to prevent other people from spreading a bad talk.
3.
Chizuko Sakata as a Mother
The absence of father figure who is in charge of protection in the house
makes Chizuko have to take over that role as well. It can be seen when she
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decides to extrude Kaoru for harassing her daughter, Aki. Chizuko finds them
kissing in the shed and she definitely cannot take it.
KAORU.Chizuko-san, please let me explain. Please…
CHIZUKO.“Please-please-please.” Don‟t beg now! Pack your things and
get out! (she pulls shirts and things off the pegs and throws them on bed)
(Yamauchi, 1996: 442)
CHIZUKO. You thought you could fool me. You... you violated my trust.
You violated my daughter!
KAORU. Vio...? I did nothing. Believe me, I did nothing.
AKI. It‟s not his fault!
CHIZUKO. I‟ll fix you. I‟ll get the police
KAORU. Be reasonable. Let‟s talk this over.
CHIZUKO. I said out! Tonight. Now! (she pulls Aki downstage)
(Yamauchi, 1996: 443)
Chizuko refuses to listens to Kaoru‟s excuses, she insists on sending him away. In
this play, Kaoru‟s presence brings disturbance to Chizuko‟s family. In The Music
Lesson, Chizuko seems to be interested in Kaoru. Since Aki has fallen for him,
she and her mother are often engaged in a quarelling as Chizuko does not like if
Aki sees Kaoru until late at night. The restrained atmosphere of politeness to
which the family is accustomed then suddenly fades away as Kaoru‟s coming, Aki
seems no longer to respect Chizuko because she starts arguing what Chizuko tries
to tell her. Chizuko is disappointed with Kaoru, that night she loses all her respect
toward him. Chizuko used to think that Kaoru will bring some sort of changes and
reliefs to her family but it does not turn out as she expected.
KAORU. Believe me. I mean no harm…
CHIZUKO. What did you do to me?
KAORU: I‟ve made no pretenses. From the beginning, I told you….
Chizuko stops him before he says the terrible words that would prove how
foolish she had been to dream.
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CHIZUKO. I trusted you, I trusted you.
KAORU. I‟m sorry. I didn‟t betray that trust. Tonight I… I had too much
to drink. I know that‟s no ex(cuse) …
CHIZUKO. Get out. Get out!
KAORU. I have no money.
CHIZUKO. I‟ll give you money! (she starts toward the house dragging
Aki with her)
(Yamauchi, 1996: 443-444)
Chizuko being a persistent and protective mother is not only out of a great
disappointment with Kaoru but also a responsibility as a mother to protect her
daughter, Aki, from anybody who tries to mess up with her. The quarrels between
Chizuko and Aki indicate that, in fact, Chizuko mostly shows her concern for her
daughter over her sons. That is why when it comes to harass her daughter and
disrupt her family, Chizuko persists not to listen to any excuses, she will do
anything to keep the family peaceful.
Chizuko spends most of her time to work hard for her family. It seems that
throughout the play she is depicted as a work-oriented woman. Even so, a
rigorous life does not make her fail to play the role of a good mother, she is a
caring and mother, a care-taker who always pays attention and makes sure her
children will grow up well. In the act two scene one, Chizuko expresses her worry
about Aki going home alone,
CHIZUKO. What‟s matter with you, Ichiro? I told you to walk together.
You‟re the oldest and...
TOMU. She ran away from us, Ma.
ICHIRO. God, she‟s a big girl now. I can‟t watch her all the time.
CHIZUKO. I want you to walk together. I told you that. Anything can
happen.
ICHIRO. Like what?
CHIZUKO. Anything. Snakes, scorpions ..
(Yamauchi, 1996: 430)
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Chizuko scolds Ichiro for letting Aki go home alone, she insists that they
have to walk together and protect each other in their way home. However, Ichiro
thinks that Aki is not a little girl who needs protection from her oldest brother
since she is able to keep herself safe. Chizuko, of course, as a mother cannot take
it. Her maternal instincts make her worry even over a little and insignificant thing.
CHIZUKO. I hear myself: “Don‟t do this; don‟t do that. Wear your
sweater; study hard ...” I try to say other things: “How smart you are; how
pretty you look ...” but my mouth won‟t let me. I keep thinking, life is
hard. I shouldn‟t let them think it would be easy.
KAORU. That‟s true.
CHIZUKO. Well, they‟re used to me like I am. If I change now, they‟d
think I went crazy.
KAORU. The important thing is, you‟re here. It‟s no good without a
mother, Chizuko-san. I know.
(Yamauchi, 1996 : 428)
From the dialogue above, it can be learned that the way Chizuko
communicates her concern for her children is slightly different. She does not
speak like a mother who is described always speaks softly and delicately to her
children to convey her love. She prefers to say it in a short and flat way because it
is already Chizuko‟s intention to teach her children to be a life fighter. She refuses
to show her love too much because she does not want to give an impression that
she spoils her children.
Furthermore, Yamauchi also presents the Japanese mother uses the guilt
feeling and threat of abandonment as a social control over her children. It is when
Chizuko finds Kaoru and Aki are kissing that upsets her a lot. She sends Kaoru
away that night but Aki insists to go with him.
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CHIZUKO. (pulling Aki away) You know what you are asking for? From
town to town ... no roots ... no home ... nothing. Maybe one day, he‟ll get
tired of you ... throw you out ... leave you in some dirty hotel for another
fool woman. Think, Aki. And you‟ll come crawling (home) ...
AKI. I‟ll never come home! I‟ll never come back to you! You‟re not a
mother. You‟re a witch!
CHIZUKO. Witch? Who you calling witch? Someone who sacrificed a life
for you?
AKI. You didn‟t sacrifice for me.
(Yamauchi, 1996: 444)
CHIZUKO. (in a towering rage) (Annngh) Go then. Go! Go! You‟ll find
out. And when things get rough, remember tonight!
AKI. I‟ll never forget.
CHIZUKO. You think you know all the answers. You think everything‟s
so simple. You haven‟t even tasted pain yet. You‟ll find out.
(Yamauchi, 1996 : 445)
Chizuko tries to tell Aki that she already sacrificed everything for Aki. By
acting out this way, a mother wants to encourage the guilt feeling of her children,
a child should not mistreat her mother who gives birth to her. Chizuko as a
traditional mother, she claims how she has been suffering for all this time for her
children‟s sake with hopes of Aki will feel guilty and follow what her mother
wants her to do. Through Chizuko, we can also perceive how the practice of the
threat of abandonment is performed. She gives Aki images what may happen if
she leaves home with Kaoru. Chizuko attempts to tell Aki how it feels to be
abandoned and not to be cared for. Chizuko convinces her that there will be
nobody who loves and cares for her like her mother.
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35
The struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an Issei widow
After analyzing the characteristics and the roles of Chizuko Sakata in the
play, in this part the writer would like to analyze how her struggle as an Issei
widow in California is seen from postcolonial feminist perspective. Moreover, the
struggle of Chizuko Sakata is examined in a specific sphere therefore the writer
can do a deeper analysis and interpretation based on postcolonial feminist point of
view.
1.
The Struggle to Maintain the Native Culture
a.
Gender spheres and gender roles
Even though she has lived in California for years, Chizuko still carries a
Japanese culture which is very patriarchal with her. Being raised and educated
within such culture, Chizuko surely already gets used to it and it influences how
she perceives acceptable roles of men and women. The day when Chizuko meets
Kaoru Kawaguchi for the first time becomes a crucial point to prove that Chizuko
sees „working hard‟ as male nature.
CHIZUKO. Well, we never know how it turns out. Sometimes it‟s good;
sometimes, bad. A lot depends on weather, prices ... things like that.
Besides ... (she looks him over shamelessly.) I need a man who can work
like a horse.
KAORU. Ma‟am, I know how to work. I come from peasant cock.
(Yamauchi, 1996 : 407)
When Chizuko is conversing with Kaoru, she says that she needs a man
who can work like a horse. From her utterance it can be learnt that Chizuko
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assumes physical powers to be the basic essence of man. She expects to get a
good harvest as the farm work is done by a man, there will be a huge difference
among man‟s work, woman and children‟s work. Chizuko finds it hard and
exhausting for a woman to do plowing alone, therefore she needs a man whom she
believes was born as a worker.
CHIZUKO. I‟ve been thinking ... ah, wondering how you would feel about
... what you think about staying on ... on this farm, I mean. With us. (she
waits; Kaoru is silent) I mean, share profits ... a partnership.
KAORU. I don‟t have money, Chizuko-san.
CHIZUKO. (quickly) Oh, you pay nothing. I mean a joint venture. More or
less. This farm is too much for a woman alone and I ...
(Yamauchi, 1996 : 427)
She thinks of Kaoru as a man who is physically stronger than woman and
expects a better result from the work of a man. She assumes that it will be much
easier if there is a man who can help her run the farm. Chizuko expresses how
actually she tired of her life, showing that she requires a partner to work,
somebody to share and to discuss many things. In addition, eventhough Chizuko
Sakata seems to be a tough and independent woman, there is a moment when she
really need someone who is reliable during the hard times. In act two scene two,
for instance, Chizuko asks Kaoru whether they should irrigate the farm (p. 432), it
implies that Chizuko also sees man as a primary decision-maker, she feels like she
has to ask for Kaoru‟s consideration as if she cannot decide it by herself. From
this finding, it is obvious that Chizuko also perceives „decision-maker‟ is one of
male traits. Moreover, it also depicts her state that is still colonized by patriarchy
even though she is now far away from Japan. She does not feel objected about that
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and does not even think that she is being oppressed because she might get used to
such culture since she was still in Japan.
Furthermore, it is also important to examine how Chizuko treats her sons
and daughter in her her to perpetuate her native culture. Chizuko distinguishes the
chores between her sons and daughter which shows she admits the labor division
that is very patriarchal.
CHIZUKO. (to Kaoru) My boys spent summer here—flooding, plowing,
getting ready for planting. It was hot. Hundred ten degrees.
CHIZUKO. (to Ichiro) You and Tomu clean the tool shed. Aki, get
blankets and sheets for Kawaguchi-san.
(Yamauchi, 1996: 409)
AKI. Then why do I have to go bed so early?
CHIZUKO. The boys have to go to bed early because they work on
Saturday. It‟s not fair to them.
(Yamauchi, 1996: 436)
The dialogue above shows that Chizuko is a woman who once lived in a
patriarchal society, therefore, her way of thinking is influenced by patriarchal
culture as well. She perceives domestic sphere is a proper place for women while
the outside world is for men. Chizuko introduces her sons, Ichiro and Tomu to the
role of men, it is a man‟s nature to be a worker and they supposed to work harder
than woman out of their physical features. Meanwhile, Chizuko habituates Aki to
do woman‟s chores. She is told to take care household chores, for instance in this
play, Chizuko asks Aki to set a bed for Kaoru. Chizuko Sakata‟s characteristic and
struggle support the idea of „constructedness‟ in feminism. She proves that
actually gender identity is constructed from the way she differentiates the chores
for her children. Chizuko reveals that „constructedness‟ is applicable on male
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identity, that being masculine is also culturally constructed which indicates the
equality between men and women. Her act depicts a feminist movement regardles
of she is aware of it or not because it is not her intention from the beginning to
struggle for women‟s right. But, in fact, her attitude shows that gender roles are
cultural product which become acceptable habitual acts in society.
2.
The Struggle to Establish Identity
a.
“American” Identity
In The Music Lesson Chizuko Sakata is also depicted as a traditional
woman and mother and it is revealed through her role on daily basis when she
interacts with her children. First, she does a labor division among her children that
men are workers while women are doing household chores. Chizuko seems to
play upon their common sense as if such division is the true value of their culture.
Second, Chizuko scolds Aki for staying too long in a grown man‟s room, she also
express her distaste when Aki starts arguing her. It shows that actually for
Chizuko, a woman should always maintain a good image so that people will not
spread a bad talk among them and she finds it is inapropriate for a woman to
argue or talk too much.
Chizuko has been living in Imperial Valley, California for years, she, of
course has assimilated with American culture which causes her to have another
identity, an „American‟ identity. Speaking of Chizuko‟s role as a mother, she is
not a type of mother who looks like spoiling her children. Instead, the way she
talks to them is slightly rigid and flat.
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AKI. That‟s all you think about: work, work, work!
CHIZUKO. (warning) Aki...
AKI. Well. It‟s true. You‟re always telling me what to do and how to do it.
You‟re always trying to tell everyone what to do around here.
CHIZUKO. I‟m not trying to tell everyone...
AKI. You‟re going to drive Kaoru-san away from here—bossing him like
you do.
(Yamauchi, 1996: 437)
CHIZUKO. That‟s what I mean. You don‟t care about anyone but
yourself. You don‟t care how anyone else feels.
AKI. You mean you? (she turns back)
(Yamauchi, 1996: 438)
From the conversation above, it can be concluded that Chizuko somehow
shows her role as a mother who holds the ultimate authority at home. As Kato
cited in her journal that parental authority is the American ideal of child-rearing
practice. Chizuko in The Music Lesson is seen as a mother who always arranges
everything on her own and everybody has to follow her order regardless of they
like it or not. By doing so, Chizuko seems to ignores Japanese principle that is
intimacy in a family, she tends to create a gap between her and her children and it
causes Aki to start assuming that there is no bond between her and Chizuko. Aki
insists that Chizuko is the one who never cares how other people feel as she is
always busy to work and think how to survive. Because of living a really tough
life, Chizuko sets aside her feeling and suggests to herself that working hard is
now become her first priority. Chizuko realizes that possessing traits which
belong to women will just aggravate her condition. Meaning to say, if she
continues being feminine all the time during her settlement in California, then she
will never be able to make a living for her family. She proves that she can be
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independent, tough and even dominating like a man eventhough at first it starts
from an urge to survive in California.
b.
Hybrid Identity
In The Music Lesson, Chizuko is described as an independent breadwinner
to support her family and she seems to struggle against patriarchal premise that a
woman should be a housewife and follower. From Chizuko, it is blatant that two
culture are overlapping within her. She does a labor division between her daughter
and sons based on gender traits that has been set by patriarchy. However, she does
not follow that patriarchal rule, she keeps on playing her double role as both a
breadwinner and a good mother for her children and she is able to maintain
Japanese culture as well.
CHIZUKO. No? No? You think I like this life? You think I like grubbing
in dirt and manure (and)...
AKI. That‟s the only way you know to live. You don‟t want to change
your life.
CHIZUKO. You believe that? You believe this is all I want? That I lived
with a man I hardly knew, didn‟t understand, didn‟t respect because (I)..
AKI. You didn‟t love him! You didn‟t love him, did you?
CHIZUKO. How could I love him—I didn‟t know him. All the time I was
keeping our heads above water ... single-handed! Yes! While he was still
alive, until the merciful day he drowned! Growing old before I was
ready—dying before I ever lived. (Yamauchi, 1996:445)
The dialogue between Chizuko and Aki implies Chizuko‟s refusal to her
arranged marriage back then. She finds it miserable and uncomfortable as she has
to marry a man she barely knows and loves. Patriarchal culture that has been
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deeply-rooted in Japanese society forces Chizuko to accept what has been
destinied for her despite the fact she does not want it. Moreover, from the
dialogue above it is obvious that she does not like her „new‟ role. She used to be a
housewife who took care of her family and depended on her husband, but
suddenly everything changed, her husband died and she had to take over his job. It
proves that Chizuko does not intentionally want to be a breadwinner, it is because
her condition forces her to do so.
She assimilates to western culture and way of thinking in order to survive
in California since she realizes that she will not be able to make enough money if
she is only a housewife. Chizuko‟s hybrid identity begins from the dire neccessity,
it is not because her desire to be accepted in American society. Chizuko adopts
both eastern and western culture yet she is neither „native‟ japanese nor
„american‟, but she has become a hybrid self. Chizuko‟s hybrid identity also
comes out as a result of her diasporic experience, her movement from Japan to the
USA. We cannot tell if she is a „real‟ japanese for she has already adopted western
way of life and we also cannot say if she is an american because she has no
intention to neglect her japanese culture instead, she still upholds on to it. If it is
seen from postcolonial perspective, Chizuko‟s attitude somehow reveals kind of
complexity, it is her complicated state of mind when she tries so hard not to lose
her native culture while her circumstance forces her to adopt western culture to
survive. For instance, she emphasizes the principle of togetherness within a
family, but she creates a gap between her and her children, she tells her daughter
to do household chores instead of working outside while she is doing plowing in
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the field. The quarel involving Chizuko and her daughter, Aki that has been
examined earlier, gives an significant point to this discussion. Chizuko‟s strong
desire to perpetuate eastern culture which is heavily patriarchal, triggers a fuss
between her and Aki who is already westernized. Their conflict also implies the
different perspective between two generations, Issei and Nisei.
c.
The Search of Identity
The isolation area in which Chizuko has lived for years is kind of
metaphor for her, who is isolated in marriage, within the family and obviously
from Japan. Chizuko Sakata is a woman who was raised and living in a patriarchal
society. Following her husband to the USA, Chizuko, of course, expects a better
life and future since the USA seems promising for immigrants. Unfortunately it
does not turn out as Chizuko had thought.
CHIZUKO. When I left Japan I never knew it would be like this. The
babies came so fast... and me, by myself, no mother no sister—no one—to
help. I was so young... never dreamed it would be like this. Never thought
my life would be so hard. I don‟t know what is to be a... a woman anymore
... to laugh ... to be soft ... to talk nice ... (she can’t look at Kaoru)
(Yamauchi, 1997 : 426)
CHIZUKO. I want a change too. But some of us... (glances at her
children) we‟re not free to do that. Change. (Yamauchi, 1996: 408)
Chizuko Sakata as a Japanese woman immigrant, seems to undergo kind of
restriction neither in Japan nor in California. She comes to the USA voluntarily in
search of a better life, living a tough life is definitely not what she had dreamt of.
In this play, Chizuko attempts to adapt to her all restrained life. Her neighbor,
Nakamura, earlier in this play says that working is the way Chizuko cries.
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Nakamura also assumes that Chizuko must be crying all the time since she works
harder and harder (p. 414).
The night when Chizuko finds Kaoru violates her daughter becomes a
turning point in this play. The way Chizuko sees Kaoru is no longer the same. She
insists on sending Kaoru away and refuse to listen to his excuses. She did not
expect this problem will come along and throw her family into total confusion.
Chizuko is very disappointed with Kaoru because at first she had already set a
high expectation toward him.
ICHIRO. (counting the money) I knew what was going on. I should have
knocked some sense.
CHIZUKO. No. If... no. I was thinking of myself all the time... the farm. It
was easier with a man helping. I was thinking... I‟m getting old... tired...
(Yamauchi, 1996: 446)
Chizuko used to think that Kaoru would help her „escape‟ from her hard
days. She was happy Kaoru came since she thought that there would be someone
whom she could always count on no matter how difficult it is to live in such
isolated agricultural area. Chizuko feels like she is not able to continue working
alone as she is getting old and tired, therefore, she agreed on employing Kaoru.
In last scene of the play, Chizuko conveys her plan to move from Imperial
Valley, California. Her decision to expel Kaoru is an example how Chizuko
performs her role as a decision-maker, nobody can argue her since her position is
higher than anybody in the house. By letting Kaoru leave, Chizuko implicitly
declares that she can decide her own life and be totally independent like a man.
She finally finds out that having a grown man in the house does not give much
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changes, in fact, it brings trouble for her family. Chizuko shows that women also
have the same right to own a privilege which culturally belongs to men, to be able
to voice their mind, to think and to behave on their own
CHIZUKO. We can‟t stay here anymore. It will be too hard for us.
ICHIRO. Don‟t worry, Ma. We can make it. I‟ll quit school and ...
TOMU. Ma..
CHIZUKO. You can‟t quit school.
ICHIRO. Where will we go? The crop...
CHIZUKO. After the harvest. I was thinking... Maybe San Pedro.
ICHIRO. Where?
CHIZUKO. Terminal Island. I hear there‟re lots of Japanese there. And the
canneries. You boys can get part-time work. After school. That way you
don‟t miss school so much.. like you‟ve been doing.
(Yamauchi, 1996: 447)
Chizuko cannot stand for isolated and restrained life anymore , so that she
thinks of moving to San Pedro, Terminal Island. First and second generation
Japanese built their homes in an area of Terminal Island known as San Pedro. It is
still located in California and there are lots of Japanese working in the fishing
industry, mostly in fish canneries. Despite the fact that Terminal Island is
somewhat isolated, the residents here developes their own culture and dialects.
The people called this community as „Furusato‟ translated literary means„old
village‟, in English it can also mean „hometown‟, „native place‟, or „home sweet
home‟. (www.sanpedro.com/spcom/Terminal-Island-Japanese-Memorial.htm).
It is almost impossible for Chizuko to go back to her homeland in Japan
since in during her settlement in the USA she does not make much money, it is
just enough to fulfill her family needs. From the dialogue between Chizuko and
Ichiro, it can be concluded that Chizuko wants to start her life over in Terminal
Island. Chizuko desires to change her life and her family there. In Terminal
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Island, her sons can do part-time job without disrupting their study as they do not
have to take turn to go to school. Chizuko‟s decision to move to Terminal Island
represents her yearning of her hometown, Japan. During her settlement in Imperial
Valley, she feels so far away from her people who share the same culture as her
and she has to face some hardships due to racial discrimination.
Furthermore, in her new place, she will not be miserable like she used to
be. Since there are many Japanese, life will be so much easier and she feels close
to her hometown. From these findings, it can be learned this is kind of Chizuko‟s
self-liberation, she will be accepted and free, free to act on her own. This play
ends up slightly free-floating because in the end of the scene, Chizuko only says
„It‟s better this way, Aki, better‟ (p. 449) right after Kaoru leaves. If it is linkened
to what has been discussed earlier about liberation and freedom, her utterance
might mean that it will be alright even though there is no man in the house,
because everything was used to be fine until Kaoru came. It can also be said that
Yamauchi wants to show us that in the end of story, Chizuko finally realizes she
can decide her own life and live a life she has wanted for years. In the end of
discussion, it proves that Chizuko is still a hybrid even though she already comes
back to her ethnic group. She might be able to maintain japanese culture there but,
on the other hand she is still a woman who plays a double role. She is a mother
who perpetuates eastern culture yet posseses western ideal of an independent
breadwinner.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
In this chapter the writer wants to draw a conclusion from the analysis
which has been discussed in chapter IV. Wakako Yamauchi’s The Music Lesson
is about Chizuko Sakata, an issei widow who has been living a tough life in
California for years. In order to find out the struggle of Chizuko Sakata as an issei
widow in The Music Lesson, the writer observes the character of Chizuko and her
roles as described in the play.
As a breadwinner, Chizuko is depicted as a hard-working woman. She
does plowing and irrigating alone, she refuses to procrastinate since she realizes
that she has to survive no matter what, she knows that she has to feed her children,
Ichiro, Aki and Tomu. Furthermore, she strives to earn enough money for her
family and to pay all debts that her dead husband left, therefore she does not owe
anybody. Her attitude shows that she is not only an independent and hard working
breadwinner, but also a woman who has a high self-esteem. In her struggle to
survive, Chizuko indeed has defied the Japanese stereotype of women and gender
roles because she has participated actively in both public and private spheres as a
mother and a breadwinner.
In the beginning of the play, when Chizuko meets Kaoru Kawaguchi for
the first time, she seems to be slightly hestitate to shake hands with him because
Japanese people are not used to it. They usually bow to each other instead of
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shaking hands. Chizuko still maintains her culture as a Japanese woman, she
expects her only daughter, Aki to do the same. Chizuko does not like if Aki goes
to Kaoru’s room until late, because it is not good for a girl staying in a shed with a
man for hours. As an east woman, Chizuko finds it kind of embarrassing because
people will talk this over and might spread rumors among them. Unfortunately,
Chizuko’s intention triggers a conflict between her and Aki, they end up
quarreling over that.
Moreover, since her husband has passed away, there is no longer a father
figure who provides protection for her children, therefore, Chizuko has to play
that role as well. She sends Kaoru away for harassing Aki. She resists to listen to
any excuses, she thinks that Kaoru has messed up with her family by doing such
unethical act. From this finding, Chizuko reveals how persistent and protective
she is as a mother because she feels responsible for her children and will do
anything to protect them. In addition, Chizuko also described as a caring mother
in The Music Lesson, she always makes sure that her children go to school and go
home together, she does not want them to go apart, that is why she scolds Ichiro
for letting Aki walk home alone. In relation with her traditional characteristic
which has been previously mentioned, Chizuko also still performs japanese
traditional method in child-rearing practice which is the use of guilt feeling and
threat of abandonment to control her children so that they will follow her words
and she can build intimacy within her family.
In her struggle to maintain her traditional culture related to the gender
roles, Chizuko performs labor division on her children. She distinguishes the
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chores between her sons and daughter. She asks her sons to work outside while
her daughter is inside to do household chores. It indicates that she admits the labor
division that heavily patriarchal. Chizuko proves that ‘constructedness’
is
applicable for both male and female identity, that being feminine and masculine
are both culturally constructed, which indicates the equality of men and women.
Furthermore, it turns out that there is a kind of complexity within her in
the struggle to establish identity. Complexity is her complicated state of mind
when she tries so hard to hold on her native culture while her condition forces her
to assimilate to western culture to survive. A very rough life she has been living
for years indeed contributes to make a huge impact on her personality. Chizuko
refuses to spoil her children in the hope that they will learn life is about struggle
and will not go easy on them. She breaks the cultural stereotypes that women can
only exist in domestic spheres. She shows that a woman is able to do man’s roles,
to be a breadwinner and decisison maker. Meanwhile, Chizuko still upholds on to
Japanese patriarchal culture in term of labor division. She implicitly teaches her
children the acceptable gender roles based on patriarchal system, in fact, she does
not seem to follow that rule. Chizuko Sakata possess a hybrid identity for survival
reasons. She adopts western way of thinking in order to keep alive but she also
perpetuates eastern culture as a Japanese woman who lives in a different country
so that her native culture does not vanish. In the end of the play, Chizuko decides
to move to Terminal Island in her search of identity, a place where many Japanese
live. Her decision to move implies her desire to be free and be accepted. Living
close to her people makes Chizuko feel no more restrained, she can liberate
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herself from all boundaries and build a better life there with her children. Her
yearning of Japan is already paid off as she is now living with people who share
the same culture and perspective. Going back to her ethnic group does not mean
she is completely Japanese, she is still hybrid as long as she still performs her role
as breadwinner and decision maker in her family. From these findings, it turns out
that to have a ‘fixed’ identity is not easy for Chizuko. She has indeed come back
to her Japanese community, but she is not the same person as she was before
moving to the USA. Moreover, it can be learnt that actually assimilates to western
culture is not a matter of choice for Chizuko, but it merely her attempt to survive.
In addition, it is still possible for postcolonial feminist perspective to be applied
not only on immigrant women, but, it depends on the situation. Hopefully, there
will be another researcher that conducts a study on this with a broader sphere and
bases her or his study on this thesis.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
(Second Edition). New York:Manchester University Press, 2002.
Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basic 2nd Edition. New York: Routledge,
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Freeman, Jo. Women: A Feminist Perspective. USA: Mayfield Publishing
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Glover, David, Cora Kaplan. Gender. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Guerin, Wilfred L. Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, John R.
Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approach To Literature (Fifth Edition).
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Kato, Ryoko. “Japanese Women: Subordination or Domination?”. International
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2014.
Kitano, Harry H.L. Race Relations. Los Angeles: Pearson, 1985.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Matsumoto, Valerie. “Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays, and Memoir,
by Wakako Yamauchi”. The Women’s Review of Books. Vol 12. No. 3
(December 1994): pp 8-9. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/4022012). April 7, 2014.
Maynes, Mary Jo, Ann Walter, Birgitte Soland, Ulrice Strasser.ed. Gender,
Kinship, Power: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary History. New York:
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Moi, Toril. “Feminist, Female, Feminine” in The Feminist Reader: Essays in
Gender and The Politics of Literary Criticism. Eds. Belsy and Jane Moore.
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Pilcher, Jane, Imelda Whelehan. Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies.
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Reaske, Christopher Russel. How To Analyze Drama. New York: Monarch Press,
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Reischauer, Edwin O. The Japanese. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Sakamoto, Taylor. “The Triumph and Tragedies of Japanese Women in America:
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Terry, Shelley R. Five Female Characters Driven to Suicide in Plays by 20thCentury Female Playwrights as a Result of Domestic Violence in a
Patriarchal Society. Thesis. Toledo: The University of Toledo, 2010.
Tong, Rosemary Putnam. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction
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Uno, Roberta.ed. Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian American
Women. Massachussets: The University of Massachussets Press Amherst,
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Yamauchi, Wakako. “The Music Lesson” in Shawn Wong (eds). pp. 404-449 ,
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“Terminal Island Japanese Memorial”. San Pedro, Japanese Memorial Terminal
Island. San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. 2012.
(www.sanpedro.com/spcom/Terminal-Island-Japanese-Memorial.htm). May
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Kincaid, Chris. “A Look At Gender Expectations In Japanese Society”. July 7,
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APPENDIX
The Summary of The Music Lesson
The play tells about a Japanese family, the Sakatas, who live in an isolated
farming area in Imperial Valley, California. The family consisted of four people,
Chizuko Sakata and her children, Ichiro, Aki and Tomu. The mother, Chizuko
Sakata is an Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrant. She experrienced arranged
marriage when she was still in Japan and then she was sent to the USA as a
picture bride. She personally wants to refuse that marriage, but she cannot,
because Japanese culture is heavily patriarchal and women have to accept such
unfair treatment. Since her husband’s death, Chizuko has to work hard to support
her family and pay her husband’s debt alone. She refuses to owe anybody and
strives to stand on her own feet no matter what. In The Music Lesson Chizuko is
described as a very traditional woman and mother. She performs the traditional
child-rearing method and labor division. Chizuko who was born and grew up in a
patriarchal society, perceives that a woman should work at home while a man
should work outside. Conversely, she does not follow that concept, she plays
double roles, she works outside home like a man and also being a housewife.
It is depicted in the play that around 1935s, the Orientals or Japanese
immigrant is limited in any kind opportunity. They are not allowed to vote, own a
land and most of them live in isolated area. One day, Chizuko’s neighbor,
Nakamura, brings home a man who is looking for a job, his name is Kaoru
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Kawaguchi. Nakamura tells Kaoru to go to the Sakatas house and ask them if they
need somebody to work. After having short discussion, Chizuko agrees on
employing Kaoru and paying him right after the harvest. Even though Chizuko
gets used to work hard like a man on daily basis, she finds it quite tiring for a
woman to work alone in a field, that is why she starts expecting more on Kaoru.
Kaoru’s presence does change the vibe within the family. The Sakatas is
very happy to have him in the house. He helps Chizuko to run the field, helps the
children to do their homework and also teaches Aki, Chizuko’s daughter to play
violin. There are some scenes when Chizuko and Kaoru are talking to each other.
Chizuko pours out her feeling, how it feels like to raise the children alone, how
tiring it is to do plowing for a woman everyday. From the dialogue, it is blatant
that Chizuko seems to be interested in Kaoru because she really pays attention to
her appearance when she talks to him. The conflict between Chizuko and Aki
begins when Aki falls for Kaoru. Aki visits Kaoru’s shed way too often until late
which bothers Chizuko. She tries to tell Aki that she should not visit a man in his
shed because if there is someone out there who happens to see them, it will cause
them problems, people will talk about that and spread rumors among them.
Chizuko manages to perpetuate eastern culture on how a girl should behave.
Meanwhile, Aki, who was born and grows up in the USA keep arguing with her.
Aki insists that it is alright to do anything she wants without being judged as they
are living in the USA which is a free country.
One night, Aki is playing a violin in Kaoru’s shed. Kaoru watches Aki
playing while he is drinking wine. They are involved in a love talk. Kaoru is
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getting drunk and he kisses Aki. Chizuko who is sitting outside, senses something
peculiar. The music suddenly stops and she does not hear any sound comes out
from the shed. Chizuko breaks in to Kaoru’s shed and finds them kissing. She
yells at them angrily and drags Aki out from the shed. Chizuko is very
disappointed in Kaoru and decides to expel him after giving him some money.
Chizuko and Aki end up quarreling again over that. Aki insists to go with Kaoru
since she has fallen for him but Kaoru declines to take her, he persuades Aki to go
back to Chizuko. Finally, Chizuko resolves to move to Terminal Island in where
lots of Japanese live there. She thinks that she cannot continue to live in isolated
area and she wants to build a better future in Terminal Island together with her
Japanese fellow who makes her feel like home.

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Transcription

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