Comparison of themes

Comparison of themes “Bones” and “Kindred”



Introduction of Bone

Bone is Mynne Ng's initial novel and was published in the year 1993. It is an emotional story regarding cultural integration of immigrant ethnic groups. In this novel particularly Asian Americans and their fictional story is narrated about their integration into the American way of life. The characters and proceedings in the novel reveal that the assimilation process for the Asians in the 1990's has not been what it had been for other immigrant groups. Barriers to integration induced by language difficulty and education were not as they were in the recent past of the 1970s or 1980s. As the characters demonstrate their life America, it becomes apparent that the issues faced by Grandfather Leong and by Leon himself, were very dissimilar to the problems faced by three girls.

It is important that this work of fiction reads as biography. The novelist writes in this manner so as to give more credibility to her experiences and themes, which have appeared in her previously published short stories.

In its social context, Bone realizes that “becoming American,” too, has been accelerated in today's world just as other aspects of American life. Time itself becomes the cure for all the Leong family's problems, even the death of Ona.

Bone is a journey into a territory that is at once the common heritage of all non-native Americans and the particular traditions of Chinese immigrants. The path to assimilation into American society is one fraught with contradictions and ambivalence about what to preserve and what to discard. Ng provides a few answers, simply revealing one family's experience. (Anderson, 1995)

Thesis Statement

Ethnic assimilation into a foreign country is like a war which a person has to stop through a compromise between his old values and new values. Although, a person might believe that he has reached a compromise, but in reality a wedge always remain which if not tackled brings depression and emotional trauma.

Theme

Most centrally, the novel is a story of ethnic assimilation; the realization of the main character is that the transformation has already occurred. Leila learns that she is and has always been an American. The extent to which this Americanism is defined by her Chinese heritage is the real question.

Basically, the problems that confront the Leong family are not, at least in the present, caused by their ethnicity or race. For the three girls, at least, their ...