Dragon Bonesetter's Daughter Chapter Summary

SUMMARY:
Pages 1-65 The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan begins with LuLing when she is every young talking to Precious Auntie. She’s explaining the morning when Auntie showed her a paper with an extremely important name. LuLing can remember almost everything that happened that morning, except the name on the paper Auntie showed her. The story then moves on to talk about Ruth Young, who we later find out is LuLing’s daughter. It tells the reader about how for the past 8 years starting on August 12th she loses her voice. The novel talks about her boyfriend Art and his two daughters Sophia and Dory. Also about a story her mother gave to her written in Chinese that she has yet to decipher. The novel explains Ruth’s best friend Wendy,
Throughout the novel the main characters have written down many things they deemed important. This section reinforces the theme of characters, like Precious Auntie and LuLing, writing down important information. LuLing started to write down quotes on dragon bones and left them on Kai Jing’s grave, “When I finished one, I began another, unable to stop. Those were the words I wanted to remember” (Tan 305). So far we have read about both Precious Auntie and LuLing writing down their stories. The stories were important because they showed how important the past was to them. Like with the stories, LuLing writes down quotes that remind her of Kai Jing. This reveals how important Kai Jing was, and still is, to
While on their tour the guide brings them into the greenhouse and shows them the resident’s orchids. An orchid is a symbol that has been brought up many times throughout this novel. Earlier in the book Tan explained how "Orchids looked delacate, but thrived on neglect," (Tan 40). This symbolized Ruth in the beginning of the novel. She was always pushed around by Art, the kids, and LuLing. She had a tendency to put herself second and put others first. In this section Mr. Patel explains how many of the residents have a strong maternal instinct and like to water their plants every day. Their orchids are "a dendrobium orchid known as cuthbertsonii. Blooms nearly year-round, nonstop, and unlike most orchids, it can take daily watering," (Tan 361). This new type of orchid represents the Ruth toward the end of the book. She has developed a better relationship with Art, the girls, and her mother. The orchid symbolizes Ruth because the people around her are now realizing how important Ruth is and how much they need