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¶ … Independent Life: Leila's Stubborn Family Ties in Ng's Novel Bone
In Bone: A Novel, by Fae Myenne Ng, the Chinese-American protagonist, a recently-married young woman named Leila Louie, oldest of three sisters, is still torn between looking out more for her own interests, or for those of her mother (Mah) and her stepfather (Leon, who is more like her own father). Leila's Chinese-born mother, who owns her own baby store in San Francisco's Chinatown, is separated from Leon (Leila's biological father left his pregnant wife in San Francisco to seek his fortune in Australia, but (despite promises) never returned or sent for them). Leon has moved into an apartment at the "San Fran" for older men, after Leila's younger half-sister Ona (Leon and Mah's first child together) committed suicide. Leila's feelings of responsibility for Mah and Leon have only increased since then, especially since Leila's only remaining sister, Nina, lives in New York. Leila consequently feels the need to assist with Mah's and Leon's lives; care for them and try to keep things running as smoothly as possible because (1) she has always functioned before as their English-speaking liaison to the English-speaking world; and (2) neither is coping well with...
These two factors substantially impact Leila's willingness to move in with Mason and start an independent adult life, and also cause Leila considerable angst and frustration until she takes the bold step of marrying Mason away from home.
Unwilling (or perhaps unable) to confront Mah and Leon, and Mah in particular, about moving out to start an adult life with Mason, Leila takes matters into her own hands and marries him out of town, symbolically declaring her new independence, not only by marrying Mason, but by avoiding an elaborate Chinese-style wedding, the kind Leila's mother had wanted her to have. However, as Gee also points out: "Leila is far from the submissive stereotype . . . Leila's sensuality and pleasure can also be interpreted as significant movement beyond the submissive images of the Asian woman who exists to gratify male desires" ("Deconstructing a Narrative Hierarchy: Leila Leong's "I" in Fae Myenne Ng's Bone").
That said, however, Leila clearly still has enormous difficulty breaking away from Mah and Leon, even after her wedding. After all, she returns to live near them in San Francisco, where she and Mason both have jobs. The main difference, though, is that now…
Works Cited
Gee, Alan. "Deconstructing a Narrative Hierarchy: Leila Leong's "I" in Fae
Myenne Ng's Bone." Literature Compass, Vol. 29, Iss. 2. 129-141. Retrieved
August 8, 2005, from: <http://www.literature-compass.com/journal.asp?journal=286.html.
Ng, Fae Myenne. Bone: A Novel. New York: Hyperion, 1993
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