Butterfly Effect in Bone

Directed and written by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, the movie “Butterfly Effect” is about a young man (Kutcher) who blacks out harmfull memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life. This movie teaches a simple lesson about life: one little thing in the past can change the whole outcome of life later. The book Bonesetter’s Daughter, by Amy Tan, also has something to do with past, as it is narrated by two people, mother and daughter, who talk about themselves, constantly referring back to the memories of their childhood. They regret the mistakes they have made as a little girl. If only they didn’t make the mistake in the past, they would have a totally different fate then.

Ruth’s life is much affected by her childhood memories with her mother LuLing. Whenever Ruth doesn’t obey her, LuLing threatens by saying, “Maybe I die soon!” (54), and “LuLing’s threats to die were like earthquakes” (54). Ruth’s childhood earthquakes caused Ruth to “think about death every day” (121). If one’s mother threatens to kill herself, nothing would be worse than that for a child. Ruth had to go through all those in her sensitive years, and as a result death became an overwhelming figure in her life.

Ruth also remembers how LuLing would embarrass her by seeming too Chinese at a time when she was so anxious to consider herself American. Tan skillfully portrays the growing pains of Ruth humiliated by her mother’s inability to accept the Western culture: “Her mother couldn't even say Ruth's name right. It used to mortify Ruth when she shouted for her up and down the block. ‘Lootie! Lootie!’ Why had her mother chosen a name with sounds she couldn't pronounce?” (49).

Both LuLing and Ruth are unable to connect with their mothers, who have hidden their past. The secrecy has deprived mother and daughter from the shared fate and emotions that are necessary for understanding each other. Art tells her, “In all these years we've been together... I don’t think I know an important part of you. You keep secrets inside you. You hide. It’s as though I’ve never seen you naked” (360). Though she has nothing to hide, Ruth has unknowingly adopted this attitude of secrecy and remains distant from those she loves.

As a girl, Ruth could only express herself freely in a diary, which her mother repeatedly found and read. Frustrated, Ruth used her diary as a weapon by writing, “You talk about killing yourself, so why don’t you ever do it ... Precious Auntie wants you to, and so do I!” (145). The next day, she discovered that her mother had suffered broken bones after jumping out the window. Feeling guilty, Ruth crossed out the hateful words and wrote, “I’m sorry. Sometimes I just wish you would say you’re sorry too.”(147) It is unlikely that her mother ever read these words, and they never spoke of the incident.

Like Ruth's diary, LuLing's manuscript becomes her only honest communication. She begins it with a simple and powerful statement: “These are the things I know are true” (1). Precious Auntie also wrote a manuscript for LuLing revealing her own truths. Unfortunately, Precious Auntie’s manuscript was read too late because she killed herself before LuLing could say sorry. When Ruth discovers her mother’s complete manuscript, she realizes that time is running short for them as well: “She sensed that her mother’s life was at stake and the answer was in her hands, had been there all along” (356). She feels pangs of guilt for not making the effort to translate it. The untranslated manuscript becomes a symbol of LuLing herself, who remains misunderstood by her daughter. Ruth views her mother as a woman sunk in unhappiness and criticizes LuLing’s behavior, her ongoing depression, negative view of the world, and repeated threats of suicide.

The second half of the novel is composed largely of LuLing’s manuscript, a journey into the precommunist China. Precious Auntie advises LuLing and, indirectly, Ruth, “A person should consider how things begin. A particular beginning results in a particular end” (268). The manuscript of LuLing begins with Precious Auntie’s story. She came from a family of bonesetters and bone collectors who dug out dragon bones from a nearby mountain and ground them for healing. When Precious Auntie rejected one suitor, a coffin maker named Chang, in favor of a young man from a well-respected family of ink makers.