The Female Protagonist’s Suicide in Fei Wo Si Cun’s Dong Gong

Abstract

In Fei Wo Si Cun’s Dong Gong, the author tells the story of the female protagonist who is from a different ethnic group. The story focuses on her love tragedy caused by the violence and crime the male protagonist commits against her ethnic group. The aim of this paper is to analyze the female protagonist’s suicide by using psychological concepts such as memory loss and betrayal trauma as a means of explaining the action. It was found that the female protagonist deals with the issue of ethnic extinction by choosing death as a solution in two instances, one metaphorical, the other literal. The first is death through oblivion by jumping into the ‘River of Forgetfulness’ so that the river erases all her memories of loss and pain, which will lead to rebirth without racial bonds. However, such memories come back to haunt her as she cannot give up or abandon her ethnic group. Her recollection of violence and pain serves to disclose the conflict between loyalty to her ethnic group and romantic love. In the end, the female protagonist chooses suicide again to show her rebellion and refusal to fall under the mandate of the male protagonist who invaded and destroyed her ethnic group. Such presentation emphasizes the existence of other ethnic groups.

Keywords

• dong gong
• emale protagonist’s suicide
• betrayal trauma
• ethnic extinction
• river of forgetfulness