SUMMARY OF ONLY A GIRL BY LIAN GOUW

SUMMARY OF

ONLY A GIRL, by LIAN GOUW

Despite their family’s approval, Carolien had decided to marry Po Han as she reached 31 (the age of a young woman can marry without parents’ or elder’s permission). Nanna, her mother, with her Chinese mind had told her that marry a man with unstable job would do no good to her. But with Carolien’s Dutch thinking, money would not be a problem as long as they loved each other. Unfortunately, things were not as it was expected. After their honeymoon, Carolien realized that marriage was not a simple matter, especially when she had to life under the same roof with Po Han’s grandmother, Ocho, who didn’t like her because she thought that a woman with the Dutch thinking wouldn’t make a good wife because she wouldn’t able to take care of the house and husband: something that for her was the most important matter to be concerned of.

            Ocho did some things further by asking a black magic witch to separate the couple whatever it would take. But those things were end in vain, because Carolien was pregnant and managed to give Po Han a daughter, named Jenny. FOR Ocho, who still stuck to Chinese belief that a girl is less precious than boy, didn’t satisfied with her daughter-in-law and still wanted to kick her out of the house. As the child grew up, economical problem caused most of their fights until they decided to get divorce. Soon after that, Po Han went off to Holland because he won the prize of the best photograph.

            Being grown up in her grandmother’s house and also being aside by her mother business, had made her closer to her grandmother than Carolien herself. The big family had a big struggle in facing the Japan settlement in Indonesia and also the Revolutionary fights against the Dutch ‘dog’. During that time, the family lost it member, Chip, who was very loyal to the Dutch. Another problem occurred within the family when Els wanted to marry a Dutch man that once became their guest and happened to live in their home during the war. Nanna believed that as a Chinese, they couldn’t mix blood. Once we do, then the person would be considered as stranger, even in the family: they wouldn’t have any relation with him any longer. The same thing also happened with Eddie, when he married Indonesian woman.

            Eddie’s marriage had become really hard thing to accept by the family. Not only for Nanna, but also Jenny, since she had close relationship with him. Besides, Jenny also had hard time in school because her friends always teased her by their racial discrimination by calling her ‘the abandoned Ductch dog’ and also because her difficulties in keeping up with other students in Bahasa Indonesia, since all her life she only spoke Dutch language. All that miserable things ended when he got along with Lam, and met her father again. She made a good grade in school and went abroad to be a veterinarian, which her mother disapproved at first. But she proved to her that she could make it at the end and be an independent girl of her own, like what her mother ever hoped her to be.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES

·            “I love him. I don’t need a husband with a degree who’d treat me like an exotic household fixture. Do any of you know what it means to be happy instead of just financially secure?” | “Happiness is peace. You won’t find peace unless you are secure. And you won’t find security in an unstable situation”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “What do you know of love?” | “Love is what stands through misfortune. There is love when a woman’s loin have grown tired and a man still finds rest beside her. Love is when a man chisels a cavity in a woman’s heart and the woman fills the gaping hole with concern for his well-being”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Ever since he was two years old, she had worked hard to provide him with an opportunity to have a better life. And now that it was his turn to provide for her, he was unable to do anything else but return her to a world she thought she had risen above”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Money doesn’t replace presence”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “No self-respecting woman would leave herself and her child to the whims of an unproductive man”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Will you take care of me, always?” –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “If you aren’t wise enough to figure what’s best for you, I wish you’d given your family’s reputation some consideration”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “If I wanted to be a household slave, I would have been one in my mother’s house”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “All I want for you is what every man deserves, a god woman and sons to bear his name”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “If that woman had any pride, she wouldn’t make such a display of her pain”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “With a mother like you, what else can she be but lively?” –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “I want her to have a good education, so she never has to bow her head for anyone”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “I can’t promise, but we can both wish it. We’ll wish it so hard, it just has to happen”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Stay out of trouble and keep safe”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Sometimes we can’t keep our sons from moving forward on the path they choose. All we can do is support them”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “War is a man’s affair”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “It doesn’t matter what you like better. You can’t always change things just because you like something else better”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Why worry a child with life? Life will burden her with worry soon enough”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Drawing and painting is nothing other than telling your hand to put on paper or canvas what your eyes see and your heart feels”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “You need to know what you’re up against before you can do something about it”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Don’t let a bird fly with one hand and catch it with the other”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “What you do shouldn’t depend on whether or not someone is around”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “There are times when, in order to do what you feel you must do, you have to hurt those you love. And while you will hurt during the process, you still need to do it. Sometimes, it’s worth it in the end. And sometimes, it isn’t”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “You are the best person to take care of you”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw

·            “Living is a scary business”. –Only A Girl, by Lian Gouw