The Existence of the Maritime Females in the Postcolonial Singaporean Novel Entitled Rice Bowl by Suchen Christine Lim

摘要

The aim of this paper is to analyze the existence of three young Singaporean females who are struggling to execute their free will in a newly-independent maritime country called Singapore. Frankl’s concepts of existential psychology/logotherapy about freedom of the will, the willto meaning, meaning in life, and existential vacuum are set within the ideology of capitalism in the frame of feminist literary criticism. The results show that the mechanistic and capitalistic way of life has rooted strongly in Singapore even in its new beginning. The young critical Singaporeanfemales have to face the serious consequences of their defiant spirit manifested in a demonstration turning into riot. These young Singaporean females and the male American intellectuals that support their struggle and the leaders of the blue collar workers are forced to leave Singapore. Allthese indicate that capitalism and conformity succeed to silence and ostracize the critical voice of males and females, Singaporeans and Americans, intellectuals and blue collars from a new maritime country called Singapore as portrayed in Suchen Christine Lim’s first novel entitledRice Bowl.