THE CHARACTERS, DIALOGUES, AND NARRATIVES IN A SHORT STORY, “THE BURMESE CAT” REFLECTING THE IDEOLOGY ABOUT MARGINAL PEOPLE IN THAI SOCIETY

Abstract

The objectives of this research article are to analyze and present the findings of qualitative research on the characters, dialogues and narratives which are the components of a short story, “The Burmese Cat” reflecting ideology about marginal people in Thai society. The source of data is the short story, “The Burmese Cat” which is analyzed according to the concept of analysis of elements of a narrative and ideology relating to marginal people in Thai society in terms of critical discourse analysis based on linguistic features.

The study found that even though:

The protagonist is referred to in a language unit as a noun phrase in two different phrases: “the girl from Burma” and “the Burmese cat”, they have the same meaning which is the marginality of the girl from Burma who is a foreign worker.  This is how the author reflects implicitly “the Burmese cat” through the cry of a cat to mean the cry of the girl from Burma while her male employer is having forced sex with her. The dialogues of minor characters, when they talk about the two main characters, are usually about the origin or ethnicity of the Burmese reflecting the ideology of mainstream members of Thai society about marginal people in terms of being outlander, undeveloped group and their inferiority in all respects. Moreover, the narratives not only reflect the otherness in the ethnic dimension but also the ideological misconception about sex in Thai society that women must be submissive to men’s sexual desire.