Review on the Short Story "Yu Mah Yang Tidak Naik Sepeda"

The story titled Yu Mah yang Tidak Naik Sepeda (Yu Mah Who Didn't Ride a Bicycle) is about a jamu (traditional potion/medicine) seller named Yu Mah, and is told from the point of view of one of her customer. The point of view that is used is the first person point of view, and from the second before the last paragraph, it is safe to assume the speaker is a female.



In my opinion, we can read this text in the traditional or conventional way, since it quite has a structured plot, albeit not one that is really obvious to notice. The first and the second page of the story is the introduction, while the first paragraph in the third page is the rising action and the climax—the moment when Yu Mah tells the narrator that her daughter is pregnant. The next part, the falling action and the resolution is the last paragraph.

If we are talking about Point of View though, then this text is quite unique. Even if the narrator is the 'I' in the story, the story itself instead focuses on the life of a Yu Mah rather than the narrator herself. And what little information we gain of the narrator only we get when the narrator makes some reference to Yu Mah's situation. For example, in the second paragraph before the last, the narrator compares her unmarried state to that of Yu Mah's daughter who gets pregnant in such a young age. It can be concluded that, even if Yu Mah herself is not the narrator, she is the main character since the narrator in this story is merely a spectator—someone who watches from the sidelines and is not really involved in the main event.


If the story above tells about the life of a person from a low class, the story titled Rush Hour, on the contrary, tells about the life of a woman who comes from a high class. Even from the beginning, the reader can already see just how rich this woman really is. This is especially can be seen in the second paragraph, where the narrator tells the reader how she gets two accounts in different names and how she gets some privileges that couldn't be enjoyed by other ordinary bank's visitors; for example, she doesn't need to get in the queue to get her business done.

I believe we should read this text in a non-conventional way, considering it doesn't have a coherent or a structured plot. It simply tells about a chapter of a rich woman's life with no climax, no rising action or falling action, and no resolution to close the story properly. Although for the last point one might argue that it is because the story has an open-ending resolution, it still stands that there is no definitive climax or rising action.

If we're talking about the theories to analyze those two texts with, then one of our choices is to go with Feminism. Considering that both stories deal with women issue (early pregnancy in the first and the length a woman would go in order to stay attractive in men's eyes in the second story), then Feminism is probably a right chioce.