“Chains do not hold a marriage together. They are threads, hundreds of tiny threads that sew people together over the years.” Simone Signoret. In Fae Myenne Ng's novel Bone, Ng offers the reader several opposing aspects of marriage. Bone uses marriage as a link to the relationships of the characters in the novel. The mother of the three daughters in the novel is Mah. Mah's first marriage was to a man named Dulcie Fu. This marriage was a relationship based solely on infatuation. Mah was young and thought she was in love. Soon after the birth of her first daughter Leila, her husband left for Australia and never returned. This happens too often in today's society. Young women in America become overly infatuated without even knowing what a relationship entails. The media portrays relationships at a young age as perfect and endless. However this is rarely the case. According to divorcestatistics.org, “50% of marriages end in divorce among married couples under the age of 25.” Love means something different to everyone. Each person seeks different points of interest in a relationship and what you put into a relationship will rarely be the same as what you get in return. Love can leave a scar in your heart but also heal your soul. Family has become an important aspect in Mah's life. In Chinese culture, family is typically a vital part of lifestyle. Mah may have been ashamed of the way her first marriage ended and didn't want the same with this man she met named Leon. Leon is a Chinese immigrant and family is his priority. Mah and Leon get married and have two daughters, Ona and Nina. They form a family connection more than ever. Leon was a fairly stable man and loved his family. Mah and Leon were… halfway… to keeping the family together, however the family's tension, anger and jealousy overwhelmed them, which ultimately led to Ona's suicide. The sisters have never had a healthy relationship to look up to. In turn, the entire family suffered from the past. Works Cited Lore Van Praag, et al. “Divorce, divorce rates and seeking professional help for mental health problems in Europe: a population-based cross-sectional study.” BMC Public Health 10.(2010): 224-235. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. 11 April 2011."For a paper child, paper is blood": Subjectification and authenticity in Bone by Fae Myenne Ng. Thomas W. Kim.MELUS. 24.4 (Winter 1999) p41. Word Count: 5855. From the Literature Resource CenterArias, Mercedes L. University of Minnesota Driven to Discover. Ed. Kelly Hopler. Np, 26 June 2009. Web. 11 April. 2011. .