The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
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Throughout The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan inserts various conflicts betweens mothers and daughters. Most of these relationships, already very fragile, become distanced through heritage, history and expectations. These differences cause reoccurring clashes between two specific mother-daughter bonds. The first relationship exists between Waverly Jong and her mother, Lindo. Lindo tries to instill Chinese qualities in her daughter while Waverly refuses to recognize her heritage and concentrates on American culture. The second bond is that of Jing-Mei Woo and her mother, Suyuan. In the beginning of the book Jing-Mei speaks of confusion in her recently deceased mothers actions. The language and cultural barrier presented between Jing-Mei and Suyuan is strong enough to cause constant separation and misunderstanding.
The first and most important conflict in the novel is heritage. Both mothers, Suyuan and Lindo, come from a Chinese background and try to instill their knowledge and strengths into their children. However, their children are being raised in America with new ideals and a powerful freedom that both mothers never experienced. The two contrasting cultures present a scenario in which both influences cause great confusion and separation in relationships.
“How can she thing she can blend in? Only her skin and her hair are Chinese. Inside–she is all American-made. Its my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?” (288).
Lindo Jong faces her difficulty of getting her children to understand her Chinese heritage in the face of pressing American principles. Lindos main difficulty is that through her daughters chess abilities she wishes to teach her the Chinese “invisible strength.” However, Lindos pride and claiming of Waverlys abilities leads to a strong misunderstanding between Waverly and Lindo that causes Waverly to quit chess. “Why do you have to use me to show off?” (101). Waverlys bitterness increases the separation between mother and child. Jing-Mei doesnt believe her mother because her stories always change but she doesnt understand as Suyuan does that the details are unimportant. Whats important in Chinese storytelling is the message. “I never thought my mothers Kweilin story was anything but a Chinese fairy tale. The endings always changed. Sometimes she said she used that worthless thousand-yuan not to buy a half-cup of rice” (12).
Another contributor to the conflicts in these relationships is history. Both Lindo and Suyuan had remarkably different childhoods without most the opportunities their daughters have. The circumstances in which they grew up were much different yea their children have a difficult time understanding that.
“My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could would for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous. Of course you can be prodigy, too, my mother told me when I was nine. You can be best anything” (141).
Jing-Meis opportunities clearly in her mothers mind are much more then what she had as a child. “She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls” (141). Clearly there are distinct differences in the upbringing of both child and mother. Suyuan grew up during the war and was often alert for bombs and lived in very unpleasant conditions. However, Suyuan made the best of what she had and even created the Joy Luck Club to pass the time. Lindos past also includes difficulties but many come from Chinese tradition. “The American soldier goes home and he falls to his knees asking another girl to marry him This was not my case. Instead, the village matchmaker came to my family when I was just two years old” (43). Lindos past