Week 17 Reading Notes

Week 17 Reading Notes

• As I finished the novel “The Joy Luck Club”. It is stories of four Chinese immigrants’ mothers and their American born daughters, where their culture and lack communication created conflict in their lives. In her book “The Joy Luck Club”, author Amy Tan raises the issue of cultural barrier and lack of communication that exists between each immigrant mother and their American-born daughter.
• Amy Tan divided her novel in four different sections that has interwoven conflicts of each mother and their daughter The book started with one of the Chinese mother Suyuan died and having the daughter Jing-Mei replaced her mother in the “Mahjong Game” and asking to fulfill her mother’s wish to go back to China and meet her twin sisters, who Suyuan was forced to leave on the roadside to escape Japan invasion of Kweilin during World War II.
• The book also shows the generational gap into Jing-Mei’s fear and anxiety about replacing her mother in the club. Jing-Mei felt that it was a big undertaking to take her mother’s place in the Joy Luck Club because it is an important tradition and ritual that carries the memory of what was begun in China and resurrected in America. Jing-Mei just realized that she is a piece of her mother’s past in her own present. Suyuan created the Joy Luck Club in Kweilin because she wanted to create, a sense of joy and gladness, amidst the chaos and uncertainty of war.
• The second section of Amy Tan’s book was about the story of Waverly Jong “Rules of the Game” and Lena St. Clair. “The Voice from the Wall”.
• In the story of Waverly Jong as child chess prodigy, as her mother was so proud of her announcing it to the whole community where Waverly despite her mother’s attitude. Waverly began to attract attention because of her young age, and she became a celebrity within San Francisco’s Chinatown community. She played in tournaments, and become a national champion, Lindo took great pride in her daughter’s talent, and bring her to stores to show her. One day, Waverly yelled at her mother in the street, telling her that she was embarrassed by her constant bragging. Waverly ran off, ignoring her mother’s shouts; when she returned later that night, Lindo said that because Waverly had no concern for her family, the family would have no concern for her. Waverly went into her room, lay down on the bed, and envisioned a chess game in which her mother was her opponent. Waverly ends her story with the statement, “I closed my eyes and pondered my next move.
• The struggle when a child should listen and follow what her mother’s wishes or the mothers allow her daughter to find life for herself. Both mother and daughter’s lack of communication and understanding put pressure and conflict on both people. On the book, you will recognize lack of communication with quotes such as “one thing that one duty I could not avoid. I had to accompany my mother on Saturday market days when I had no tournament to play. My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops and proudly says “This my daughter Waverly Jong” and one day, Waverly said to her mom “I wish you wouldn’t do that telling everybody “I am your daughter” (p. 99) Her mother look down and wondering why was her daughter telling her that “it is embarrassing that she is my daughter” (99).Waverly even said “why do you have to use me to show me off? (p.99) Waverly does not understand  her mother and she wants chess to be strictly her own achievement. When she lashes out at her mother, Waverly breaks her own rule. She essentially puts herself “in check” by revealing her secret weakness, her insecurities about her mother and her need to believe that her chess talent is hers alone.
• In the story of Lena St. Clair, her mother Ying-ying never spoke of her life in China. Lena’s father Clifford, an English-Irish man explained to Lena that terrible tragedy happened and could not bring Ying-ying to speak about it. Language barrier was issues long before Lena was born, Clifford learned limited Mandarin and so as Ying-ying. Often times Lena was forced to translate for her mother and trick her mother into acting normal. What Lena did not realize that she was telling her dad the wrong information and he cannot understand the culture and sorrow Ying-ying was going through.
• Lena and her father seem to fear that by probing too deeply into Ying-ying’s fears and sorrows they might expose some unbearable horror. Thus, when Ying-ying lies like a statue on her bed after the baby’s death, acknowledging no one, Lena’s father says, “She’s just tired,” although both father and daughter know that the problem is much more serious. Similarly, when Lena asks her mother why she constantly rearranges the furniture, she does so only out of a feeling of duty; she in fact fears to receive a truthful answer.