The Roles of Culture, Mothers, and Daughters in Amy Tans The Joy Luck

A mother is best. A mother knows what is intimate of you, said An-Mei Hsu to her missy Rose (188). And this is true for all four of the mothers in the jubilate Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Unfortunately it was much more entangled than that, because the misss had minds of their own, to a certain extent, minds that were part American. The emphasis on honor, obedience, and loyalty among women argon immense in this novel (The Joy Luck Club An Overview). In America, these characteristics were not emphasized nearly as much and that is what caused tension between mother and young lady. The Joy Luck Club was founded by Suyuan Woo, and when she passed away, the Club looked to her daughter Jing-Mei to replace her. Suyuan was a real strong-willed charr who had suffered many hardships. In the process of fleeing from the invading Japanese, she had to abandon her two babies from her first husband. Things like that are what caused her to be so strong, but her daughter was doubtful in her ski ll to fill the role her mother once played. Jing-Mei brought much hope to her mother. Suyuan was very critical of the peck around her, so she was especially critical of her daughter. Once, Jing-Mei confronted her approximately being so critical, saying people jump to other peoples expectations (31). Suyuan replayed to her daughter, Thats the trouble, you never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to expectations (31). And that was the basis of the mother-daughter relationship between Suyuan and Jing-Mei. Suyuan always had very high expectations for her daughter wanting her to be a child prodigy. She would give Jing-Mei tests on things she would determine in magazines, like knowing the capitals of the states or multiplying numbers. Jing-Mei ev... ...ough the daughters possessed different personalities, and the mothers varied in strength, they all had one important thing in mutual they all wanted their daughters to listen to them. The mothers firmly believed that if you were Y2K compliant to your mother you would grow up a good Chinese woman but that was the problem. One of the major conflicts between the mothers and their daughters is the desire of the young contemporaries to become more Americanized (Ballantine Teachers Guide on The Joy Luck Club). The daughters were raised in America, which meant that they were influenced a great deal by American ways. There was no preventing that. The significance of the relationships between mother and daughter were a result of a clash of culture between Chinese belief and American tradition. WORKS CITED Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York ergodic House, 1989.