Mother Daughter Relationships - Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tans Joy Luck Club :: Joy Luck Club Essays

Understanding the Mothers and Daughters of The Joy Luck Club  Ã‚   Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club explores a variety of mother-daughter relationships between the characters, and at some level, relationships between friends, lovers, and even enemies.   The mother-daughter relationships are most likely the different aspects of Amy Tan's relationship with her mother, and perhaps, some parts are entirely figments of her imagination.   Therefore, Amy Tan believes that ramification of cultures and tradition between a family can be burdensome and cause the family tree to fall apart.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the beginning of the novel, we hear Suyuan Woo tell the story of "The Joy Luck Club," a group started by some Chinese women during World War II.   June explains while remembering the memories of her mother, " 'We feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories...we could hope to be lucky.   That hope was our only joy,' " (12).   The mothers grew up during perilous times in China.   They were raised to never forget an important outlook of their life, which was, "to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, to eat [their] own bitterness" (241).   For many years, the mother did not tell their daughters their stories until they were sure that their fractious offspring would listen.   By then, it is almost too late to make them understand their heritage that their mother left behind in China.   It seems that their family's legacy cannot seize their imaginations after years, decades, and ce nturies of blissfulness and sorrow.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mother's stories, how they learned to cope in America.   With this, Amy Tan touches on an obscure, little discussed issue, which is the divergence of Chinese culture through American children born of Chinese immigrant parents.   The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time, casting off their heritage while their mothers watch in dismay.   For example, after the piano talent show fiasco, a quarrel breaks out between June and Suyuan.   June does not have the blind obedience "to desire nothing...to eat [her] own bitterness."   She says to herself, " 'I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore.   I wasn't her slave.   This wasn't China' " (152).   Unbeknownst to June, Suyuan only hopes and wants the best for her daughter.   She explains, " 'Only one kind of daughter can live in this house.