A Short Story : The Story Of Jingyi

When Jing Mei recognizes the similarities between her mother and herself she begins to understand not only her mother but herself as well. There are subtle connections and likenesses from the beginning between Jing Mei and her mother that Jing Mei does not see. The book commences with Jing Mei taking her mother's place at the mah jong table, creating a similarity between them from the beginning. Suyuan dies two months before the start of the book, and therefore is not able to tell the stories. Jing Mei has learned and must tell her stories in her place, forming another parallelism between mother and daughter. Because Suyuan is dead, Jing Mei must act in place of her mother when she goes to meet her Chinese sisters in China. Throughout the book Jing Mei takes the place of Suyuan, showing she and her mother

However, once Jing-mei stepped off the plane and saw her sisters, she was able to embrace them with "all hesitations and expectations forgotten"(331). The rapport between Jing-mei and her sisters demonstrates the capability of Jing-mei to forget her fears and have faith that she can do anything. Both Suyuan and Jing-mei worked through their problems by remaining strong and willful, making their lives much easier in the end.

Also, their relationship is shaped by the pressure Suyuan puts on her daughter. When Jing-Mei was growing up, her mother had the need for her daughter to be smart, talented, and a respectful Chinese daughter. This pressure put on Jing-Mei resulted in misunderstanding between mother and daughter. Jing-Mei constantly believed, “that she was disappointing her mother,” because she felt as if she failed at everything her mother wanted her to do. She believed she could never be as perfect as her mother was. Therefore she doesn’t think she is worthy enough to take her mother’s place at the Joy Luck Club “They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place” (Tan, 27). Jing-Mei does not understand that her mother wanted the best for her; Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to challenge herself because that is how one builds up character. Suyuan thinks her daughter could do anything she proposed to do but never put enough effort into anything “Lazy to rise to expectations” (Tan 31). Furthermore, Suyuan forced Jing-Mei to learn how to play the piano and then perform at a recital. Jing-Mei rebelled against her mother and refused to learn how to play the piano well. So, at the recital she ends up forgetting the music notes. Jing-Mei blames her embarrassment on her mother and states,

At first, Jing-mei’s mother wants Jing-mei to take examinations that test her knowledges, “The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head without using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London”(1123). Jing-mei collapsed at these endless tests that her mother is slapping onto her face. Jing-mei immaturely responded to her mother’s test by acting boring and off task when her mother is testing her. Her lack of interest and activeness in this activity made Jing-mei’s mother eventually gave up on

In contrast, during the era of The Story Yingying, the cultural norm for a woman was to be submissive, patient, and passive. Yingying upheld all of these cultural standards. After meeting Zhang for the first time Yingying showed no interest in him at all but overtime Yingying finally gave into Zhang and fell in love and they became engaged. Unfortunately, Zhang had to leave for a year to go take a civil service examination, but he promised her he would come back to her. She waited patiently and after a year, her fiancé returned but shortly after had to leave again to retake the examination. Again she waited patiently for his return, but he never came back. After waiting for years for her fiancé to return, she became eager to

At the beginning of the short story, Jing-mei shares about “becoming Chinese” (Tan 152). Living in San Francisco area, she had always felt disconnected from her Chinese culture. The most significant moment of Jing-mei’s acceptance of her Chinese culture was when her father told her about her mother’s journey from China to America during the time of the invasion. She truly learns to appreciate her mother because of all she had gone through. Jing-mei also understand the existence of her half-sisters and feels the need to visit and meet them, as they are part of her mother. Jing-mei’s original lookout on Chinese culture was developed their prejudices and stereotypes. After living with her Chinese family and learning more about her mother’s past,

Ender, watching knew who resented Bernard. Shen was small, ambitious, and easily needled. Bernard had discovered quickly, and started calling him worm“. Here they are singling out Shen and isolating him because he has a loose bum. Shen's character changed after this he became shy and self-conscious. This relates to the author's message as the other kids were ruthless in the way they treated her with no compassion.

Lizzie puts absolute trust in Jing. She believes he trusts her. This makes me think it is more than just a servant-master bond.

do whatever she wanted because when mother was her Jing mei’s age she didn’t have the

For the majority of the story, the characters remain static and flat. There is no growth of the characters as they remain locked in their "battle of wills." This type of characterization makes the reader focus more on the theme rather than on the individuals themselves. The only growth exhibited by any character is at the end. Jing Mei realizes that it was only a mother’s love which drove her to make Jing Mei succeed. She understands that her mother only had good intentions for her at heart, although the outcome was not the desired effect.

Additionally, Jing-Mei’s play of two piano pieces shows that Jing-Mei has come to terms with herself. When Jing-Mei receives the piano as her thirtieth birthday present.Jing-Mei is relieved by the burden of her mother’s long expectations and forgives her mother. She also understands that her mother has kept urging her on and piano lessons because her mother believed in her possibility and talent.

2. Although Jing Mei is too young to know what was her mother’s real thought, she gives a clear description of what her mother said, did, how she did it. Some

In this time in China, the role that women and men had were very different from each other. Women were expected to be quite, obedient, and respectful. While men were the provider, the intellectual and the decision maker in the family. In Shen Fu and his wife, Yun marriage it started out like the typical relationship in eightieth century China, each one fulfilling the roles that society had in place for them. But as they became to know each other more, Shen Fu saw Yun real personality and wanted someone to experience life, so he started to encourage her to be herself and told her she didn’t have to live up to this gender stereotypes for women. They both were always

As an adult, Jing-mei’s mother offers her the piano once more, and Jing-mei accepts the gift. Appreciating the encouragement and faith her mother bestows upon her Jing-mei decides to care for the piano. The piano piece

Furthermore, in this story Jing-Mei’s mother had her mind fixed into thinking that she needed to