Lindo Jong In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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

In a way, Jing-mei Woo is the main character of The Joy Luck Club. (related to what holds something together and makes it strong), her stories serve as bridges between the two generations of storytellers, as Jing-mei speaks both for herself and for her dead mother, Suyuan. Jing-mei also bridges America and China. When she travels to China, she discovers the Chinese essence within herself, this way understanding a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings Suyuan 's story to her long-lost twin daughters, and, once reunited with her half-sisters, gains an even more extreme understanding of who her mother was.

“Here is how I came to love my mother.  How I saw her my own true nature.  What was beneath my skin.  Inside my bones.” (Tan 40)

Waverly was going to tell Lindo of her and Rich’s engagement, but whenever she mentioned him, Lindo cut her off and began to talk about something else. Waverly was convinced that her mother did not have any good intentions, and that she never saw good in people. Due to this, she was afraid of what her mother will say when she would meet Rich. According to Waverly, she and Rich shared a “pure love”, which she was afraid her mother would poison. Waverly planned to go to Auntie Suyuan’s house with Rich for dinner, knowing that her mother would then invite the two over for dinner to her house, and this would give her mother a chance to get to know and warm up to Rich. However, when they went for dinner, Rich did everything incorrectly- he didn’t understand Chinese customs and made several mistakes that were seen as

“Red Candle” centers around Lindo’s sacrifice and filial obligations. Lindo is forced into an arranged marriage with a boy named Tyan-yu. Despite being opposed to this marriage, she endures this loveless marriage in order to defend her family’s honor. She realizes that the marriage would not destroy her identity, and it is with honor that she leaves the marriage. “I would always remember my parents' wishes, but I would never forget myself” (58). On the night of her wedding, Lindo makes a realization about herself. She realizes that she does not need to abandon her identity despite her new family trying to strip her identity from her. Lindo still has independent thinking which cannot be taken away from her even if it is disguised under a veil of obedience and submissiveness.

Unlike several of the other characters in The Joy Luck Club, Lindo Jong embodies the hero’s journey as first shown by the completion of the first stage: departure. Lindo begins her journey at the age of two when the village matchmaker arranges for her to be married to Huang Tyan-yu. Despite her lack of consent, Lindo recognizes and states that “even if I had known I was getting a bad husband, I had no choice, now or later” (Tan 51). Lindo grows up in the countryside of China, where all power over decisions is given to the parents. Should she face difficult hardships later on in her life, she does not have the authority to better her situation. Lindo’s weakness--which is her natural obedience to her mother in order to prevent her from “losing face”--in combination with her lack of choice in any matter will inevitably leads to trouble as she receives her call to adventure. Speaking of call to adventure, although Lindo began her journey ten years ago, she has yet to cross the threshold into her heroic venture. A natural disaster, however, changes that. At the age of twelve, her life completely changes when a flood “destroyed all the wheat [Lindo’s] family had planted that year and made the land useless for years to come” (Tan 53). Due to the flood,

In the novel The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, there are several stories that intertwine into one novel. Each of the stories takes place China where the roles and the actions of woman are vastly different compared to American tradition. In the different stories, they all are about different mothers and daughters. Throughout the book, the reader can see the development in each relationship between mother and daughter with their conflicting backgrounds from China to America.

Waverly Jong and her mother, Lindo Jong, had many experiences in extraordinarily different circumstances which, in turn, resulted to very different views. Lindo Jong grew up with her family in China, until a flood separated them. At a young age, Lindo is forced into an arranged marriage that she did not want. Years later, Lindo fabricated a story to destroy her marriage without hurting anyone, and managed to leave for America. Waverly Jong, on the other hand, is born and raised in America while learning American values, albeit her mother constantly attempts to teach her Chinese values.

Culture defines humanity. Culture makes humans different than any other living organism ever known. Culture is what makes humans unique, and yet culture is easily the most misunderstood characteristic of individuals. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan develops the theme of incomplete cultural understanding leads to an inability to communicate one’s true intentions through juxtaposition and conflict between mothers and daughters and their cultures.

I think to myself what if I had a fight with my mother? What if, the fight, I was in trouble? What would I do? After the chapter “ Rules of the Game ”, I think that I have a good idea on what Waverly will do next.

Lindo’s upbringing was significant because her family was very traditional. As a result of her family abiding by tradition, Lindo was betrothed to Tyan-yu as a young girl. Lindo’s family treated her as if she was from a different family. When Lindo’s family lost everything in a flood, her father decided to move the family to Wushi. Lindo was old enough to move in with Tyan-yu’s family, so her family left her in Taiyuan with her future in-laws. When Lindo moved in with her new in-laws, Huang Taitai immediately put Lindo to work cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Lindo not only lost her family by moving in with the Huangs; she also lost her childhood innocence since she was forced to abandon playing with other children so she could be put to work. As a child, Lindo faced adversity due to her lack of American opportunities and therefore matured quickly.

History, Culture and Identity of Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

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.

In the book “Joy Luck Club” Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong have an inability to communicate on how they feel towards each other. Throughout the book there are stories in which this is conveyed. In the story “The Rules of the Game”, there is an incident in which Waverly is a young girl and is forced into something and then taken advantage by her mother. She then tries to use reverse psychology and disagrees to do what her mother wants. Expecting her mother to come back and beg her to begin doing what she was doing, but that never happens and Waverly has to suffer not doing what she enjoys. This is the most prominent, (although not the only) but still give the most evidence to their strange mother-daughter relationship.

In the movie, the Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, we see many examples of the challenges of intercultural translations. The movie portrays cultural conflict between Chinese culture and the American culture as portrayed by the lives of four mothers and their daughters. The mothers were born and raised in China, adopting the high-content Chinese culture, while their daughters, born and raised in America, adopted the low-context American