Waverly's Relationship In The Joy Luck Club

Parent-child relationships vary greatly around the world. And those variations depend on the cultures that exist in our world today. The relationship between Mrs. Jong and Waverly is a product of the culture that Mrs. Jong was brought up in. Waverly Jong lives in Chinatown, which is located in San Francisco. She along with her two brothers and parents live together. One Christmas, Waverly’s brother received a chess set as a present. Almost immediately, Waverly picked up an interest in it, and soon she became known as a child prodigy. During her chess journey, Mrs. Jong (Waverly’s mother), greatly influences Waverly’s actions, slowly pushing Waverly to her limit. Mrs. Jong’s implementation of power on Waverly causes Waverly to be a dynamic character in the story. Waverly’s way of thinking evolves as the story continues. However, Mrs. Jong remains as a static character due to her narrow-mindedness. Waverly’s evolvement is what causes the friction between her and Mrs. Jong. The power that Mrs. Jong holds over Waverly,

She was my mother,” (31).  Jing-Mei says this to her aunts after her mother had died, and she had to take your position in joy luck.  She felt like she never really knew her mother because of their miscommunication.  Suyuan Woo, Jing-Mei’s mother, had many hopes and good intentions for her daughter. While Jing-Mei wanted to be herself and still please her mother, Suyuan wanted her daughter to be a child prodigy. Always wanting the best for her daughter, Suyuan hoped Jing-Mei would one day become an extraordinary pianist.  Although Jing-Mei played the piano, she never put forth much effort into the music because her best was not good enough for her mother.  Nonetheless, she stopped playing the piano.  “I could only be me,” (154).  She could not be something that she was not; she could not live up to her mother’s expectations.  This symbolized one of Jing-Mei’s songs, “Pleading Child.”  Suyuan continues to put all the pressure on Jing-Mei so that she will not become like her mother for all the reasons she had come to America; hopes for a better life.

 In the Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, focuses on mother-daughter relationships. She examines the lives of four women who emigrated from China, and the lives of four of their American-born daughters. The mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying St. Clair had all experienced some life-changing horror before coming to America, and this has forever tainted their perspective on how they want their children raised. The four daughters: Waverly, Lena, Rose, and Jing-Mei are all Americans. Even though they absorb some of the traditions of Chinese culture they are raised in America and American ideals and values.  This inability to communicate and the clash

June wants to learn more about her mother and her culture with the added pressure of meeting Suyuan’s lost daughters in China. She starts to embrace the Chinese culture and is excited to eat a traditional Chinese meal, even though she does not get the chance (page 278). She also asks her father more about Suyuan’s time in China and the meaning of her name (page 280). When June finally meets her sisters, they murmur, “‘Mama, Mama’” (page 287). June finally feels a connection with her mother and with her Chinese background. Therefore, June’s character developed because of her mother’s passing.

The relationship a mother has with her daughter is one of the most significant relationships either person will possess. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the stories of four mothers and their respective daughters are established through vignettes, which reveal the relationships between them. Throughout the novel, the mothers and daughters are revealed to be similar, yet different. Lindo and Waverly Jong can be compared and contrasted through their upbringings, marriages, and personalities.

In our lives, many of us underestimate the power our words have on others. Because of this, Amy Tan reveals the idea that words have a profound effect on people; In The Joy Luck Club Amy tan portrays this theme through Lena’s life.

In the story, Lindo talks about her life with Waverly and explains her experiences after being forced to a prearranged marriage. Lindo says an important line between her and Waverly. “I wipe my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful dress… I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside….” (Tan, 53). The red color dress Lindo wears is symbolic to good luck and prosperity associated with the marriage between her and Tyan-yu, but Lindo’s emphasis from her statement isn’t the red dress rather it is the thoughts she conceals on her mind and did not disclose to any. Lindo states how she recognizes her invisible strength and that this strength will pass on to her daughter in her chess matches. Since her mother taught her invisible strength, she now utilizes them in chess games. “I was six when my mother taught me invisible strength. It was a strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, through of us knew it all the time, chess games.” (Waverly, 89). This quote states that the “art of invisible strength" was put into her mentality when she was as a young girl and how she would utilize it to handle future problems and challenges. To sum it up, Waverly’s mother expresses her “art of invisible strength” which means to be powerful within yourself to have

Suyuan often set up expectations for her daughter June, but June didn't want to become the prodigy her mother wanted her to be. June thought her mother was trying to control her destiny, while she believed she just couldn't do it and she has to be herself. “You want me to become someone that I’m not!” This is June arguing with her mother about not wanting to become a

Throughout the story, Jing-mei embarks on a lifelong journey of self satisfaction made through painful yet rewarding connections of femininity and ethnicity. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader understands how Jing-mei’s feelings toward her mother changed, why her feelings changed, and how alienation between Jing-mei and her mother affect their relationship as well as the entire story. Throughout the story, the narrator’s feelings toward her mother

June claims she cannot possibly know her mother well enough to explain her story to her sisters, “What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything” (Tan 40). As one prominent motif in the novel is generation gaps that lead to little understanding present throughout the novel, by claiming that she is incapable of telling her mother’s story reveals that June is reluctant to answer her call to adventure. However, June is not refusing to take on the challenge because she does not have the ability to carry it out; she is afraid that she is still not the Chinese daughter her mother has always hoped for leading her to constantly yearn for her mother’s approval. The question is not “Did Suyuan love June?”, but instead “Did June love Suyuan?”.

Mothers and daughters possess qualities,(Good Mothers/Bad Mothers) mothers really want their daughters to be like them but do not always say it.  Mothers also hide things from their daughters like Suyuan did because she was afraid of hurting Jing-Mei but when she found out that she had two older sisters she was thrilled.  Not only was she thrilled about having sisters but by finding them and seeing them she was living her mothers dream.  The minute she leaves for China to see her sisters Jing-Mei says “I feel different.  I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain.  And I think, my mother was right.  I am becoming Chinese”(Tan

She shows her off, evidently proud; but it is not seen by her daughter. As a result Waverly becomes very angry with her Mom and is driven away from her. Ever since Waverly was a child, her mother guided her and gave her important knowledge to use throughout her life. “I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength.” Mrs.Jong has been implementing teachings and advice into Waverly's life since she was young.

The Novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan demonstrates multiple themes, including the theme of hope. The theme of hope is developed through the use of the characters’ flashbacks, the characters’ overcoming of external conflict, and the younger characters’ better understanding of life as they mature. Hope is demonstrated through the flashbacks to difficult times in the lives of the mothers from The Joy Luck Club and how they overcame these times. An-Mei Hsu displays this when Rose Hsu Jordan tell An-Mei that she is getting a divorce. This reminds An-Mei Hsu of the time of her mom’s abusive marriage when she was younger, An-Mei Hsu tells Rose “‘Because you must’ she says ‘this is not hope.

Lindo starts to explain her family history to her daughter by saying, “And half of everything inside you is from me, your mother’s side, from the Sun clan in Taiyuan…. We are a smart people, very strong. Tricky, and famous for winning wars” (183). Lindo’s narration of her Chinese ancestors and Chinese traditions associated with it gives Waverly the opportunity to build a stronger connection to Chinese culture, and inherit those customs within her life. The daughters like Waverly have lost much interest in inheriting Chinese culture due to the cultural and language barriers exist between their mothers and them, which makes storytelling become an effective goal to bridge those gaps. Moreover, storytelling can help circumvent the cultural barriers by improving personality traits of both mothers and daughters. Stories told by the mothers often help the daughters to avoid marking the same mistakes or having the same character flaw based on their past experiences. For instance, the motive behind Ying-Ying’s decision of telling her daughter, Lena, about her depressing past is that she wants to warn Lena against the acceptance and passivity they both

It could be argued that Waverly is displaying a certain kind of humility here by asking her mother not to “show off,” but if so, it’s certainly not the kind of humility the Chinese in the story value. In every other example of it, the Chinese characters have displayed respect for the feelings of others above their own, whether in graciously accepting bad gifts, downplaying personal success, or celebrating the success of others. That’s clearly not the case here. Waverly is putting herself first. She’s also denying her mother’s pride in their association, challenging the values of family and community. For Waverly, pride is reserved only for the individual who achieves something, not for the community that supports and enables it. All of this