When I flipped through the stories in front of each section, it gave me an idea of the larger cycles that are occurring in the book. I discovered that there is a traditional cycle of generations between American and Chinese cultures, closely intertwined with rebellious mother-daughter relationships. They begin with the mothers’ exposure to America, then the daughters’ exposure to America, following the conflict of the mothers’ teachings and the desire for freedom, but in the end, the daughters become like their mother, or at last come to a peace. This giant cycle is the basis of the whole book- it can be seen in all the sections of the book: Feathers From a Thousand Li Away, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, American Translation, and Queen Mother of the Western Skies. An interesting cycle repeated in the Joy Luck Club is that the mothers are reluctant to retell the stories of their histories to their daughters.
In the chapter, Waiting Between the Trees, Ying Ying St. Clair has the ability to foresee activities before they happen. Ever since she was a girl, she was known as the tiger girl, always having the fierce spirit. But this spirit was taken away from her when her first husband, the one she loved so much, cheated on her. Ying Ying even killed the baby boy in her womb because of the vengeance she felt towards her husband. Eventually, in America she married Saint but loved him differently- she compares this love to a ghost’s love, having a lover’s gratitude, but no desire or appetite in the relationship. All this was not told to her daughter; finally she decides, “Now Saint is a ghost. He and I can now love equally. He knows the things I have been hiding all these years. Now I must tell my daughter everything. That she is the daughter of a ghost. She has no chi. This is my greatest shame. How can I leave this world without leaving her my spirit?” (p.252). Ying ying’s secret is her past, her shame of loosing her chi- or her ferocious spirit, that had changed her from a tiger to a ghost. After her husband’s death, she realized that she needs to tell her daughter this secret in order to leave her daughter her own spirit, so Lena can become successful in her relationship. Shame prevented Ying Ying from teaching her daughter her own past and an important lesson on confidence and strength.
Suyuan, Jing-Mei’s mother, refused to tell her past not because of shame, but because of the love for her family. In the first chapter, The Joy Luck Club, the four mothers of the club always brags to one another about the great virtues in their daughters. They pray that the joy, luck, and hope they had brought to America are passed on from their daughters and down the generations. Suyuan did not tell her daughter about her two abandoned babies in Kweilin, until she used it as a lesson to teach her daughter to be grateful of what she has currently. After Suyuan’s death and when the babies were found, Auntie Ying Ying tells Jing-Mei briefly about her mother, “Your mother was a very strong woman, a good mother. She loved you very much, more than her own life. And that’s why you can understand why a mother like this could never forget her other daughters. She knew they were alive, and before she died she wanted to find her daughters in China” (p. 39). I believe Suyuan desired to keep her story from her family only temporarily to possibly attempt to protect her daughter. She is unsure of both her daughter’s and husband’s reaction so she hides it from them. The Chinese mothers all hid their past before they migrated to America because they are unsure how their children will view them since they’re in a different environment.
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