Feel the rise and descend of your green colored horse. All around you horses gallop on this fast and blurry course. Mirrors, clowns, flashing colored lights, whirling and twirling, what chaotic sights. Round and round, when does it end? Life is a journey full of trips. Some trips are cyclical like an amusement park ride who’s speed and momentum we cannot control. They are seemingly spinning out of control filled with dizzying distractions that prevent us from enjoying the ride and knowing how to get off. In Amy Tan’s “Joy Luck Club” and J.D Salinger’s “The Catcher In the Rye”, both June and Holden become stuck in the motion of their ongoing carousels - June in her struggle to connect to her mother and herself and Holden in his struggling attempt
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June’s life spun in a continuous circle of disconnection with herself and her mother but the meeting with her sister’s helped to mend these connections. In the process of always falling short of her mother’s expectations, Jing-Mei felt a loss in her identity. Jing-Mei felt she needed to be perfect to please her parents and “was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything” (Tan 133). Jing-Mei is not able to realize and value all that her mother sacrificed for her nor did she appreciate her intentions. Through her trip in China, June reconnects to her heritage and feels a sudden sense of belonging when she arrives in China saying, “I am in China, I remind myself. And somehow the crowds don’t bother me. It feels right. I start pushing too” (Tan 272). Through her meeting with her sisters, Jing-mei “sees what part of [her] is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is [her] family. It is in their blood” (Tan 288). June realizes that it is their Chinese heritage, their biological DNA that connects them and unites them as a family. The daughters are connected through their mother and together, they fulfill her wish. The daughters, “Together look like [their] mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish” (Tan 288). They find themselves, each other, their heritage, and recognize their mother’s deep love for them which is all their mother hoped for. June fulfills Suyuan’s hope of not only uniting the family, but also embracing her Chinese heritage. The daughters help each other appreciate and recognize both the Chinese and American sides to their mother and in doing so, Suyuan’s legacy lives on. June is able to break free of her carousel and move forward with
June’s life spun in a continuous circle of disconnection with herself and her mother but the meeting with her sister’s helped to mend these connections. In the process of always falling short of her mother’s expectations, Jing-Mei felt a loss in her identity. Jing-Mei felt she needed to be perfect to please her parents and “was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything” (Tan 133). Jing-Mei is not able to realize and value all that her mother sacrificed for her nor did she appreciate her intentions. Through her trip in China, June reconnects to her heritage and feels a sudden sense of belonging when she arrives in China saying, “I am in China, I remind myself. And somehow the crowds don’t bother me. It feels right. I start pushing too” (Tan 272). Through her meeting with her sisters, Jing-mei “sees what part of [her] is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is [her] family. It is in their blood” (Tan 288). June realizes that it is their Chinese heritage, their biological DNA that connects them and unites them as a family. The daughters are connected through their mother and together, they fulfill her wish. The daughters, “Together look like [their] mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish” (Tan 288). They find themselves, each other, their heritage, and recognize their mother’s deep love for them which is all their mother hoped for. June fulfills Suyuan’s hope of not only uniting the family, but also embracing her Chinese heritage. The daughters help each other appreciate and recognize both the Chinese and American sides to their mother and in doing so, Suyuan’s legacy lives on. June is able to break free of her carousel and move forward with