Joy Luck Club Poem Meaning

In the novel Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan tells the story of four chinese mothers and their american daughters. One of these mothers, An-mei Hsu greatly compares to a poem Mother’s Day by Daisy Zamora. This poem includes four different stanzas, which each correlate with a different part of An-mei’s character. The first and second stanzas of Zamora’s poem are about how the daughter wishes to have a mother like one of the: pretty mothers in the ads() but because she is: born of my womb() she does not get a choice in the matter. This correlates to Tan’s novel because An-mei’s daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan, does not respect her mother in the same way that the speaker in the poem’s daughter does not respect her mother. Rose has grown up seeing …show more content…
These three symbols can be easily connected to the sea because they are all from the sea, but also support the idea of chaos in this stanza. Reefs and binnacles are both known to be rough, dangerous objects in the ocean that if not careful around can cause damage; and sirens, which according to mythology were beautiful creatures that would lure men in with their music and singing and then eat them, supporting the theme of destruction and chaos. These themes support the connection between the poem and An-mei because in the novel An-mei loses a son to the ocean, which creates much chaos in her life and faith. The beginning of the stanza supports the idea that in the moment when An-mei “ walked back and threw the tube into the sea…’This will go where Bing is. I will bring him back,’ she said fiercely. I had never heard so much nengkan in my mother’s voice.” (129-130) she also threw her faith in too. When it was not returned “At that moment, and not until that moment, did she give up”(130). After that day An-mei uses her Bible, which is a symbol for her faith, as something to support their family dining room table. An-mei tries to ignore the book but “My mother(An-mei), she still pays attention to it. That Bible under the table, I know she sees it” This connects to the idea that although the ocean has created chaos in …show more content…
When Zamora says: But I advance/ go forward holding to the hope…() she is talking about moving forward with life, which An-mei has to do even after the death of her son. Zamora continues to write: ...of some distant port/ where you my children--I’m sure--/ will pull in one day/…(). In these lines when the writer says that the children will pull in one day to some distant port it means that the children will return to their mother some day in the distant future. This connects to each of An-mei’s children that were previously mentioned. First, it connects to Rose because An-mei would constantly try to get Rose to accept her mother and her chinese heritage, not giving up even “More than 30 years later,...”(187). After all of these years Rose would realize that “my mother was still trying to make me listen.”(187). Once Rose realizes this she begins to accept her mother and returns to her mother’s ways. An-mei’s other child that can be compared to this stanza is Bing. Although Bing drowned An-mei still believes that he will return to her. This is supported when Rose opens her mother’s bible and finds “...a section called “Death’s,” and that’s where she wrote “Bing Hsu” lightly, in erasable pencil.” (130). The fact that she wrote it in erasable pencil is highly important because it shows that An-mei has still not given up on her son and still believes that he will be returned to