Mothers all over the world dream of raising daughters who know who they are and what they want. Furthermore, mothers want their daughters to feel empowered while remaining true to themselves and their values. Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club explores four mother/daughter relationships and the struggles they face. The mothers all use the memory of their tribulations while living in China, in an effort to pass on messages of empowerment to their daughters. Through their own narratives, they are able to show their daughters how they were able to survive the hard times while still remaining true to themselves and their cultures. The St. Clair and Jong mothers, both use the terrible circumstances they faced in their marriages in China to reach
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Lindo’s narrative opens illustrating the importance of Chinese culture, saying, ‘I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents’ promise” (Tan, 49), by placing this as the opening sentence Tan is able to convey the prominence of the family in the culture. Lindo’s emic perspective attaches her to her culture and aids in shaping the atrocities that she faced, as well as her journey to self-discovery. Tan’s use of cultures that are worlds apart, geographically, debunks the popular belief that the reason Lindo and Waverly appear disconnected to one another is generational differences, but instead it is because of a cultural divide caused by a difference in location. Lindo and her mother connect through the geography they share—namely the Fen River. Ben Xu discusses the impact that location has on cultural identity in his article titled, “Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club”, arguing that Lindo’s tie to a specific location is what links her to her mother. Both Lindo and her mother’s life experiences and social identities stem from the experiences they had where they resided. Therefore, when the Fen River floods their home it changes both Lindo and her mother’s circumstances, ultimately “uniting them as co-suffers in hardship and survival” (Xu, Ben). Waverly lacks understanding of the culture because she does not have the familiarity of the geography her mother came from. Therefore, she is unable to honor her mother in a way that is culturally acceptable. However, despite the cultural gap, Lindo still attempts to show her daughter who she is through the first person recollection of her experiences in
Lindo’s narrative opens illustrating the importance of Chinese culture, saying, ‘I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents’ promise” (Tan, 49), by placing this as the opening sentence Tan is able to convey the prominence of the family in the culture. Lindo’s emic perspective attaches her to her culture and aids in shaping the atrocities that she faced, as well as her journey to self-discovery. Tan’s use of cultures that are worlds apart, geographically, debunks the popular belief that the reason Lindo and Waverly appear disconnected to one another is generational differences, but instead it is because of a cultural divide caused by a difference in location. Lindo and her mother connect through the geography they share—namely the Fen River. Ben Xu discusses the impact that location has on cultural identity in his article titled, “Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club”, arguing that Lindo’s tie to a specific location is what links her to her mother. Both Lindo and her mother’s life experiences and social identities stem from the experiences they had where they resided. Therefore, when the Fen River floods their home it changes both Lindo and her mother’s circumstances, ultimately “uniting them as co-suffers in hardship and survival” (Xu, Ben). Waverly lacks understanding of the culture because she does not have the familiarity of the geography her mother came from. Therefore, she is unable to honor her mother in a way that is culturally acceptable. However, despite the cultural gap, Lindo still attempts to show her daughter who she is through the first person recollection of her experiences in