Rice Husband Chapter Summary

This weeks reading covered the third and fourth section of Joy Luck Club: American Translation and Queen Mother of the Western Skies. These sections contain stories from both the daughters and mothers from the Joy Luck Club, with Jing-Mei’s story continued across them both. In American Translation, the daughters of the Joy Luck Club discuss the problems they have encountered as adults- mainly marital and career troubles. In Queen Mother of the Western Skies the mothers and Jing-Mei rediscover what their Chinese heritage means in the context of America. In Rice Husband, Lena St. Claire begins to come to terms with the fragility and unhealthy nature of her marriage. As her mother stays with her, she begins to see her life through her eyes, and she doesn’t like what she sees. To her mother, all of her fancy detailings, lists, and planning are negative, not positive the way Lena had previously seen them. Lena recalls a time when she was only eight years old, but her mother had already predicted that she would marry a “bad man”. Two decades later, she met Harold, and changed his life. Lena convinced him to start his own business, to carve a niche for himself, and is rewarded with a household that focuses almost solely on money, despite the fact that Harold is her boss, makes …show more content…
When Rose discovers that her husband not only wants to get divorced, pay her off, and take their house, but has been planning to do so for a long time, she goes into shock. However, after days spent thinking over the issue, she finds in herself what her mother refers to as “wood”, and realizes she has the strength to stand up to her husband and advocate for herself. Jing-Mei, after being humiliated by Waverly at dinner, receives her “life’s importance” from her mother, and learns that she has the ability to change and grow in ways that others, like Waverly,