What Is Waverly's Relationship In The Joy Luck Club

Mother and daughter relationships are a prominent theme in The Joy Luck Club. The Joy Luck Club was Mahjong club, organized by a group of brave women, to escape from their struggles in a war torn Kweilin, and was continued on in America. Amy Tan utilized the experiences she had growing up in a household with a Chinese immigrant mother, to inspire the plot of the novel. In The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan analyzes the relationship between mothers and daughters in a generation gap of Chinese cultured women, and their Americanized daughters. The daughters challenge their mothers, especially their positions of authority. This can be more specifically seen with Lindo Jong, and her daughter Waverly. Waverly is quite headstrong and manipulative, especially when she confronts her mother regarding her controlling manner towards Waverly’s career as a successful Chess player. “Waverly’s …show more content…
It is imperative in Chinese culture that elders must respect at all time, and Waverly is challenging that ideal. Her confrontational behavior towards her mother shows that Waverly has fully adapted to the Americanized way of family relation, but her mother cannot. Lindo fails realize that they live in a culture where the children discover their passions themselves and are vocal about their passions, which greatly contrasts Lindo’s upbringing, to obey the adults at all costs Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter Lena have quite an odd relationship because they do not understand each other. Lena’s mother is almost in a culture shock, because she is trying to teach Lena lessons from her childhood, but her Americanized daughter cannot understand her. It is also difficult for Ying-ying to steer her