Amy Tan Literary Techniques

Amy Tan has a contentious relationship with her mother perceived from her hostile tone. All mother-daughter relationships have troubles. In excerpts from Amy Chua’s memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, and Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, mother-daughter relationships can be seen through diction, and tone. The annoyed tone in the situation between Amy Chua and her daughter shows a caring relationship while the hostile and hateful tone in Amy Tan’s excerpt shows a poor relationship with a hateful past. In Amy Chua’s excerpt, “The Violin”, her relationship with her daughter is seen through irony, the annoyed tone, and diction. Amy Chua ironically encourages her daughter while she plays the violin. In attempt to reinforce the relaxed movement that violin playing requires, Chua screams, creating the opposite of a relaxed environment. Chua cares about her daughter’s playing because she “always [tries her] best to reinforce Mr.Shugart’s points”(Chua 47-48). In this example she is trying to reinforce the relaxation by yelling in a harsh tone. Due to her mother’s yelling, Lulu, the daughter
While the Tan’s mother harshly drags Tan to the piano bench, she sobs and “[looks] at her bitterly” (Tan 141-142). Her look defines their relationship as hostile. Later, she tells her mother that “‘I wish I were dead! Like them’” (Tan 141-142). Tan was referring to the children that her mother lost in China, which were never spoken of. When Tan speaks of the babies, she shows that she wanted to bring her mother painful thoughts. Since these babies were never spoken of, the relationship between Tan and her mother seems to be restrictive because they do not have conversations about all things. Through this piano lesson, we can see that their relationship is plagued by a bitter past that is filled to the brim with