Cultural Relativism Perspectives In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
The central theme in the book “The Joy Luck Club” is about the culture clash between two generations, the Americanized daughters growing up under a strong influence of their Asian-American mothers. These conflicts have smothered their relationships and make them be on the opposite sides in almost perceptions. However, it is just the outer face of the problems. When we see the issues in the lens of cultural-relativism perspectives, we will realize the true meanings of scenarios happening in their intergenerational families.
First of all, the author has described vividly the characteristic of Waverly, an Americanized daughter, with strong personalities and independence. It is easy to know why Waverly assume that her mother, Lindo Jong, “hates” …show more content…
Waverly believed that her mother was using “secret weapons” to attack and criticize Rich sneakily like “thousands of flying cleavers”; as a result, Rich’s soul would erode away and he would transform to be a mundane and irritated person (Tan 175). She also terrified that her mother tried to “poison” her second marriage. Her belief is supported when she assumed that her mother found many ways to criticize everything belonging to Rich, such as his gift and appearance. Her depression mounted to top when she witnessed his miserable failure in the family dinner. Actually, she was paranoid about her mother. The misunderstanding in generation gap made Waverly label her mother as a terrible woman, and she had “self-fulling prophecy” with that labeling (Ferris & Stein 160). In fact, Jong didn’t say anything offensive, for her English limitation let her express honestly what she observed; for example, the messy of Waverly’s room, the short fur of coat or the freckles on Rich’s face. Objectively, that is not the criticisms. To the point, Waverly judged her mother in her distorted view; thus, whatever her mother did verified her prophecy. The author also didn’t mention Lindo Jong’s views about Rich and she let us interpret these situations under Waverly’s
First of all, the author has described vividly the characteristic of Waverly, an Americanized daughter, with strong personalities and independence. It is easy to know why Waverly assume that her mother, Lindo Jong, “hates” …show more content…
Waverly believed that her mother was using “secret weapons” to attack and criticize Rich sneakily like “thousands of flying cleavers”; as a result, Rich’s soul would erode away and he would transform to be a mundane and irritated person (Tan 175). She also terrified that her mother tried to “poison” her second marriage. Her belief is supported when she assumed that her mother found many ways to criticize everything belonging to Rich, such as his gift and appearance. Her depression mounted to top when she witnessed his miserable failure in the family dinner. Actually, she was paranoid about her mother. The misunderstanding in generation gap made Waverly label her mother as a terrible woman, and she had “self-fulling prophecy” with that labeling (Ferris & Stein 160). In fact, Jong didn’t say anything offensive, for her English limitation let her express honestly what she observed; for example, the messy of Waverly’s room, the short fur of coat or the freckles on Rich’s face. Objectively, that is not the criticisms. To the point, Waverly judged her mother in her distorted view; thus, whatever her mother did verified her prophecy. The author also didn’t mention Lindo Jong’s views about Rich and she let us interpret these situations under Waverly’s