Joy Luck Club Analysis

In a cultural melting pot such as the United States, every person has their own story. Amy Tan's “The Joy Luck Club" follows the stories of seven different women as they navigate their lives in America and their back stories in China. Several stories involve the idea of searching for a better life, including those of Rose Hsu Jordan. Rose is the American daughter of An-Mei Hsu and the wife of Ted Jordan. Through a series of unfortunate events, Ted and Rose split up, leaving Rose to pick up all the pieces of her former life and pave the way for a new one. However, doing so is not always as simple as it may seem. In order to successfully better one’s life, he/she must first better themselves. Rose Hsu Jordan had been looking for a way out of her life.

The idea that marriage will change a person's life in a positive matter is an opinion that is widely accepted as a fact in the United States, and Rose was quite fond of "American opinions."
She wanted something that made her feel different. In fact, the things she “initially found attractive in Ted were precisely the things that made him different from [her] brothers and the Chinese boys [she] had dated: his brashness; the assuredness in which he asked for things and expected to get them; the thickness of his arms; the fact that his parents immigrated from Tarrytown, New York, not Tientsin, China” (117). These differences were exciting and allowed her to be somebody that she wasn't before she met Ted. It became forbidden and stimulating; something she had never really experienced before.
“With imagined tragedy hovering over [them], [they] became inseparable, two halves creating the whole: yin and yang. [She] was victim to his hero... The emotional effect of saving and being saved was addicting to both of [them]” (119). With Ted playing
Superman, Rose got to be Lois Lane. She no longer had any responsibilities because Ted way always there to pick her up if she fell. The preeminent part was that with Ted, Rose never had to make any decisions. Rose had been terrified of making decisions ever since her brother died. She watched him drown and couldn't do anything to stop it. “[She] sank to [her] knees watching that spot where he disappeared, not moving, not saying anything.
[She] couldn’t make sense of it” (125). With Ted, she never had to decide anything. He picked out everything and made every decision because “[she] never thought of objecting. [She] preferred to ignore the world around [her]...” (119). By handing all of the control to Ted, Rose had nothing to worry about and no consequences to face.
The lack of equality between Rose and Ted causes the relationship to deflate. It's not a healthy, functioning relationship. When one person has more control in a relationship than the other, the entire thing becomes unbalanced, especially when one of them forces it to shift after a long time. “...[Last] year Ted’s feelings about what he called ‘decision and responsibility’ changed” (119). He began pushing Rose to make more decisions because he could no longer handle all of the pressure he had been putting on himself. He said, “‘...You can’t have it both ways, none of the responsibilities, none of the blame’” (120). Unfortunately, after years and years of never having to decide on anything, Rose was entirely unprepared. “[She] thought about things, the pros and the cons. But in the end [she] would be so confused because [she] never believed there was ever one right answer, yet there were many wrong ones” (119-120). With so many endless options in front of her, Rose had no idea what to do and Ted could see it. “...Later that evening he called from Los Angeles and said he wanted a divorce” (120). The absence of Ted created both an emptiness in Rose's life and an opportunity to finally become the strong woman she was meant to be.
Rose possesses the ability to make decisions, but she doesn't have the confidence in herself. She couldn't even make up her mind about her feelings about Ted. “To [her] friend Waverly, [she] said [she] never knew how much [she] loved Ted until [she] saw how much he could hurt [her]... To [her] friend Lena, [she] said [she] was better off without Ted... [she] told [her] psychiatrist [she] was obsessed with revenge” (189). She had all these thoughts about Ted and the divorce, but she couldn't sort them out. There were just too many variables and she still didn't trust herself enough to pick the right answer. “[She] sat there quietly, trying to listen to [her] heart, to make the right decision.
But then [she] realized [she] didn’t know what the choices were” (191). After a reasonable four days rotting in bed and eating chicken soup, Rose realizes, with the help of a hundred or so calls from her mother, that she must learn to speak up for herself. She began to figure out the things that she wanted. “[She] thought to [herself], [she loves] this house” (192). After giving herself the power to decide something for herself, she becomes a new person. Rose finally confronts Ted and unleashes the power that she had been subconsciously holding in for years. "[She] saw what [she] wanted; his eyes, confused, then scared. He was hulihudu . The power of [her] words was that strong”
(196). The unexpected power surge freaks Ted out because he has never experience that side of Rose before and it's frightening. The confidence she gets from finally standing up for herself completely transforms her, mentally and emotionally. She becomes a person that Ted is not only afraid of, but one that he respects.
There are a lot of different ways in which people try to find better lives. They can move to different countries, hire psychics to tell them the correct life path, or marry the first man that comes along. In one specific case, Ted Jordan stopped taking care of his garden and divorces his wife so that he could marry somebody "better". None of those actions really enhance the quality of a life, though. From the outside, things will definitely look better. Sure, there are more opportunities in a more advanced country, but they have to be taken advantage of. In any situation, if the person hasn't changed, their life hasn't either. Rose may think that her life changed when she married Ted, but it only got better when she realized that she had the power to divorce him. She became her own person, not just "Ted's wife." In today's society, so many people believe that love, faith, and marriage will fix any problem, but they won't unless hard work is put in and the people involved know who they are. It takes a lot to turn a life around, not just a wedding and a pair of rings. If a person isn't alright on their own, they can never be alright with another person. Life doesn't work like that. One must be an entire individual before becoming half of a pair or else the pieces won't mesh correctly. If people would realize that relationships are meant to enhance a person's greatness, not create it, there would be more successful relationships and the divorce rate in the United States would be much less than 50%.