Joy Luck Club Conflict
The Joy Luck Club Essay Most people have at least one fight with their guardian(s) in their life, is that because of a difference in opinion, a misunderstanding or are they just different people? Generational conflict is misunderstanding between family members of different age ranges usually leading to fighting. All the women in TJLC suffer from conflict with their Daughters or Mothers, all caused by lack of communication and cultural understanding. Because of growing up with two different cultures and struggling to connect them, mother/daughter conflict is common in Chinese American families with immigrant parents.
The traditional Chinese culture strongly differs from American-Chinese culture. Asian cultures value self control and restraint …show more content…
especially with expressing emotion which leads to the parents not commonly expressing affection and warmth openly and directly. They instead feel it is better to show love though instrumental support and sacrifice for their children. On the other hand American families emphasize on “egalitarianism, [or the] mutual exchange.”(Chung). The average American parents express their care directly by saying things like “I love you,” or “I,m proud of you.” Chinese-Americans, being apart of both cultures often compare the behaviors and interprate it as the parent being cold and distant. Asian family dynamics is strongly based around filial piety, a confucian theory based on respecting one's parents and elders. An important Asian belief concerning family is that a child has an obligation to support, assist, honor and respect the family. Family obligation and expectation can often lead to conflict in families with foreign born parents and US born children. Those who are more engaged in family obligation tend to report greater depressive symptoms.
In American Chinese youth, mental health and family struggle are closely tied. Depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem are common mental illness that occur in American Chinese adolescents that experience a high tension family environment. Studies have shown that Chinese Americans demonstrate “psychological problems that are associated with difficulties reconciling parents values of ethnic origin with mainstream american values.”(Chunxia). Many American-Asians have troubles addressing problems with their parents because on the cultural stress on parental authority. That issue with expression often leads to the worsening of family relationships. Chinese Americans feel “[pressure] to live up to high expectations from parents and constant comparisons to others who are doing well.”(Juang). Meeting the high expectations of parents was a common struggle for the women in The Joy Luck Club.
In The Joy Luck Club, the Mothers and Daughters were constantly fighting or having some form of disagreement.
In this story a huge cause of mother-daughter conflict is a lack of cultural understanding. The “Daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English,”(Tan 40) are just one of the examples of cultural misunderstanding between the families. All of the daughters felt controlled by their mothers and the mothers felt like their daughters didn't listen to them, like they were invisible and had no voice. All of the daughters experience low self-esteem, depression or other mental health issues connected to the strain on their relationships with their mothers. Rose was insecure and that lead to her having no voice in her marriage. Waverly experiences anxiety whenever she thinks of having a disagreement with her mother or her mother ruining her relationship with Rich. Being unable to fluently speak the same language isn’t the only reason for a lack of communication between the women and their mothers. All the women and their mothers have difficult truly understanding each other because they don’t share the same experiences so they believe the other won’t comprehend what they’re saying, that leads to an even bigger gap in their
relationships.
Because of different customs in native Chinese guardians and Chinese American children many Chinese families have a lack of communication and understanding, many disagreements, and that tends to lead to the child having some form of mental illness. Many families struggle to understand each other when they come from a different time, that was clearly displayed in TJLC between the mothers and daughters. Chinese American families aren’t the only ones who struggle with generational conflict, all families struggle with this, especially families with a child who is a first generation American. This is because American culture is a dominant culture but also because cultures tend not to blend well. Just because this is a common occurrence doesn't mean it’s unavoidable, this is just one of many reasons to promote cultural understanding.
The traditional Chinese culture strongly differs from American-Chinese culture. Asian cultures value self control and restraint …show more content…
especially with expressing emotion which leads to the parents not commonly expressing affection and warmth openly and directly. They instead feel it is better to show love though instrumental support and sacrifice for their children. On the other hand American families emphasize on “egalitarianism, [or the] mutual exchange.”(Chung). The average American parents express their care directly by saying things like “I love you,” or “I,m proud of you.” Chinese-Americans, being apart of both cultures often compare the behaviors and interprate it as the parent being cold and distant. Asian family dynamics is strongly based around filial piety, a confucian theory based on respecting one's parents and elders. An important Asian belief concerning family is that a child has an obligation to support, assist, honor and respect the family. Family obligation and expectation can often lead to conflict in families with foreign born parents and US born children. Those who are more engaged in family obligation tend to report greater depressive symptoms.
In American Chinese youth, mental health and family struggle are closely tied. Depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem are common mental illness that occur in American Chinese adolescents that experience a high tension family environment. Studies have shown that Chinese Americans demonstrate “psychological problems that are associated with difficulties reconciling parents values of ethnic origin with mainstream american values.”(Chunxia). Many American-Asians have troubles addressing problems with their parents because on the cultural stress on parental authority. That issue with expression often leads to the worsening of family relationships. Chinese Americans feel “[pressure] to live up to high expectations from parents and constant comparisons to others who are doing well.”(Juang). Meeting the high expectations of parents was a common struggle for the women in The Joy Luck Club.
In The Joy Luck Club, the Mothers and Daughters were constantly fighting or having some form of disagreement.
In this story a huge cause of mother-daughter conflict is a lack of cultural understanding. The “Daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English,”(Tan 40) are just one of the examples of cultural misunderstanding between the families. All of the daughters felt controlled by their mothers and the mothers felt like their daughters didn't listen to them, like they were invisible and had no voice. All of the daughters experience low self-esteem, depression or other mental health issues connected to the strain on their relationships with their mothers. Rose was insecure and that lead to her having no voice in her marriage. Waverly experiences anxiety whenever she thinks of having a disagreement with her mother or her mother ruining her relationship with Rich. Being unable to fluently speak the same language isn’t the only reason for a lack of communication between the women and their mothers. All the women and their mothers have difficult truly understanding each other because they don’t share the same experiences so they believe the other won’t comprehend what they’re saying, that leads to an even bigger gap in their
relationships.
Because of different customs in native Chinese guardians and Chinese American children many Chinese families have a lack of communication and understanding, many disagreements, and that tends to lead to the child having some form of mental illness. Many families struggle to understand each other when they come from a different time, that was clearly displayed in TJLC between the mothers and daughters. Chinese American families aren’t the only ones who struggle with generational conflict, all families struggle with this, especially families with a child who is a first generation American. This is because American culture is a dominant culture but also because cultures tend not to blend well. Just because this is a common occurrence doesn't mean it’s unavoidable, this is just one of many reasons to promote cultural understanding.