Mothers And Daughters In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
The bonds between a mother and daughter are something not easily replicated. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, follows the relationships of four women and their daughters. While they all face different situations, it all boils down to the importance of family support.
All four of the Chinese-born mothers left China and set out for America with high hopes for themselves and their children's’ futures.They want to give their daughters what they didn’t have growing up. “‘In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there nobody will look down at her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!’”
“If she doesn’t speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn’t try, she could lose her chance forever. I know this, because I was raised the Chinese way … And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! … All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going …show more content…
the same way.” An-Mei tried to raise her daughter to not have the same way of thinking that she had, but despite her hard work, she still fell into the same ruts as her mother and her mother before her. Tan showcased that children have their own personalities independent of their parents. Even still, they often adopt some similar traits from them.
Parents try to share their life experience to their children in the hopes that they’ll manage to avoid making the same mistakes that they themselves had made, and this is demonstrated with Ying-Ying’s thoughts regarding her daughter, “Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond.
You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve … I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body. There is a part of her mind that is part of mine. But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore.” Even though Ying-Ying was only trying to help her daughter, Lena, her words of wisdom were rejected. Often times a child will think that their parents don’t know any better than they do and that brings them to ignore their offered
assistance.
Family is something which most people yearn for. Tan showed that, even though family members occasionally feel overbearing, they more often than not have the best intentions and want to help their children become the best they can be.
All four of the Chinese-born mothers left China and set out for America with high hopes for themselves and their children's’ futures.They want to give their daughters what they didn’t have growing up. “‘In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch. Over there nobody will look down at her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!’”
“If she doesn’t speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn’t try, she could lose her chance forever. I know this, because I was raised the Chinese way … And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! … All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going …show more content…
the same way.” An-Mei tried to raise her daughter to not have the same way of thinking that she had, but despite her hard work, she still fell into the same ruts as her mother and her mother before her. Tan showcased that children have their own personalities independent of their parents. Even still, they often adopt some similar traits from them.
Parents try to share their life experience to their children in the hopes that they’ll manage to avoid making the same mistakes that they themselves had made, and this is demonstrated with Ying-Ying’s thoughts regarding her daughter, “Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond.
You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve … I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body. There is a part of her mind that is part of mine. But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore.” Even though Ying-Ying was only trying to help her daughter, Lena, her words of wisdom were rejected. Often times a child will think that their parents don’t know any better than they do and that brings them to ignore their offered
assistance.
Family is something which most people yearn for. Tan showed that, even though family members occasionally feel overbearing, they more often than not have the best intentions and want to help their children become the best they can be.