Oy Luck Club- Mother-Daughter Relationships

Joy Luck Club - Mother Daughter

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. There is an

introductory passage called "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates". This

passage tells of a mother who warns her seven-year-old daughter not to

ride her bicycle around the corner. When the daughter asks why she can't

ride her bike around the corner. The mother answers saying that she will

fall over, cry out and no one will be able to hear her. This is all written in a book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, says the mother. The daughter insists on seeing the book, but her mother says that it would be useless because the book is written in Chinese. The daughter then acts in defiance; she storms out of the house, jumps on her bicycle, and falls down before she even reaches the corner. This passage is filled with important symbols and themes, which reflect the main ideas throughout the entire story. Throughout the book, we can see the daughters want to live their lives without their mothers' constant interference. Therefore the bike ride, symbolizes all the daughters trying to separate from their mother. In addition, the book symbolizes the unwritten knowledge and wisdom that all the mothers wish to pass on to their daughters, in the passage the girl can't read the book because it is written in Chinese. Another symbol is the gate is something that keeps things out and keeps things in, it basically separates two things from each other. Similarly, in the book, the mothers want to teach their daughters the Chinese traditional way of life, but the daughters cannot learn because they have been too Americanized. Also in the passage some important themes are stressed, these themes are communication and wisdom of parents. Throughout the book, the mothers are unable to communicate with their daughters due to differences in age, language, and culture all these can be classified as different kinds of "gates". As a result, of this lack of communication, the mothers and daughters are separated from each other. The other theme, which is stressed in this parable, is the wisdom of parents especially of the mother. The daughter in this passage says to her mother, "you don't know anything." Throughout, the whole book this statement has been constantly proven wrong repeatedly. The daughter indeed learns that their mothers possess great wisdom, which was gained through the hardships the mothers faced when they were growing up. This passage is reflected in all four of the mother-daughter relationships throughout the book.

Like the little girl in the parable, Waverly Jong attempts to go against her mother also. She quarrels with Lindo because she misunderstands her mother's pride in her achievements. Waverly wants chess to be strictly her own achievement, part of her own separate identity. When her mother brags and shows her off to everyone she sees (pg.101), she feels as though her mother is somehow taking credit for what Waverly sees as her own achievements. Waverly's reaction to this is to quit chess and that's exactly what she does. In Waverly's next story, "Four Directions," she decides to continue to play chess, so she tells her mother about her decision. However, Lindo Jong replies in a way that is not expected she says, "You think it is so easy to quit one day and play next day...no it's not easy!" When Waverly Jong goes to the next chess tournament, she loses to the same boy that she had so easily beaten a few years ago. After this defeat, Waverly quits chess at age fourteen and she eventually admits that her mother's pride actually functioned as an invisible support (pg.188-190).

This passage is also reflected in Lena and Ying-Ying St. Clair's storyline. In Lena and Ying-Ying St. Claire's story, there is also a problem between the mother and the daughter in communicating. Miscommunication is one of the main themes of the passage "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates". The problem is that mother speaks Chinese and Lena can understood the words perfectly but she can't put the word together and make out the meaning (pg.109) Lena's mother says weird Chinese sayings which at first don't make sense to Lena but later after Lena grows up she understand what her Mother was meaning to say. For example, Ying-ying said, "If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold" on pg. 161, in the story "Rice Husband". At first Lena did not understand what her mother meant by this saying, but after Lena grew and gained understanding she understood what the saying meant. It meant that one thing would follow another. Ying-ying's silence throughout Lena's entire life causes Lena to grow into the woman she is. This is shown in the story "The Voice from the Wall",