The Joy Luck Club is based on the experiences of four Chinese American families living in San Francisco. The families meet for the first time at the first Chinese Baptist Church and thereafter start The Joy Luck Club, where they meet and play Mahjong; a Chinese game, for money while also enjoying different varieties of food and sharing stories about their past and present lives. The novel is divided into four parts, with two of the parts focusing on the lives of the four immigrant mothers while the other two focus on their four daughters born in America.
While the four mothers depicted in the novel may easily pass off as avoiders given that they are all shown to flee from the problems they experience at some point in their lives, I really do not see them as such. If anything, they are victims of very unfortunate circumstances that force them into taking the steps that they take, all having experienced unbelievable horrors in their early years of life. Suyuan Woo; Jing-mei’s mother, lived in China during the Second World War where she was married to an officer. On the wake of the Japanese invasion, she was forced to leave her home, taking with her a bag of food and clothes and her twin daughters. She does this to ensure the safety of her children. Along the journey, she contracts dysentery and, certain that she will die therefore jeopardizing the likelihood of her daughters’ rescue, abandons them under a tree with all her belongings and a note asking whoever finds the babies to take good care of them and also reach out to their father. Suyuan is however lucky as she is rescued by an army truck and she finds out soon afterwards that her husband died in the war. Later she remarries Canning Woo and moves to America where she has a daughter; Jing-mei. She does not get over her abandonment of her twin daughters and this haunts her for a very long time. She finds out that the twins were adopted but unfortunately dies of brain aneurysm before she is able to meet them (Tan, 1989). In the end, Jing-Mei and her father, with the persuasion of the other members of The Joy Luck Club, travel to China and meet the twins thereby fulfilling Suyuan’s life-long wish. From Suyuan’s experience, it is evident that she was a victim of the Second World War, that her escape and the abandonment of her twin daughters was done out of the desire to ensure that they were safe and that her decision to remarry and move to America was not selfish given that she had lost her husband and children thereby having nothing to live for in China. The fact that the pain of leaving her twin daughters stayed with her all her life further confirms that had circumstances been different at the time, she would have done things differently.
Ying-Ying; Lena’s mother, is also a victim of unfortunate circumstances which she eventually conquers. Having been born in a wealthy and conservative family, Ying-Yang is made to believe that girls of Chinese origin are supposed to be gentle and meek. Being a Tiger, this is very difficult for her. She becomes a passive person and represses her feelings for most of her life. She later marries Lin Xiao, not out of love but because she feels that it is her fate. Lin Xiao is abusive and adulterous. Ying-Yang finds out that she is pregnant for her husband, has an abortion and moves to a smaller China city where she lives with her family. Ten years after this, she goes to Shanghai where she starts working in a clothing store. She meets Clifford St. Clair, an American man who falls in love with her. Clifford courts her for four years and it is only after learning of the death of Lin Xiao that Yin-Ying agrees to his marriage proposal. Clifford controls most aspects of Ying-Ying’s life and even changes her name to Betty. After moving to San Francisco with her husband, she has a daughter, Lena. She later conceives again and unfortunately loses her son to anencephaly (Tan, 1989). When she learns that her daughter Lena has picked up her passiveness and is trapped in a loveless marriage, Ying-Ying decides to return to her assertive self so as to help Lena out of her situation. Ying-Ying is portrayed as having lost touch with herself due to a very conservative upbringing by her parents. It is because of this that she ends up in loveless marriages and unfortunately even rubs some of her passiveness onto her daughter.
Lindo Jong; Waverly’s mother, is a strong woman who faces the challenges that come her way head-on. At the tender age of 12 she is forced to move in with Tyan Yu, the son of her neighbor. She is trained on household and at the age of 16 married off to Tyan Yu who turns out not to have any sexual interest in her. Lindo stars to care for her husband as a brother but this does not last as her mother-in-law pressures her to give a grandchild, so much that she restricts Lindo’s activities and orders her to remain indoors until she can conceive and get a child. Frustrated by this arrangement, Lindo figures out a plan to escape this marriage without bringing shame upon herself and her in-laws. She fabricates a convincing lie that sees to the annulment of her marriage. Lindo later moves to America where she gets married to Tin Jong, a Chinese American, with whom she has three children, among them a daughter called Waverly (Tan, 1989). She laments about losing touch with her Chinese identity due to the many years spent in America. Lind epitomizes strength and is no way an avoider as she faces her challenges confidently and overcomes them in the end.
An-Mei Hsu, Rose’s mother, is portrayed as very loyal, standing by her mother when all other family turns against her. She is brought up by her grandmother following the death of her father after which her mother becomes the concubine of Wu-Tsing, a wealthy middle-aged man. Her relatives resent her mother so much for what they see as an act of dishonor and even banish her from their home. An-Mei’s grandmother dies and she moves to her mother’s new home amidst the disapproval of her relatives. Here, she finds out that her mother was actually forced into the marriage through manipulation of Wu-Tsing by his second wife. The second wife is wicked and frustrates An-Mei and her mother so much that her mother commits suicide. In the end, An-Mei is able to stand up to the second wife’s evil and deceptive ways. She later moves to America, gets married and has seven children, among them Rose (Tan, 1989).
The daughters of the women depicted in the novel are also not avoiders. However, most of their actions and life decisions are influenced by their mothers, directly and indirectly. The culture difference between the Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters brings about a notable communication gap between the daughters and their mothers. The daughters live more comfortable lives than their mothers who are driven by the desire to ensure that their children are successful and have better lives than they did. In spite of this, the daughters still have difficulty achieving true happiness as is characterized by their broken marriages. The mothers hope that their daughters will naturally understand their utterances, which unfortunately is not the case.
Lena St. Clair; Ying-Ying’s daughter, picks up passiveness and submission from her mother. She is too cautious about the consequences of any action she takes, believes that any risk taken will result in disaster and this somewhat limits her progress. For instance, she lets her husband Harold, who is also her boss; take all the credit for her designs and business. While Harold has a larger pay than she does because he is a partner while Lena is an associate, he still insists that all bills be split in the middle, which is out rightly oppressive. Lena is frustrated but unable to do anything about her situation due to her submissive nature. Ying-Ying realizes that her daughter is so much like her and encourages her to stand up for herself and leave Harold until he can realize her worth and treat her better.
Waverly Jong; Lindo’s daughter, resorts to rebellion as her means of conflict resolution. She is intelligent and strong-willed and feels that her mother criticism is too much. For most of her life, she lives in constant fear of disappointing her mother, who is keen on ensuring that she excels in life and takes a lot of pride in her accomplishments. Her rebellion is portrayed where she gives up playing chess in spite of being a gifted chess player because she feels that her mother is using her talent as show off and taking all the credit for her success. Her engagement to her boyfriend Rich Schields is against her mother’s wish.
Rose Hsu Jordan; An-mei’s daughter is confrontational, mostly due to her mother’s influence. When her husband Ted Jordan decides to leave her, she seeks the advice of her mother who shares her childhood experience with her. She is empowered and when her husband hands her divorce papers, she stands up to him and tells him that he cannot just walk out of her life as he pleases. She later finds out through her mother that her husband is cheating on her, hires a good lawyer and fights to retain possession of the house they live in. She wins the case and this restores her husband’s respect.
Jing-Mei, Suyuan’s daughter, is weak spirited and is easily intimidated as is portrayed by her relationship with Waverly. She suffers low esteem and is dissatisfied with her advertising copywriter job. For most of her life, she lives in the shadow of her mother, who in spite of often telling her that she could be anything that she wants particularly wants her to be a famous child star or be like Waverly. As a result, she is directionless as she is torn between following her dreams and making her mother proud. The decision by The Joy Club Members to have her replace her mother’s position at the club further shows the extent to which she has lost her own person and now lives as her mother. After her mother’s death, she finally visits China, meets her half-sisters and reconnects with her Chinese heritage and this gives her some form of closure.
Having come from a background where mothers play a very important role in their daughters’ lives, not only in their formative years but also for the rest of their lives influences the point of view from which I see the mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club. I am able to relate to their situations and understand why they do things and turn out the way they do.
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