“The Joy Luck Club – Gary Wiener”;
Upon first inspection, The Joy Luck Club appears just to be about the tensions between four daughters and four mothers. When further analyzed, the book is truly about the effects of generational differences between people from different countries. Through an analysis of “Amy Tan: A Critical Companion” by E.D. Huntley and “Women’s Issues in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club” by Gary Wiener, The Joy Luck Club highlights the effects of immigration on family relationships and how it is harder for different generations of immigrants to come together rather than westernized or assimilated generations to connect.
The first effect of generational differences is translation and language and the way it is a barrier for these women to connect on a deeper level that their familiar relationship should allow them to but cannot do so. June’s mom waited a long time to tell her daughter an important life lesson in English so her daughter could understand her. She never masters the language, and thinks her daughter will not understand her so she decides not to share this important moment with her: “ ‘Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English’…Now the woman…had a daughter who grew up speaking only English…And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English” (Tan 17). Tan presents the language barrier between the mother and daughter. The reason Suyuan Woo does not want to have conversations with her daughter is because she has not mastered the English language. Suyuan and June have an obscure relationship in the book and June figures that she barely knows anything about her mother because of this lack of communication. This barrier grows taller as they grow older because June leaves her house to move on with her life, which cuts off the basic interactions both of these women would have at home. Similarly to how Tan suggests that language is a barrier for the women in Joy Luck Club, E.D. Huntley discusses the separation between June and her mother and how they serve as a parallel for the rest of the broken relationships between the other three daughters and three moms in the book. In Amy Tan: A Critical Companion, Huntley discusses the significance of language in the book and its effects: “Lacking a shared language and a common cultural tongue, Tan’s mothers and daughters face each other across the communication barrier that not only divides generations but also separates the old world and the new, the immigrant and the American-born” (Huntley 60). Huntley knows that without a common base for the mothers and daughters to meet at, they feel disconnected. If they had taught their daughters Chinese, they would be able to effectively communicate their thoughts and fears, but the daughters do not know it and the mothers have not mastered English either. This causes them to not be able to say their fears and anger to each other since they cannot understand each other in a way that will make effective change on what it is they are concerned about. Thus, the disconnection between the mothers and daughters can be accredited to the lack of a shared language, showing the struggle of the ability to connect on the most basic level.
The mothers pressure their daughters to be successful by American standards but also want them to be fully integrated into their Chinese culture at the same time. Because of this constant pressure, the daughters purposefully try to negate their Chinese heritage and fully assimilate into America against their mothers wishes. The following quote is from a fight between June and her mother after she failed her recital. “ ‘Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. “Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!’ ‘Then I wish I’d never been born!’ I shouted. ‘I wish I were dead! Like them.’ ” (Tan 142) When June says she wishes she were “dead! Like them.” she refers to the two twin daughters that Suyuan abandoned in China. She presents two options to June about who she can choose to be, but then states that only type of daughter can live in her house; she must choose to abide by this standard or not. June’s reply demonstrates to her mother that she cannot follow that standard and would prefer death, showing the extreme to which June wishes to go to in order to not follow her asian mother’s standard of obedience. An “obedient” daughter to Suyuan means that she must follow all her directions, even if the standards are impossibly high in order for them to be successful by the american standards and puts a lot of pressure on them. June choosing to not be associated with her mother is symbolic of her mindset on separating from her mother’s standards. Although Tan discusses the separation of cultures, Gloria Shen highlights this notion by saying “When the mother talks about American ways, the daughter is willing to listen; when the other shows her Chinese ways, the daughter ignores her. The mother is thus unable to teach her daughter the Chinese ways of obeying parents of listening to the mother’s mind…” (Shen 11) This means that the daughters willingly ignore their mothers when they want to. June’s decision can be related to this quote because it represents exactly what she did; ignore her mother and instead follow her own emotions and what she wants, which tends to be an action associated with what Americans do. This is the first time she ignores her mother, showing the influence of westernization on a young girl’s mind. Therefore, the Chinese mothers pressure their daughters to be successful in America but also follow their Chinese heritage, making the daughters feel ripped apart between two different cultures.
The Chinese mothers face so much disconnection with their American born daughters because of the lack of communication and how their daughters have chosen to assimilate and leave their moms behind in their own worlds. They later connect with their similar life experiences that they have faced. Therefore, immigration’s effects is what has held back these women from having familiar relationships.