The main focus in “The Joy Luck Club” is the complex relationship between the Chinese immigrant mother and their American-rised daughter. Four mothers: Suyuan, Lindo, Anmei, and Yingying familiarized with each other by playing mahjong, a traditional Chinese game. They became closed friends for their similar experiences and Suyuan named their group as the Joy Luck Club. By telling the stories of four mother-daughter, the movie reveals many topics: the misunderstanding of love between the mothers and the daughters, the clash between the generations and cultures, and the struggle for the women to fight for equity. Although there are age and cultural differences between mothers and daughters, they are always bond to each other by love. When the daughters are still young, they sometimes get mad at their mother, but as they grow older, they begin to understand their mother’s love and the hope on them that has piled up with generations.
The whole movie is run through by a feathered story a mother talked about in the beginning of the movie. The story is about a women who bought a swan to America. But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time, the woman had always wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, “This feather may look worthless…but it comes from afar and carries with it…all my good intentions.” The short story of the swan is a metaphor for these four mother’s hope to their daughter. They wanted their daughters grow up to be graceful,dignified and noble ladies just like swans. Even though every mother had the best wishes for their daughter, but they still experienced misanderstanding, lost, loneliness while they grow up. In this disscussion, I will particulerly analyze the story of antie An-Mei’s familiy, and auntie Yingying’s family.
Rose, the daughter of auntie Anmei, before she was married, she is interesting, confident, and brave. Rose overcome racial discrimination and successfully built up a family with a white man. Even though Rose’s marriage is based on love, but she still got lost in their marriage. Rose thought behaving rightly and honestly serving her husband would make their marriage last longer. She began to humble herself, and always put her husband’s needs before herself. Rose wanted to be a perfect wife so that her husband would never leave her. But, she lost her distinctive personality and even forgot the value of herself. As Rose lingered at the edge of her marriage, her mother Anmei shared a story of Rose’s grandmother, Anmei’s mother.
When Anmei was 4 years old, her mother was evicted from the house because of she got rapped by a men. Even though Anmeri’s mother was the victim, people still blame her because they think she was not loyal to her died hundband, she did not have her purity anymore, and she embarrassing the family. After being removed from the house, Anmei’s mother found herself is pregrant with the child of the man who raped her. In desperation, Anmei’s mother went to the man’s house, and became his forth wife. For years, Anmei was unable to see her mother, because others think her mother is a “dirty woman”. The next time, Anmei saw her mother was when her grandmother, Popo, is dying. Anmei’s mother cut out a piece of her arm to prepare special medicine for her mother. The physical sacrifice represents Anmei mother’s filial piety to Popo. Popo died anyway, but this time Anmei left with her mother in spite of all the opposition. Anmei’s mother was a decilie woman, because of her past experiences, she did not think she deserves anything. Even though life was hard for Anmeri’s mother, she still want to show her best part to her kids. One night, after Anmei heard her mom’s past story, and ask her mother is that ture. Maybe because Anmei’s mother could not face her daughter, after their conversation, Anmei’s mother comment sucide the next day by eating to much opium. Anmei’s mother killed herself to provide a better future to Anmei and her brother. When Anmei told this story to her daughter, Rose, she said: “She would rather kill her walk spirit so she could give me a stronger one, and on that day I learned to shout.”
Anmei’s story taught Rose that love is equally important. It is important for woman to love their family, but more importantly, women have to see their own values, and to love themselves. Anmei’s story encouraged Rose found her confidence, when Rose’s husband came to talk about their divorce, Rose said to him: “You are not taking my house, you are not taking my daughter, you are not taking any part of me. Cause you don’t know who I am I died 60 years ago, I ate opium, and I died for my daughter’s sake.” Anmei’s mother killed herself 60 years ago to gave her daughter a better future, Anmei shared he sad past to Rose, so that Rose can refound herself, and learned that her love is equal to her husband.
Lena’s story is similar to Rose’s story, they both lost themself in their marriage. Lena marriage with a man who want to separate their bill for everything. Their relationship seemed equal, but it never is. The man Lena married is her boss, even though her hundbands salary is 8 times higher than Lena, he still hope Lena to separate the bill with him, even when they went out to the restaurant Lena’s husband ordered there meals and Lena only had one. Lena’s marriage more like working with someone rather than getting married with someone. When Lena’s mother Yingying went to her house and saw the list of the Bill each of them had to pay on refrigerator, Yingying asked Lena why she did that. Lena was not sure, but Yingying saw the problem. Yingying told she past story to Lena. When Yingying was young, she is beautiful, but she married with a man who was selfish and unloyal. Soon after Yingying gave birth to her son, her husband treated her like she is garbage, and brought other women to their house to humiliation Yingying. Under the unhappy marriage, Yingying decided to took away the only thing she had the man cherished– their son. Yingying drowning her own son. In order to punish the man, Yingying also punished herself, for the rest of her life, she was living with pain and regrets. Yingying’s love to Lena is deep, she had a bad marriage that almost ruined her life, so she does not want her daughter to experience the same. Yingying knew that constand forbearance could not be exchange for other’s love and respect, so she wanted her daughter to figure out what she really wanted.
The mother-daughter relationship in “The Joy Luck Club” is complex. The four young women in the film are more independent than their mothers. They live in a free country, can speak fluent English, and can choose their own life. However, when they grow older and try to recall, they realize that they are still underdogs. The camera thrust these tangled women to the front, while the men quietly slipped into the background. Behind the four mothers and four daughters, there was an absence of the father role. The mothers here symbolize the mother culture. They give birth to offspring, but also yearn for a new life. Mothers are also the ones who best reflect the cultural heritage. They have experienced the rebellion in their youth and then returned to the tradition after having children. They longed for their daughters to no longer bear the misfortune they had gone through, placed infinite hope in them, and began to plan their daughter’s future according to their own wishes. The four mothers want the best for their daughters, but sometimes they do not know how to express their hearts. Through the stories each mother shared with their daughters, they wanted their daughters to understand that women are independent, they do not need to wrong themselves for their husband or for anyone. Because of love, mothers and daughters eventually learned to understand each other, and hearing what each other really want.
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