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Firstly, feminine autonomy drives Lindo Jong to free herself from a formally arranged marriage to Tyan-yu. Underneath the embroidered red scarf, draped over her head to conceal her innermost thoughts, Lindo promises to always remember her parents’ wishes, but never forget her own (Tan 53). Lindo’s frame of mind towards her nearing marriage to Tyan-yu and the role she will hold as his wife clearly shifts in this moment of intimate conspiracy. Lindo no longer fears the apparently fateful events unfolding before her but carries herself with an air of placidity throughout the rituals of the marriage ceremony. Later in the evening, the rain pours torrentially and the thumber booms furiously, paralleling Lindo’s gnawing feeling of dissatisfaction and deep yearning for reversal of fortune. After Lindo can no longer ignore her clawing desire to act, her “throat filled with so much hope that it finally burst and blew out my husband’s end of the candle” (Tan 56). Lindo’s own disbelief in her defiance substantiates a crossing over from subservience to sovereignty. The self-establishing feat is the confirming factor in the end of Lindo and Tyan-yu’s mutually undesired marriage, allowing Lindo to venture on to marry a man she truly loves.

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Ying St. Clair’s inability to communicate in her relationship with her husband affect Lena’s ability to communicate in her relationship with her husband. Lena explains how her father barely knew any Chinese so her mother would speak to him in moods, gestures, looks, silences, and a mixture of Chinese and English, causing her husband to put words in her mouth (Tan 109). Ying-Ying is literally unable to communicate in the relationship with her husband. THis affects the way Lena communicates in her relationship with her husband.

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In An-mei's chapter, she found her inner strength when she confronted to the Second Wife's deception and rebelled her crazy family's aythority. After An-mei's aunt cursed at An-mei that she is no better than who she follows, An-mei begin to be more “determined to leave….so I turned my head away from my auntie’s strange words and looked at my mother” (Tan 245). She walks away with her mother from the others, and she “wondered if it were true, what my uncle had said, that I was changed and could never lift my head again. So I tried. I lifted it” (Tan 245). An-mei knew her life in front of her would only to continue to suffer in her family’s house. Everyone acclaimed that she could never be the same if she leaves the house. But she knows that and continue to walk away from that chapter in her life without shame. After her mother died, her father treats An-mei and her newborn brother better now to keep his conscience clean in front of her mother’s spirit. A couple days later, An-mei broke the pearl necklace that was gifted by the Second Wife to show that she no longer can tolerate her schemes, tormenting the family (Tan 272). The pearl necklace symbolizes the status of the Second Wife’s well-being. The necklace may seem glamourous, but its value is cheap and fake. Her mother warns her about getting close with the Second Wife. Soon An-mei realizes of the Second Wife’s plans manipulating the family by poisoning and trickery. She rejects the manipulation behind the gesture.

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Firstly, Waverly shows invisible strength through becoming a chess champion and using the same strategies on her mother. Waverly reveals “that for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the end game before the game begins” (Tan 89). Lindo teaches Waverly the importance of invisible strength early on in her life and she uses it to become a chess champion. Her invisible strength enables her to skillfully plot against her opponents and ensure her victory. Waverly uses her mental strength rather than physical strength to gain fame and recognition for her family in their lower income neighborhood. Similarly, Waverly uses her invisible strength to regain her mother’s favor. After having a serious argument with her mother, she “won her back. That night [she] developed a high fever, and she sat next to my bed, scolding me for going to school without my sweater” (Tan 183). Waverly knows her mother will dote on her if she is sick and uses this to her advantage. After Lindo nurses Waverly to health, she does not brag about Waverly and does not act so proud. Waverly’s invisible strength allows her to strategize and endure her mother’s criticisms.

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In the novel, Suyuan withstands the challenges of war back in China. Suyuan did not have it easy while growing up in China. She laments to her daughter about how she lost everything including her entire family when a bomb fell on her house (Tan 311) and when she left her two children behind when fleeing away from her hometown (Tan 14). The bombing occurs during the Second Sino-Japanese War which ensues during the time Suyuan lives in China.  Even though Suyuan loses her family she never stops trying to flee from China so she can make a better life for herself which she ends up doing. Suyuan makes a new family and creates a life she wants to live. Not only did Suyuan lose her family she also had to hide in a cave while the echoic sound of the bombs rang overhead. Suyuan and the people in her village “…. Scurried to the deep caves to hide like wild animals” (Tan 9) which over time made her lose parts of herself in the process of hiding from what her country started becoming. Suyuan felt like giving up and letting the war take her down just like how the war took down her family and her home. Yet she never gave up she kept finding ways to keep fighting and make it to a safer place. Suyuan kept resisting the temptation to give up and with her perseverance, she got a part of her Chinese family back through her daughter meeting the two daughters whom Suyuan left when fleeing China.

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·         That never-ending love between a mother and a daughter is shown again when An-mei’s mother commits suicide. As the drug An-mei’s mother consumed is beginning to kill her, An-mei tells that her mother whispered that “she would rather kill her own weak spirit so she could give me a stronger one” (Tan 271). Her mother endures tremendous trauma in her life, including getting raped by Wu Tsing and having no choice but to become a concubine. An-mei’s mother gave up her own life, so An-mei could have a better one. She wants An-mei’s life to be different than hers was, because her mother loves An-mei more than she loves herself. After losing her mother, An-mei stands up to Second Wife and exclaims, “And on that day, I learned how to shout” (Tan 272). An-mei’s mother’s spirit that she handed on to her daughter breaks out when An-mei faces Second Wife. This strong-willed spirit that erupts from An-mei is the reason her mother sacrificed her life. She knew that An-mei needs that spirit to have a different life than she, herself, did.

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Suyuan was faced with difficult situations of sacrifice regarding starting a new life in America. Although Suyuan’s whole life exist in China, her hopes lay in America. Without looking back with regret, she moved to America, leaving everything behind (Tan 141). Suyuan gains the courage to sacrifice her whole life in China for a better one in America. By leaving everything behind her, she is granted with a new sense of ambition to have more opportunities and improved ways of life in America. During her traumatic journey, Suyuan was faced with a hellish decision: “And without looking back, she walked down the road, stumbling and crying, thinking only of this one last hope, that her daughters would be found by a kindhearted person who would care for them. She would not allow herself to imagine anything else” (Tan 323). Overcome with ambition, Suyuan was determined to give her daughters the best chance of life. She sacrificed her ability to ever see her daughters again to give them a possibility of survival. Suyuan’s dedication to sacrifice for the better appears constantly throughout her decision making.

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In the mother-daughter relationship of Lindo and Waverly Jong, Lindo pressures Waverly throughout her lifetime to be and to have the best, which elicits stubbornness and resentment from Waverly. Starting at a young age, Waverly was pressured by her mother to become the best chess player, and because of this pressure Waverly declares that she is quitting chess and she “made a show of it” (Tan 188). Waverly makes this decision to spite her mother Lindo who was incredibly prideful of Waverly’s ability to be great at chess. All the pressure from Lindo caused Waverly to quit the very thing her mother was most proud of which damaged the bond in their relationship. Because Waverly is so stubborn, she refuses to restart her chess playing era.  Not only does Lindo wish for Waverly to be the best, but she also wishes that Waverly has the best there is to offer in life. Later in Waverly’s life, she emphasizes the pressure Lindo places on her romantic relationships: “My mother was doing it again, making me see black where I once saw white. In her hands, I always became the pawn. I could only run away. And she was the queen, able to move in all directions, relentless in her pursuit, always able to find my weakest spots” (Tan 199). This moment in the novel depicts the pressure Waverly is crippled with when Lindo finds out about her romantic relationship with Rich Schields. This quote exemplifies how Waverly feels pressured, and could possibly be swayed, by her mother’s opinion of Rich. Because Waverly is so easily swayed by of Lindo’s opinions, she resents that her mother shares her negative opinions of Rich. All throughout her life, Waverly feels the pressure from Lindo which results in rifts in their mother-daughter relationship.

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Rose loses Bing when he was only four years old. She witnesses him drowning and is swallowed with silent guilt. The overwhelming amount of quilt leads to Rose growing up to become extremely indecisive. Her now ex-husband, Ted, decides to divorce Rose after she continually refuses to make even simple decisions. Rose crumbles in devastation and torment as she suppresses all her emotions and hides away. Rose’s is finally convinced to snap out of her mindset and stand her ground. She declares to Ted, “quote”(cite). Rose’s grief of her younger brother unknowingly followed her to her marriage with Ted. The divorce with Ted snaps Rose awake and allows her to become a better and more powerful person. She now stands firmly and will not be shoved away.

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Lindo and her daughter Waverly experience the effects of generational trauma when Lindo shows Waverly off to everyone. Lindo once lived in a household where she was not valued as more than a wife, therefore she wants her daughter to feel valued by her peers. However, Lindo’s methods of making sure Waverly feels that way are extreme and put Waverly in potentially awkward situations. For example, when Waverly first began winning chess tournaments, her mother paraded her around the market to show how proud she was of her daughter. Waverly objects, saying, “____________” (I forgot to get the quote). Waverly is embarrassed by her mothers display of her, though Lindo only wants to show Waverly how valued she is, something she lacked in her own youth. This trauma Lindo endured negatively affects her relationship with her daughter by creating a barrier between a mother and a daughter who is ashamed of her. Though Lindo only wants the best for Waverly, her way of showing how proud she is of her is embarrassing to Waverly, creating a break in their relationship.

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From the early years of her life, An-mei Hsu’s life is filled with trials. To start, she is deprived of a connection with her mother because of the dishonor she brings upon An-mei’s family. Her grandmother, Popo, constantly enforces the notion of An-mei’s mother’s dishonor when feeding An-mei ideas such as, “to say her name is to spit on your father’s grave” (Tan 34). When her mother eventually shows up during dinner one evening, An-mei suffers the consequences when receiving a physical scar from the event (Tan 36). For a child, being told that the person you admire the most in the world is someone of great dishonor, is extremely difficult. An-mei lives most of her childhood being told her mother is a bad person, but never gives into these notions. She refuses to let others tell her how to treat her mother. She is determined to form her own opinions.

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·         Suyuan Woo demonstrates trying to control the fate of her daughters, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa, through escaping the Japanese and when she leaves them to have a better chance of life, holding her hope in the kindness of others.

When Suyuan hears about an attack in China about to happen, she instantly rushes to her babies and knows she must find a way out. With escaping comes challenges like, fleeing from the government and her husband with no other support.

In these moments of her running away, there becomes a great sense of fear yet determination in getting her daughters to safety. Though Suyuan feels the terrified thought that they could be caught, she persevered, remembering what could happen to them and ends up escaping.

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First off, An-Mei’s mother’s experience as a concubine teaches one the dangers of succumbing to duty to tradition. An-Mei’s mother did not choose to become a concubine; rather, she was coerced into bed with Wu Tsing and forced to marry him as a result. Second Wife tricked her into sleeping in her bed so that she could receive a larger allowance and abandon her worries of Wu Tsing growing bored. According to the servant of An-Mei’s mother, she “awoke to find him touching her beneath her undergarments…He grabbed her hair and threw her on the floor, then put his foot on her throat and told her to undress. [She] did not scream or cry when he fell on her” (Tan 267). After her harrowing experience, An-Mei’s mother received only blame for her assault. The ways of her time resigned her to be less that that of a prostitute in the eyes of her people. This leads her feelings of helplessness and depression. Utterly defeated by the cruelty of it all, she resigns herself to become Third Wife and marries her attacker. Even after years as a concubine, An-Mei’s mother despises her role. Her desperation reaches a peak when she resigns to kill herself through the poison of opium. An-Mei describes her mother’s self-inflicted poisoning as “her arms and legs moving back and forth…like soldier marching to nowhere, her head looking right than left. Her whole body became straight and stiff as if to stretch herself out of her body. Her jaw was pulled down and I saw her tongue was swollen and she was coughing to try to make it fall out” (Tan 269). An-Mei’s mother could not take it anymore. Her duty to tradition overrode any self-preservation she may have kept hidden away inside. Because her strict adherence to this idea of duty, she caused herself unnecessary pain and anguish. Eventually, her flawed coping caught up to her and led her to make rash decisions that cost An-Mei’s mother her life.

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Suyuan Woo shows how women take control of their lives by how she had to leave behind her children and kept going. After fleeing Kweilin, Suyuan was extremely ill and did not think she could continue carrying her babies. Exhausted, she writes, “Please care for these babies with the money and valuables provided. When it is safe to come, if you bring them to Shanghai, 9 Weichang Lu, the Li family will be glad to give you a generous reward. Li Suyuan and Wang Fuchi” (Tan 270). Suyuan was devastated at having to leave her babies but knew it was the only way she could survive. She got up and continued walking, wanting to turn back around with every step. Her hope that these babies would be taken care of and later returned to her is what gave her optimism to continue on her journey. When she finally settled in America, Suyuan decided to create the Joy Luck Club. Jing-Mei explains, “My mother could sense that the women of these families also had unspeakable tragedies they had left behind in China and hopes they couldn’t begin to express in their fragile English. Or at least, my mother recognized the numbness in these women’s faces. And she saw how quickly their eyes moved when she told them about her idea for the Joy Luck Club” (Tan 6). Suyuan had been through so much before she fled. She just wanted peace in her life of suffering. She knew other people had gone through a lot too. Her idea was to bring people who were hurting together to help each other through their hard times. These moments further portray how women persevere through conflict.

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Rose’s confidence is affected by her relationship with her mother when An-Mei doesn’t approve of Ted. An-Mei critically says, “He is American, warned my mother, as if I had been to blind to notice. A waigoren” (Tan 124). An-Mei is quick to judge Rose’s boyfriend. She does not give him a chance and finds any way to criticize him. Rose is prepared for her mother’s disapproving manner. She tries to ignore her mother’s criticisms and looks for the good in Ted. After Rose is sure to get a divorce, An-Mei says, “A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you," she said above the singing voices. "A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong" (Tan 112). An-Mei believes that she knows what is best for Rose. She thinks that she is the best person to help her daughter. Rose has always been indecisive wanted others to make decisions for her because of how hard her mother has always been on her. In the end, Rose stands up for herself and finds her confidence.

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Suyuan Woo shows her desire to provide a better life for her children when she leaves her new-born babies in China and works extra hours so that June could play piano. When Suyuan was still young she had to flee her home, Kweilin, after a Japanese attack. She carried her two infant daughters for days, but when the journey became life-threatening, she had no other option than to leave her daughters behind. Her second husband, Canning Woo, describes the hardships she endured: “And without looking back, she walked down the road, stumbling and crying, thinking only of this one last hope, that her daughters would be found by a kindhearted-person who would care for them” (Tan 323). Leaving her infants behind was extremely difficult decision for Suyuan, but she made the decision in their best interest. Suyuan putting her daughter’s needs before her own, reveals her desire to give them a better life than she can provide. Later in the novel, Suyuan expresses her wish for her daughter, Jing-Mei, to play piano. Suyuan is so infatuated with the idea of Jing-Mei playing piano that she works extra hours housecleaning for a piano teacher in exchange for piano lessons (Tan 146). Suyuan did not grown up privileged and did not have the luxury of choice as a woman in China. The fact that she is willing to work extra hours for Jing-Mei’s piano lessons, depicts her hope for success in her daughter’s life. Suyuan wants to give her daughter the choices and opportunities that she never had.

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To begin, An-Mei’s mother shows how the well being of her daughter pushes her to be stronger in order to provide more for An-Mei. An-Mei’s protection for her daughter enables her to accept the physical and mental abuse of the husband in exchange for An-Mei to live a better, finer lifestyle. Predictably, An-Mei’s mother see’s no comparison between her wellbeing and An-Mei’s wellbeing and is willing to provide at any cost. The rape she endured from her husband represents the dominance males had over women in this time and therefore further proves the strength An-Mei’s mother has when withstand the sexual abuse from her husband for her daughter’s sake. Similarly, An-Mei withstands the mental and verbal abuse from her own family when she leaves her home. An-Mei is seen as a disgrace to the Hsu family. She is commonly referred to as a ghost in a sense that she has committed a reprehensible social crime of remarrying. She is committed to providing a better and more stable life for her daughter even if it is at the cause of losing her own family and being in exile. Finally, Amy Tan proves the courage that fuels a mother when her daughters grater good is stake.

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Ying-Ying’s scar results from her first marriage to a bad man. While remembering her first husband, Ying-Ying admits that “this was a man so bad that even today [she] cannot speak his name” (Tan 278). In traditional China it was taught that the husband made below decisions, this controlling behavior led Ying-Ying Have to grow up fast. In the process she slowly lost her innocent and childish self. Ying-Ying’s second scar is exemplified when her husband cheats on her, which makes her think, “I became a stranger to myself” (Tan 280). When her husband cheats on her, Ying-Ying losses some of her identity. The scar she is left with causes Ying-Ying to stop being the wild, free spirit she once was. She turns into a reserved person with irrational fears of the world.

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At a young age, Lindo Jong’s parents force to her move in with her arranged husband, an abusive man with a disrespectful family. She displays her pain by saying, “After a while, it hurt so much I didn’t think it was a terrible life, no, not really. After a while, I hurt so much I didn’t feel any difference” (Tan 51). She knows eventually, she needs to leave if she ever wants a chance to have her own happy family. Later, she leaves China to find a new life in America. Here she starts her own family and endures the task of raising a successful daughter. She tells her daughter, Waverly, “I wanted everything for your to be better. I wanted you to have the best circumstances, the best character” (Tan 301). Though Lindo never experienced a loving family life, she gave her best effort to give her daughter a loving mother. This meant pushing her to be the best chess player she could be.