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One of the many characters this paper will talk about is An-Mei. An-Mei was nine when her mother was taken in as a concubine and was given the choice to move with her mother and her new husband. She took this chance, though realized too late that She could not have made a worse decision. She was roped into Deception and lies and was forced to witness her own mother suffer and eventually take her own life. During her time with her mother and the many other wives in the household, the second wife took immediate interest in her. She had gifted An-Mei with a beautiful pearl necklace, which later turned out to be fake and made of glass. “And then second wife walked toward me, smiling, her fur coat gleaming with every step. She stared, as if she were examining me, as if she recognized me. Finally she smiled and patted my head. And then with a swift, graceful movement of her small hands, she removed her long pearly strand and put it around my neck.” (Tan 230). In that excerpt, we see from An-Mei’s narrative of the Second Wife’s arrival and their first meeting. Though later, to teach her daughter a lesson, An-Mei’s mother had taken that pearl necklace and shattered a single pearl. “’Be careful, An-mei,’ she (her mother) said suddenly. ‘What you hear is not genuine. She makes clouds with one hand, rain with the other. She is trying to trick you, so you will do anything for her.’… and then when I still did not move, she stood up and walked over, and lifted that necklace off. And before I could cry to stop her, she put the necklace under her shoe and stepped on it. When she put it on the table, I saw what she had done. This necklace that had almost bought my heart and mind now had one bead of crushed glass.” (Tan 231) In this, An-mei is shown what is true, and that the other people around her were deceitful. She learns to be careful in where to lie her trust and builds walls around her mind, cautious of what she allows in. These experiences made her not only stronger, but also infinitely smarter.

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Waverly displays her loss of self-knowingness when she obeys her mother by always trying to please her with her own personal relationships. ·         After Waverly takes her mother out to lunch, in the hopes of lifting her mood, she realizes that there will never be a good time to tell her mother about her fiancé: “After our miserable lunch, I gave up the idea that there would ever be a good time to tell her the news: that Rich Shields and I were getting married (Tan 183).” It should not be a burden to tell your own mother that you are getting married. Waverly’s mother was very strict with her as a child, and that rule-following mindset and behavior has followed her into married life.  This is demonstrated once more as Waverly’s mother criticizes a gift from her fiancé, Waverly defeatedly states, “My mother knows how to hit a nerve. And the pain I feel is worse than any other kind of misery. Because what she does always comes as a shock, exactly like an electric jolt, that grounds itself permanently in my memory (Tan 186).” Even as Waverly is about to be married, she still feels tied to that strict obedience that she has shown her mother for her whole life – she doesn’t know any differently. However, as she grows into an adult, it is clear that she begins to realize that her mother is being unreasonable and even burdensome at times. Waverly’s need to be obedient to her mother and worry so much about her mother’s opinion on her own life shows how she has lost herself in what her mother wants, as opposed to what she wants for herself.

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·         Lindo’s high expectations of her daughter cause Waverly to have a lack of self confidence

·         Lindo becomes angry when Waverly does not play chess perfectly, advising her, “Lost eight pieces this time. Better off lose less!” (Tan, 99) Her mother puts so much pressure on her that Waverly becomes angry and impatient with Lindo. This also turns her into a perfectionist, which casues her much stress later in life. Waverly believes she has grown up to be the opposite of her mother as she claims, “She and I make a bad combination, because I am a rabbit, born in 1951, supposedly sensitive at the first sign of criticism” (Tan, 183).

The pressure Lindo put on her daughter at a young age casues Waverly to be quiet, shy, and a nervous person. She and her mother are opposites, and this often causes them to fight.

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Towards the begging of the novel, Rose became indecisive because of the loss of her brother. Rose and her brothers were out in a cave, while Rose had the responsibility to watch the youngest of the brothers, Bing, which she failed to succeed in. She loses her focus while playing, turns her head, and there is Bing falling off the wall into the ocean. Rose standing there while timing is passing and does nothing (Tan 128). The one job Rose had to complete was to watch over her brother. She justifies to herself that she failed to be responsible, which she will have to redeem.  After watching her brother fall to his death, she loses all confidence in her ability to make choices and take responsibility of her own. Her unhealthy marriage fell through as she cries out, “I would be confused, because I never believed there was ever any one right answer, yet there were many wrong ones" (Tan 126). One of Rose’s standards is that she cannot be responsible and take matters of her own, which accentuates as to why her marriage fell apart.  As a result of the loss of Bing, she will then have to change these standards and prove that she can gain back the confidence that departed after the loss.

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Amy Tan first shows the effect of a parent’s trauma on their children when Rose Hsu speaks about her mother’s past words. Rose starts out by saying, “She said that if I listened to her, later I would know what she knew: where true words came from, always from up high, above everything else” (Tan 205). An-mei is telling Rose about the meaning of truth. She is telling her that true words are not effected by the world around us and they mean more anything else. Rose continues her mother’s message by saying, “If I didn’t listen to her, she said my ear would bend to easily to other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning…”(Tan 205). An-mei is explain how everything people say comes from their own desires and not from the good of other people.

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June exemplifies the importance of a mother-daughter relationship by her desire to know her mother in her actions, in her ways, and most importantly, in her knowledge. One of June’s first thoughts after attending the Joy Luck Club for the first time since her mother’s death was “They must wonder how someone like me can take my mother’s place. . . . How can I be my mother at Joy Luck?” When June arrives at this Joy Luck Club meeting, she immediately begins to compare herself to her mother and notices how she contrasts her. The women at the table tell her that she is just like her mother, but she is yet to realize how similar they are. Later on, June comes to this realization that the mothers were correct and that June’s mother gave her the strong will she possesses. June’s mother once said, “Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese. “Someday you will see,” said my mother. “It is in your blood, waiting to be let go.” When June’s mother says this, June first thinks of it as a threat from her mother telling her to accept that she is Chinese, and it is in her blood. Later, June realizes that the true meaning is that being Chinese meant belonging to family where you learn and grow from each other, causing her to grow in her mother’s knowledge. This knowledge carries June through life by her learned sense of family and belonging from her mother’s teaching.

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Mother-daughter relationships rely on obedience, which is shown in the relationship of Suyuan and Jing-Mei Woo and that of An-Mei Hsu and her mother. Suyuan Woo, the mother of Jing-Mei Woo, passionately states her opinion on daughters: “‘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!’” (Tan 153). Suyuan uses this to clap back after Jing-Mei says she wishes she were not her daughter. She implies that Jing-Mei is not the good kind of daughter in her opinion; Suyuan is adamant on obedience, and she deeply wants Jing-Mei to be the obedient daughter that she wants. After telling Rose, her daughter, about the turtle, An-Mei goes onto talk about how she was to obey and do what her mother said, “‘She said I could not shout, or run, or sit on the ground to catch crickets. I could not cry if I was disappointed. I had to be silent and listen to my elders. And if I did not do this, Popo said she would cut off my hair and send me to a place where Buddhist nuns lived’” (Tan 243). An-Mei’s mother, Popo, always made sure to tell An-Mei what to do and always stayed adamant about An-Mei being obedient. Popo cared more about An-Mei being a good daughter than many things; she lessoned her on respect and obedience nonstop and was strict in her ways. Thus, this evidence proves obedience to be an important factor in mother-daughter relationships.

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·         One way this is shown is through the actions and thoughts of An-Mei Hus after the tragic loss of her son Bing when he drowns. The day after Bing fell into the ocean, An-Mei dragged her daughter back with her in order to look for him, and her daughter describes the look on her as “one of complete despair and horror, for losing Bing” (Tan139). An-Mei is so blindly hopeful that she will find Bing that when she does not find him, she is crushed. It causes her so much anguish that follows her through the remainder of her life. Furthermore, before the loss of her son, she is strong in her faith and shows it through a small leatherette bible; however, after she losses her son, Bing, she removes faith from her life by placing the Bible underneath a table leg to try to create balance (Tan 122). The fact that she is so strong in her faith for most of her life proves that it is something of importance to her. Because Bings death caused her to give it up, it reveals the true impact that it has on the lifestyle of An-Mei. It is negatively affecting her by taking away something that she believed in for so long.

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Ying St. Clair displays a universal need for balance in her surroundings and feelings through her house and being pregnant. Ying-Ying views her surroundings as unbalanced and seems to affect her greatly until she rearranges her furniture. As her daughter asks what she’s doing, Ying-Ying replies that “When something goes against your nature, you are not in balance. This house was built too steep, and a bad wind from the top blows all your strength back down the hill. So you can never get ahead. You are always rolling backward" (Tan, 112). Ying-Ying explains that the lack of balance in her environment, such as the house they live in, correlates to the inability to “get ahead” or improve. After this explanation and her attempt to rearrange the house to a more balanced state, Ying-Ying’s husband and daughter brush this off as Chinese nonsense and nesting instinct. However, Ying-Ying’s environment plays a crucial role in how she feels, demonstrating a universal need for balance in her surroundings. Additionally, when Ying-Ying becomes pregnant, her daughter describes this as the source of her imbalance, and “[Ying-Ying] did not speak of the joys of having a new baby; she talked about heaviness around her, about things being out of balance, not in harmony with one another” (Tan, 113) Not only does Ying-Ying display a need for balance in her surroundings, but also in how she feels. Ying-Ying’s pregnancy effects how she feels regarding everything around her, such as feeling heavy or out of harmony. Although others may find joy in pregnancy, Ying-Ying feels unbalanced during hers, and this leads her to being unhappy and feeling out of place. Therefore, Ying-Ying supports the theme that balance is a necessity to living a full and happy life by requiring balance in her surroundings and feelings.

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First, Tan contrasts traditional China and modern-day America through marriage customs. While living with her mother, An-Mei realizes that “a girl in China did not marry for love. She married for position, and my mother’s position, I later learned, was the worst” (Tan 256). This depicts how marriage for women in traditional China is not an act of love for a man and woman who long to be together. A woman in traditional China marries for status and survival. These women do not work, so they must find a way to ensure they have a place to live and food to eat. Before introducing her husband, Rich, to her mother, Waverly feels “afraid of what I would then lose, because Rich Schields adored me in the same way I adored Shoshana. His love was unequivocal. Nothing could change it” (Tan 193). Waverly does not want her mother to drive Rich away like she has done to her other boyfriend in the past, which shows she truly cares about Rich and loves him. For women in modern-day America, marriage is based on love. For women in traditional China, marriage is based on survival.

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Through Rose Hsu’s loss of her brother Bing, a suppression of faith reveals itself as a negative effect of trauma. Rose reveals that after her mother, An-Mei, and herself looked for endless hours on the shores of the beach and didn’t find her brother Bing she became “angry-so blindingly angry- that everything had failed us.” (Tan 139). Rose feels in this time of her life that she is at fault for the loss of her little brother Bing and that God has failed her because she prayed to Him and believes he has done nothing to help her. This sets up Rose’s character to lack faith through the rest of her life and even in her future marriage. Rose’s mother also formulates a similar loss of faith through this loss that Rose can’t help but notice and relate to. Rose describes that her mother, as proof her faith, used to “carry a small leatherette Bible… But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up wedged under a too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life” (Tan 122). Rose has noticed the small bible underneath that table leg for over 20 years and her faith remains the same way as An-Mei’s: lost and suppressed. Both characters, as time goes on, struggle to find a reason that could rekindle their faith. Rose Hsu’s harrowing experience of losing her baby brother Bing and the guilt she has are the causations of her character’s lack of belief in God, revealing a destructive effect of trauma.

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In Suyuan Woo’s past marriage, she has two babies, that she must leave behind in China in order to save herself. As a result, Suyuan Woo’s daughter of her next marriage feels that she owes it to them to be the perfect daughter. As Suyuan Woo reminisces on her voyage toward Chungking, China, she is once again brought back to that harsh, grueling day. Along her journey Suyuan admits that she “had been too tired to carry them for any kind of future hope” (Tan 14). Shockingly, Suyuan Woo’s inner will depleted immensely upon this grueling journey to safety. Although she finally reaches her destination, she is now cost a life with her two babies. As an older woman, she fantasizes about their lives, and regrets the choice she made to leave them behind. When prompted with the question, what happened to the babies? Suyuan does not even pause to think. “’She merely says in a way that makes it clear there was no more to the story: ‘Your father is not my first husband. You are not those babies”” (Tan 14). Suyuan uses a grim, but remorseful tone to imply that she does not want to speak any more about the topic. This regretful emotion is due to the shame she feels about her decision to leave the babies years earlier. These emotional conversations that Suyuan and June have led to the insecurity and regret among the Woo family.

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In the beginning of the novel, Tan expresses June and Suyuan’s damaged relationship, and how it is a product of her mother’s high expectation of obedience. Suyuan expects June to be perfect and be like her, but once she learns June is not, she is very disappointed. June remembers a time when "A friend once told me that my mother and I were alike…When I shyly told my mother this, she seemed insulted and said, 'You don't even know little percent of me! How can you be me?'"(Tan 14). This conversation between the two illustrates Suyuan and June’s damaged relationship because June is not the perfect, obedient daughter that Suyuan expects her to be. Throughout the novel, there are many examples of this broken relationship caused by Suyuan always expecting June to obey her, when in reality June rarely does.

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·         Throughout Suyuan and June’s relationship, Suyuan shows faith  in her daughter with her instance on her skills. June recounts her mothers words “‘of course, you can be a prodigy too’ ... ‘you can be best at anything’”(tan 141). Suyuan holds strong to her daughter, truly believing that she can achieve anything. This belief is strongly rooted in the innate love of a mother. It might seem that Suyuan is putting pressure on her daughter, but she is showing the deep trust she has in her daughter. Later in life June does not have faith in herself and does not believe she can return to piano yet her mother still believes she can:“‘You pick up fast’ said my mother, as if she knew this was certain ‘you have natural talent. You could been genius if you want to’” (Tan 155). Suyans conversation she has with her daughter in this moment illustrates this never ending love of a mother. She shows that she will always be in her daughter's corner and that she will always root for her even through their disagreements.

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First, heartbreak is depicted through the death of Bing and An-Mei’s mother. An-Mei’s mother was a concubine that married Wu Tsing. After enduring much criticism and manipulation, An-Mei’s mother drank poison and died two days before the new year (Tan 271). An-Mei’s mother’s death caused great heartbreak for An-Mei. Her mother was the only family An-Mei had left. Next, the whole Hsu family was affected by the sudden and unexpected death of the youngest child, Bing. As soon as Rose’s attention was taken off of Bing he wondered into danger. As Rose turned around to locate Bing, she witnessed the horrific sight of “his feet already in the air, in a moment of balance, before he splashes into the sea and disappears without leaving so much as a ripple in the water” (Tan 133). After Bing’s death the whole family grieved, but especially Rose and An-Mei. Rose constantly blamed herself and dealt with lots on guilt. An-Mei suffered from depression and lost her faith. Both deaths were heartbreakers for the families and taught to hold on tight to loved ones.

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Rose Hsu illustrates great strength and perseverance when she decides to stand up to her controlling husband. Rose is stuck in a toxic, one-way marriage with her husband Ted.  Rose explains that “Ted simply decided. And I [Rose] never thought of objecting” (Tan 126). At first, Rose does not care about making decisions in the relationship, which suggests she depends strongly on Ted in the relationship. Rose does not see the value in her decisions because of her fear of responsibility. When her husband left her, she found her voice and does not let him push her down, “You can’t just pull me out of your life and throw me away” (Tan 218). After Ted left her, she grew determined to hold her ground and make her own decisions. It is not easy for Rose to use her voice, but she uses strength and perseverance to stand up for herself.

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One reason I believe that mothers and daughters have more similarities than they realize is because Waverly and Lindo are both snobby and boastful at times. When Waverly was younger, she was an amazing chess prodigy, and Lindo was very proud, to say the least. Every Saturday Waverly and Lindo would walk through the shops, and Lindo said the same thing every time. “My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. ‘This is my daughter, Wave-ly Jong,’ she said to whoever looked her way”(Tan 101.) In this quote, we can see that Lindo loved the attention she got from Waverly. She used Waverly to brag about her daughter’s achievements very excessively. Although Waverly did not like her mother’s tendency to show off or brag, Waverly also liked to show off or patronize others. One example of this is at the crab dinner with all the family members. “‘June- I can’t’, Waverly said with cool finality. ‘It’s just not… sophisticated. I’m sure what you write for your other clients is wonderful. But we’re a big firm. We need somebody who understands that… our style’” (Tan 230.) In this quote, Waverly is being very condescending towards June. She basically says that June’s writing is not good enough, and that Waverly’s firm is much better than anything June could write.  Lindo and Waverly both believe that they are better than their peers. Lindo believes she is better because she has a successful daughter, and Waverly believes she is better than June because of her business and achievements.

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One reason I believe that mothers and daughters have more similarities than they realize is because Waverly and Lindo are both snobby and boastful at times. When Waverly was younger, she was an amazing chess prodigy, and Lindo was very proud, to say the least. Every Saturday Waverly and Lindo would walk through the shops, and Lindo said the same thing every time. “My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. ‘This is my daughter, Wave-ly Jong,’ she said to whoever looked her way”(Tan 101.) In this quote, we can see that Lindo loved the attention she got from Waverly. She used Waverly to brag about her daughter’s achievements very excessively. Although Waverly did not like her mother’s tendency to show off or brag, Waverly also liked to show off or patronize others. One example of this is at the crab dinner with all the family members. “‘June- I can’t’, Waverly said with cool finality. ‘It’s just not… sophisticated. I’m sure what you write for your other clients is wonderful. But we’re a big firm. We need somebody who understands that… our style’” (Tan 230.) In this quote, Waverly is being very condescending towards June. She basically says that June’s writing is not good enough, and that Waverly’s firm is much better than anything June could write.  Lindo and Waverly both believe that they are better than their peers. Lindo believes she is better because she has a successful daughter, and Waverly believes she is better than June because of her business and achievements.

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Madeline Oubre

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Forced to leave her children and family behind due to her rape, An – Mei's mother feels misunderstood and alone. According to Yan Chang, An-Mei's mother was manipulated and raped, "When your mother awoke to find him touching her beneath her undergarments, she jumped out of bed. He grabbed her by her hair and threw her on the floor, then put his foot on her throat and told her to undress. Your mother did not scream or cry when he fell on her" (Tan 267). The second Wife had set this situation up because Wu Tsing was eager to have a son, and Second Wife could not provide him with one. The rape gives An-Mei's mother the feeling of being alone, misunderstood, and used, causing her to desire comfort and a sense of understanding from her family. An-Mei's mother thinks her family will give her this comfort, but "when she returned to her brother's house and kowtowed three times to say good-bye, her brother kicked her, and her own mother banned her from the family house forever" (Tan 268). An- Mei's mother is traumatized by her rape and has no choice but to leave An-Mei and her brother behind. Unfortunately, the Hsu Family now consider An - Mei's mother a disgrace to the family, even though they do not know the truth behind the situation. As a result, An-Mei's mother continues to feel misunderstood, and her feelings cause her to fall into a cycle of depression. When the Hsu's force An-Mei's mother to leave her children behind because Wu Tsing raped her, she feels she no longer has a voice in her own decisions and has been forced into something she does not desire.

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The characters in the novel struggle with their Chinese identity. The first example of this is when Waverly takes her mother to the hairdresser. “But inside I am becoming ashamed. I am ashamed she is ashamed. Because she is my daughter and I am proud of her, and I am her mother but she is not proud of me” (Tan 288). Waverly does not want to be like her mother and even is embarrassed of her. However, her mother helps her realize that their similarity is good. Another example is when Ying-Ying mentions that she wishes Lena grew up more Chinese. The mothers feel that their daughters have not recognized their background and heritage. The novel is centered around the relationship between the mothers and daughters and how the daughters slowly begin to understand their mothers and their lives before coming to America.

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An-mei experiences trauma in her early life when her mother commits suicide as an attempt to end her suffering. Years after her mother’s suicide, An-mei reassures, “That was China. There was nothing more to understand. That’s what people did back then. They had no choice. They could not speak up. They could not run away. That was their fate” (Tan 272). This displays An-mei’s understanding on the cultural norms in Ancient China. This also shows how An-mei has a preconceived idea that this is potentially her fate, and she will suffer in the same ways as her mother. An-mei convinces herself there was no way for her mother to avoid death, living in ancient China. Shortly before her suicide, An-mei’s mother eats poison filled ywansyau, a sticky and sweet Chinese treat of celebration. While eating this, An-mei’s mother states, “You see how this life is. You cannot eat enough of this bitterness”(Tan 271). An-mei’s mother is giving An-mei a reason to fear her future. Through this, An-mei’s mother teaches An-mei, life as a woman in China is a distressing experience. An-mei’s mother’s suicide gives An-mei a tainted view on a woman’s role in a marriage and leads to her problems in her own marriage.

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Suyuan Woo abandons her two infant daughters on the side of the road so that they could have a better chance of survival. Suyuan’s plan was to catch a ride on a truck or wagon after fleeing Kweilin so that she could reach where her husband was stationed, in Chungking. She walked on the main road for three days but still couldn’t find a ride. She dropped her suitcases and the only bags of food she had because she didn’t have enough strength to carry on. “She knew she would die of her sickness, or perhaps from thirst, from starvation, or from the Japanese, who she was sure were marching right behind her” (322). Suyuan was delirious and frightened. She knew she was walking aimlessly towards nothing. No one was going to give her a ride because they all had families of their own to prioritize. If she carried on with the babies hanging in their slings, all three of them would die. If she left them on the road for someone to find, they might get rescued. “And then she knew, she could not bear to watch her babies die with her” (322). Suyuan left the babies with all the money and riches that she had even though that meant she would have nothing and a low chance of being rescued. She was risking her life to make sure that her daughters could even have one because of how much she loved them.

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Jing Mei’s life drastically changes after her mother’s passing, Suyuan Woo, and replaces her mother’s seat at the mahjong table. Jing Mei’s unrelenting shadow of her mother babbles at her telling the stories of Kweilin, where her mother lived before moving into America. Jing Mei recalls the unbending grief of her mother’s story, “She told me the same story, except for the ending, which grew darker, casting long shadows into her life, and eventually into mine,” (Tan 7). This validates that Jing Mei’s grief originates from her mother, but she suspires and continues to carry on Suyuan Woo’s story of Kweilin, and the mahjong table at the Joy Luck Club meetings. Jing-Mei frequently refers to her mother’s story of leaving Kweilin to move to America, leaving two twin babies behind in China. Suyuan never met her daughters again because of her sudden passing. Instead, Jing-Mei is told of the story of the twins by her Auntie Ying-Ying who received a letter from them; Jing Mei realizes, “Somebody took them away. They’re safe. And now my mother’s left me forever, gone back to China to get these babies,” (Tan 29). Auntie Ying-Ying pleads to Jing Mei to go back to China to make a final wish for Suyuan. The stories of Suyuan, the Joy Luck Club, and the mahjong table confirms Jing-Mei’s determination to carry on Suyuan’s traditions, even if their relationship was not ideal.