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What are some sacrifices the characters make, and what do they have in common?

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"But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come
and what she had left behind." (1) This quote highlights how the woman's expectations of America were drastically different from reality. This relates to how she finds it harder to reach common ground with her more American daughter since they both have different experiences and expectations. A quote expanding on this idea is: "Then again, it seemed my mother was always displeased with all her friends, with me, and even with my father. Something was always missing. Something always needed improving. Something was not in balance."(8) -Miheer

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main one: mother daughter relationship & the fear of lost identity, tradition

- scars = sacrifices that connect to mother?
- promises and being genuine
- being lost and found

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"Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain. This is how a daughter honors her mother."  (21-22)

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"Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain. This is how a daughter honors her mother."  (21-22)

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This quote is right after An-Mei's mother cuts out a chunk of her flesh to put in medicine for Popo, her own mother. The fact that she does this painful act to help someone who has shunned her and driven her out of her house shows the strong familial bond between Popo and her daughter. This ties into the theme of family and sacrifice present in the novel.
- Maxwell

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Week 1 "Not know your own mother?" cries Auntie An-mei with disbelief. "How can you say? Your mother is in your bones!" … "Imagine, a daughter not knowing her own mother!" And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation." - henley

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Week 1 "Not know your own mother?" cries Auntie An-mei with disbelief. "How can you say? Your mother is in your bones!" … "Imagine, a daughter not knowing her own mother!" And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation." - henley

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This is a really long quote, but I feel that this quote encompasses the main struggle in the book; the struggle for the mothers in the story to connect to their Americanized daughters through storytelling, and this barrier to struggle transcends the language barrier, and the mothers fear that their daughters will lose a valuable connection with their mothers. The mothers in the short chapter 2-5 stories all value some aspect of their mother, and they fear they will lose that in the following generations.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fVQzQZjBlTsMW0VL5r6qvKk_y296pgvP/view?usp=sharing

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How do miscommunication and cultural disconnects affect the the characters and their relationships?

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"We knew the Japanese were winning, even when the newspapers said they were not." This quote really gave me goosebumps, as it shows the propaganda that has been the critical problem throughout the Chinese history. As a flashback to WWII, the chapter also reflects the horror of Japanese invasion to civilians back then.

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- Mother-Daughter relationships
- Miscommunication
- Tradition

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How can past trauma affect future experiences?

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UlKPTTt_8pbxRhItXkt9htqiFynOefUI/view?usp=sharing

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Wk 2: "How do you know I’ll fall?" whined the girl. "It is in a book, The Twenty-six Malignant Gates..." "I don’t believe you. Let me see the book." "It is written in Chinese. You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me." (44)

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Wk 2: "How do you know I’ll fall?" whined the girl. "It is in a book, The Twenty-six Malignant Gates..." "I don’t believe you. Let me see the book." "It is written in Chinese. You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me." (44)

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This quote in the prologue of part 2 continues the theme of parents thinking they know what's best for their child. The child here wouldn't understand the parent's reasoning for their seemingly over-controlling actions as they're written in Chinese. This represents the cultural disconnect between parent and child.

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Waverly looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. “You aren’t a genius like me,” she said matter-of-factly. And if I hadn’t felt so bad, I would have pulled her braids and punched her stomach. But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything. I felt the same way, and it seemed as if everybody were now coming up, like gawkers at the scene of an accident, to see what parts were actually missing.

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"'See,' said my father as we both looked at the crib. 'Nesting instincts. Here’s the nest. And here’s where the baby goes.' He was so pleased with this imaginary baby in the crib. He didn’t see what I later saw. My mother began to bump into things, into table edges as if she forgot her stomach contained a baby, as if she were headed for trouble instead." I enjoy reading this quote because it analyzes the position of a traditional Chinese family. While having a child is an accomplishment for a man to brag about, it means more burden to the women which does the chores and raise up the kids.

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"My mother began to bump into things, into table edges as if she forgot her stomach contained a baby, as if she were headed for trouble instead. She did not speak of the joys of having a new baby; she talked about a heaviness around her, about things being out of balance, not in harmony with one another." (55) This shows the imbalance that Lena's mother feels and how it throws her off when she is supposed to be happy about the baby. The imbalance has been consistent throughout her life and she has always felt displaced, an example being how she felt imbalance in a new home. (Miheer)

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Superstition and inevitability- how that creates a cultural barrier
- Daughter reacts with annoyance but her "murder" of Arnold tells her that there must be  hint of truth

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" I let one thing result from another. Of course, all of it could have
been just loosely connected coincidences. And whether that’s true or not, I know the
intention was there. Because when I want something to happen—or not happen—I begin
to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid. "
This quote encompasses the mental struggle that she faces when coping with ideas of superstition and inevitability.  She notes that changing/predicting the future is marked by "intention," and this shines insight on the relationship between her and her mother.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3nTX5tnVDyyV9FVIlis0ivdJnL4jrMb/view?usp=sharing

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"I used to believe everything my mother said, even when I didn't know what she meant." (101) The quote shows how much Rose used to consider the weight of her mother's words. This is why it is also hard for her to discuss her divorce with her mother, because she feels an underlying feeling of shame. (Miheer)

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Wk 3: "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."(104) 

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Wk 3: "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."(104) 

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This shows how although Rose was cynical about her mother's overbearing advice she expected to understand it when she was older. She is disappointed and confused by her mother's advice about her divorce. Her mother's voice is also described as coming from up high, which emphasizes how her mother must have carried herself with a lot of assertiveness and authority.

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"When I offered Rich a fork, he insisted on using the slippery ivory chopsticks. He held them splayed like the knock-kneed legs of an ostrich while picking up a large chunk of sauce-coated eggplant. Halfway between his plate and his open mouth, the chunk fell on his crisp white shirt and then slid into his crotch..." Another very interesting quote that puts a focus on the cultural conflicts: fork (west) vs. chopsticks (east). One notable thing is that ivory chopsticks are used only among aristocrats in ancient China, and the case of Rich struggling to use that reflects his clumsy attempt to maintain his Chinese identity.

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"But thoughts are of two kinds. Some are seeds
that are planted when you are born, placed there by your father and mother and their
ancestors before them. And some thoughts are planted by others." (138) Ying-ying explains how she believes that we are inherently born with some ideas, and we pick up other ideas from our environment around us. This quote highlights the dichotomy of thoughts, and we can project this idea on to Ying-ying and Lnea's situation; Lena clearly has had more influence in her thoughts by "others" rather than her parents and ancestors.

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How is the conflict between Chinese and American culture presented in multiple cases in the book?

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-The way we see things can affect what the meaning of something is
-Humans subconsciously put on a "mask" to give them a sense of protection (Chinese face vs. American face, Jing-mei wanting to be more American than Chinese)

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See how truthful my face still looks. Why didn’t I give this look to you? Why do you always tell your friends that I arrived in the United States on a slow boat from China? That is not true. I was not that poor. I took a plane. Why do you always tell people that I met your father in the Cathay House, that I broke open a fortune cookie and it said I would marry a dark, handsome stranger, and that when I looked up, there he was, the waiter, your father. Why do you make this joke? This is not sincere.

I like this quote because it condenses the relationship between waverly and her mother, how waverly mistrusts her mother's supersition of a fortune cookie, which inherently is an American thing, representing waverly.

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"Maybe it was your mother’s dead spirit who guided her Shanghai schoolmate to find her daughters. Because after your mother died, the schoolmate saw your sisters, by chance, while shopping for shoes at the Number One Department Store on Nanjing Dong Road."

I love this quote for two reasons. First, it delineates traditional Chinese superstition, that the dead will remind their acquaintances before departing once and for all. Second, I actually live really near Nang Jing Dong Road in Shanghai (like 10 minute walk from my house), and I've been to Number One Department multiple times. The narrator's experience resonates with mine.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IszVVXcgVBmx6g3S2XOPHKsMbiSPvNl9/view?usp=sharing

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Wk 4: "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?" (145)

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Wk 4: "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?" (145)

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This quote encompasses a conflict that all characters in the book have had to deal with: adjusting to America, whether it be because they're immigrants or their parents were immigrants. It also touches on how the Chinese teachings and traditions the mothers in this book try to teach their kids conflicts with what the kids learn in America.