Mothers and Daughters in Joy Luck Club
...parents are the authority figures in traditional Chinese families and thus tend not to express their loves towards their children.. The mothers rarely say ¡¥I love you¡¦ to their daughters, and concern over children¡¦s emotion needs is not stressed. Instead, scolding or even beating is always the way the parents in traditional Chinese families use to ¡¥teach¡¦ their children. Because of lack of communication and ¡¥explicit¡¦ expression of love towards each other, the children, especially those living in Chinese-American contexts and not mature enough to understand and appreciate the parents¡¦ love in ¡¥Chinese¡¦ way, misunderstand that their parents do not love them. When Waverly¡¦s mother, Lindo, is a child and in China, she also misunderstands her mother: ¡§My mother did not treat me this way because she didn¡¦t love me¡¨ (51, Tan). As a matter of fact, it is impossible that the parents do not love their own children. It is just the way of expression of love different due to the influence of different cultures. The readers can see in the later part of the novel that the mothers assist their daughters in their ordeals such as the pitfalls in marriage. Besides, language barrier is also playing a very important role in causing the inharmoniousness between the mothers and daughters. After the immigration, the mothers still stick to the traditional Chinese side. However, their daughters have already stepped out of the Chinese community to taste what a Western world is. The daughters receive education in America in which English is the first language while Chinese is just limited to a group of Chinese people living in Chinatown. In the novel Joy Luck Club, there are several examples illustrating the language barriers between the mothers and daughters. When June plays mahjong with the aunties in the Joy Luck Club one day, the auntie Lin explains to her the difference between Chinese mahjong and Jewish mahjong. June later expresses her feelings that ¡§these kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese¡¨ (34, Tan). Actually, June is not an isolated case. Her friends Rose and Waverly also share the same problem. Under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, Rose¡¦s mother always uses a little Chinese book called ¡¥The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates¡¦ to see what dangers will be ahead of her children. So, out of curiosity, Rose reads this little book and says that ¡§in the corners was a description written in Chinese, and since I couldn¡¦t read the characters, I could only see what the picture meant¡¨ (124, Tan). For Waverly, she once mixes the names of places ¡¥Taiyuan¡¦ and ¡¥Taiwan¡¦ each other as she thinks that ¡§it sounds the same¡¨ (184, Tan). All these quotes reflect a serious fact that the daughters are not proficiency in Chinese. Their poor Chinese proficiency will establish a barrier between their mothers and daughters due to the fact that it is often that some traditional ideas and concepts like ¡§hulihudu¡¨ (196, Tan) and ¡§shou¡¨ (56, Tan) cannot be easily translated to English. This situation is now even worse as mentioned above, the mothers are not proficient in English. Another major factor of the inharmoniousness is the high expectation of the mothers on their daughters. Because of mothers¡¦ enduring love, they often put up high expectations that are often hard to meet and thus it causes troughs in their relationships. In the preface of the first section of the novel, there is a mention of a swan feather which is brought by a woman from China to America. During her journey to American, she coos to the swan which she brings with her: ¡§In America I will have a daughter just like me¡K. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!¡¨ (17, Tan) From the quote, the high expectations of their daughters¡¦ lives in American are unveiled. June¡¦s mother once tells June that she ¡§can be prodigy¡K¡¨ (132, Tan) and ¡§can be best anything¡¨ (132, Tan) in America. Actually, the mothers¡¦ love towards their daughters is expressed in their expectations. In the cases of June and Waverly, mothers¡¦ love is expressed in the novel by the description that ¡§from the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed when we scraped our knees¡K¡¨ (64, Tan) While Waverly is forced to play chess and her mother Lindo always shows off her talents in play chess, June is also forced by her mother to practise piano, to recite the names of capital cities etc. The mothers¡¦ high expectations with good intention turns out to be bad intentions as their daughters misunderstand them and thus it causes resentment towards their mothers. The cultural differences between the American culture and the Chinese culture also lead to the problem. Educated in America, the daughters in The Joy Luck Club are inevitably somewhat influenced by the Western culture which sometimes causes clashes with their mothers whose minds are occupied by the traditional Chinese ideas. It is very common that parents seldom praise their children fearing that they may spoil their children and thus criticisms are usually used to stimulate their children to further improve themselves. Taking a course ¡¥Introduction to Psychology¡¦ in college, June tries to tell her mother what why she shouldn¡¦t criticize so much and why it does not lead to a healthy learning environment: ¡§There¡¦s a school of thought,¡¨ I said, ¡§that parents shouldn¡¦t criticize children. They should encourage instead. You know, people rise to other people¡¦s expectations. And when you criticize, it just means you¡¦re expecting failure¡¨. ¡§That¡¦s trouble,¡¨ my mother said. ¡§You never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to expectations¡¨ (31, Tan) From the quote, the readers can see that there is a clash between the Chinese ideas and the Western ideas. Sometimes, the causes of the clashes are also due to the misunderstandings towards each other¡¦s cultures. Waverly¡¦s mother Lindo once says that ¡§Chinese people do many things. Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture¡¨ (91, Tan). She also thinks that ¡§Americans don¡¦t really look at one another when talking. They talk to their reflections. They look at others In spite of the above various barriers blocking the mothers and daughters from smooth communication, the inharmoniousness is finally resolved due to the love of the mothers towards their daughters and also the mutual understanding of each other. In the novel The Joy Luck Club, the daughters perceive their mothers as stupid and weak. However, the reality is actually the opposite. Except June, all the three daughters in the Joy Luck Club have marriage problems. They are confused, frustrated and lost. They do not want to face the problem. The mothers¡¦ love stands out and now helps their daughters. By the story-telling of the mothers¡¦ stories and also their sufferings in China, the mothers instill their daughters with their traditional ideas and most importantly the ¡¥Chinese¡¦ wisdom so that they can gather the strength and courage to overcome and face up to the marriage failures. For example, Rose learns that ¡§the power of [her] words was that strong¡¨ (196, Tan) when she realizes that she is able to speak u...