The Joy Luck Club: Mother Daughter Realtions Essay Example

In Amy Tan’s Book, The Joy Luck Club, the author portrays the lives and relationships of four different Chinese mothers with their daughters. While doing so she establishes a connection that depicts the daughters to be the American translations of their mothers. Being that they were all subjected to many hardships in their lives, both as children and young adults, the mothers had wanted to “Americanize” their daughters so that they could seemly have a better life. Unfortunately, since all of the mothers came from China, and all of their daughters were born in America, there was a lack of appreciation and understanding from either of them for one another’s culture. As the daughters grow up, the conflict of the cultural gap arises once more, particularly with Lindo and Waverly Jong, as they struggle to understand one another. There are many differences between Lindo and her daughter Waverly which relate to the cultures they come from. The first major difference presides in their ability to understand the value of a promise and what it takes to keep one. Lindo’s deeper understanding of certain aspects of life, and her confidence in her wisdom, characterize her to be more Chinese as opposed to Waverly’s constant disregard and negligence for her Chinese culture; all which seems to “Americanize” her to a further extent. Lindo once said that she had “sacrificed [her] life to keep [her] parents’ promise.” She then continues to say that “this means nothing to [her daughter], because promises mean nothing.” When Lindo was young she was a victim of a loveless and unwanted marriage; however knowing the value of the promise she had made to her parents she knew that she could not dishonor them. Waverly, unlike her mother, has a much different perspective about the promise of marriage; she has a child out of wedlock and becomes engaged to a man not of her cultural background. The quality of using and manipulating the powers of her “invisible strength”-her ability to