The Joy Luck Club 23-144

Summary

Back at the Mahjong table the three old women talk about Suyuan's twin daughter she abandoned in China. It turns out that these two girls are still alive and are eager to meet their mother. Problem is, their mother is dead but they don’t know that. The two daughters write a letter to Jing-mei asking her to come to China to talk about the mother they never had. For some reason the three women seem scared, but I don’t know why. They raise some money through “investments” and used this to help Jing-mei with her travel expenses. It was an act o kindness but the aunts tried to cover it up as paying a debt they owed to her mother. The story then switches to another story. This is the story of An-Mei Hsu. She was never allowed to talk about her mother because her mother was a disgrace to the family. She left the family for another man when her husband had died leaving two children behind. She sees her mother for the first time in a long time when Popo, her grandmother, becomes ill. All of An-mei’s feelings changed when she remembered an incident that occurred when she was four years old. It turns out that An-mei’s mother never left, she was chased away. They had a little family disagreement and the whole family turned against her and told her to leave. During her stay with the family, An-mei’s mother made soup for Popo. She took a knife and cut a piece of her own flesh and put it in the soup. Disgusting, to us it may be, but it was tradition. It was suppose to help heal a dying family member. This action taken by An-mei’s mother made An-mi love her mom again. The story then takes yet another change in P.O.V. This is the story of Ant Lindo and her daughter Waverly. When Waverly was young she was a “chess prodigy”, which means she was extremely good in chess, and that’s fantastic for a 6 year old. Like every prodigy, there has to be a beginning. Waverly began playing chess on a cold snowy Christmas day. All the presents were handed out and Waverly got Lifesaver candy, (yay her), while her brothers received a Chess set with two missing pieces. She offer two of her lifesavers to replace the two missing pieces if they allowed her to play. The brothers agreed and that was the birth of a child prodigy. Waverly started playing in tournaments, and ultimately winning, and also appearing in magazines. She was well known in the Chinese community. There she was, a nine year old girl who plays chess at the national level and wins. Aunt Lindo brags about her prodigy everywhere she goes. She force Waverly to go places with her so she can show off to everyone her little chess champion. One day, Waverly got tired of her mother’s constant bragging and showing off, s she yells at her and tells her to “STOP SHOWING ME OFF” and runs away. She comes back to the house hours later and it doesn’t look like her mother’s is mad but inside she is burning with fire. The book then takes yet another change in P.O.V. his is the story of Rose Hsu Jordan. Rose is the daughter of An-mei Hsu, and being the daughter of An-mei Hsu is not easy. For instance, if you were dating a Caucasian man and you’re the daughter of AN-mei, you are going to be under constant criticism. Fortunately for Rose, she isn’t dating a Caucasian man; she’s getting a divorce with a Caucasian man, which makes things a little bit better. An-mei urges Rose to try and save the marriage but Rose says it cannot be stopped it is what Ted, Rose’s husband, wants. The reason behind the divorce is, as told by Rose, when Ted lost a big lawsuit, he lost all his confidence in making decisions, which he use to do well when he was with Rose. After the loss, he made Rose make the decisions but Rose felt the man should be the one deciding and Ted got angry and filed for divorce. Stupid reason, yes, but…I don’t know I can’t defend his decision. Rose remembers an event that became a tragedy to the Hsu family. One day, while the family was at the beach, Rose was supposed to watch her brother Bing who was the youngest in the family. Bing wanted to go to the reef where his father fished, Rose allowed him. Rose watched him carefully, but when the other brothers began to fight, An-mei told Rose to stop the fight. She took her eyes off of Bing and when she looked back up at him, he fell into the water. The whole family immediately went to his direction and looked for him. They called the cops and rescue teams but they could not find Bing. The next day, An-mei had not given up hope. She drove, for the first time, to the beach and made an offering to The Coiling Dragon. The coiling Dragon was the guardian of water so she thought she could make an offering in exchange for Bing’s life. It was futile and soon An-mei lost hope. Bing was never to be found. The book then goes to Jing-Mei and tells her story. Jing-mei and Waverly Jong were rivals the day their mothers met. The didn't want to be but their mothers made them. While aunt Lindo was talking about Waverly’s success as a chess player, aunt An-mei is forced to sit and listen to her brag. The An-mei enrolls her daughter into piano class hoping she would have a special talent like Waverly. Unfortunately for An-mei, Jing-mei does not want to play the piano but she is forced anyway. She hires Mr. Cong one of the Chinese people in the community who can play the piano to teach Jing-mei how to play. Problem is Mr. Cong is tune deaf so whenever she messes up, Mr. Cong says “Good Job, keep practicing”. Jing-mei is asked to perform a piece at her school which excites her mother but frightens her. At the school performance, Jing-mei does well at first but once she hits one wrong key, it’s all down hill from there. Jing-mei plays one wrong key, then another, then the next series are off and it ended with her mother looking very disappointed in her. It was as if the mother did not want her to be her daughter anymore. When they get home Jing-mei tells her mother that she does not want to play piano anymore.

Quote

“‘You can’t tell me because you don’t know! You don’t know anything!’ And the girl ran outside, jumped on her bicycle, and in her hurry to get away, she fell before she even reached the corner”. (Tan 87)

Reaction

I found this quote to be quite humorous when I read it. To understand this quote you have to understand the situation. I think this is Waverly Jong and Lindo Jong because this is right before their story. So, the mother is the person who thee child is yelling at. The mother tells her daughter not to ride her bicycle around the corner because there might be an accident and she would not notice because she was so far away. The mother brings out a book The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, which is a collection of stories about things that could happen to you outside the protection of your house. However, the book is written in Chinese and the little girl cannot read Chinese. The girl asks her mother to tell her the twenty six things that could happen and when she refuses she yells at her, gets on her bike and falls down around the corner. Kinda funny how the mother knew that something bad was going to happen and here’s her daughter telling her she doesn’t know anything. Now, I wonder who knows more now, the mother or the daughter. (I know you’re going to say the mother, they always say the mother, and the mother is in-fact right).