A Motherly Role-the Joy Luck C

A Motherly Role

A reoccurring theme in Amy Tan’s novels is mother-daughter relationships. In each of her three novels she represents different roles of the mother and the effects of each; The Joy Luck Club depicts mothers living through daughters, The Kitchen God’s Wife portrays mother teaching daughter through past experience, and finally The Hundred Secret Senses displays non-existence of the mother in the relationship.

This excerpt from The Joy Luck Club shows what kinds of things, from real accomplishments to the uncontrollable features of nature.

“Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch-enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children. I was one month older than Waverly Jong, Auntie Lin’s prized daughter. From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed after we scraped our knees, how thick and dark our hair was, how many shoes we wore out in one year, and later, how smart Waverly was at playing chess, how many trophies she had won last month, how many cites she had visited” (27).

Jing-Mei, the piano player in The Joy Luck Club, felt the most pressure from her mother, because her mother had to follow behind the word of the prodigy in town. ‘“Of course you can be a prodigy, too ’” Jing-Mei’s mother, Suyuan, tells her after receiving the news of Waverly, the chess prodigy (141). The expectations for Jing-Mei have heighten now that her mother’s friend’s daughter has been held in such a spotlight, as to be called a prodigy. Suyuan takes it upon herself to make her daughter rise above the accomplishments of her peers, and prove to the mothers their family is high in the running competition, whether Jing-Mei approves or disapproves. Suyuan decides that with piano lessons she and her daughter will rise above Lindo and Waverly. Jing-Mei only sees tedious lessons and hours of practice, but her mother envisions proudly sharing success stories between friends, comparing and convincing other mothers that her daughter, Jing-Mei, was indeed the best.

Every detail and aspect of their lives were picked out an compared and for the one daughter that lost these comparisons, a lowered self-image was the result. Jing-Mei never believed in herself, because she felt, since her childhood, she had failed her mother.

“In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations.