Joy and Luck in Club Form
I agree with what Lauren has written regarding the mother to daughter relationships evidenced in the book so far. Instead of roughly repeating what she has said in the previous post, I’ll take a somewhat different approach. Throughout the course of this book so far, we have seen several examples of how a mother to daughter relationship can be the crux of a happy life. In this book, in China, the mother to daughter relationship always seems to fill in an emply void in a character’s life. Jing-Mei Woo’s mother works for her whole life to contact her first daughters, finally reaching them, yet dying before she is able to do anything. Yet, when the daughters wirte back, they seem to have experienced a catharsis (there are tears on the paper). Also An-Mei Hsu, who is a member of the American Joy Luck Club, finds only an empty parental void until her mother returns to her Grandmother (Popo) on her death bed. This happened during her youth in China. However, whenever the mother-daughter relationship is taken to the states, the relationship is lacking. Waverly’s mother seems only to be proud of her accomplishments, not really herself as a person. And, Jing-Mei’s and her late mother never really connected, always having a sort of official, rather than familial relationship. This book, so far, seems to show evidence of vast differences between the relationships of mothers to daughters between America and China.
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Andrew,
Your analysis of the mother/daughter relationship is particularly interesting because it is from a male point of view. In your opinion, since I know you have a sister, do you think mother/daughter relationships in today’s society have anything in common with those portrayed in this book? Readers often find themselves connecting to situations, experiences, or traits of the characters in novels, and I am wondering how readers in our culture would connect to this relationship. I look forward to your next response.
Mrs. P
Posted April 4, 2007, 10:12 amAndrew I agree with Mrs. P that you have a good analysis.
Posted April 6, 2007, 9:56 amVery nice mother daughter relationships.
Tight
It’s interesting how big the role of mother/daughter relationships is in your book. In The Secret Life of Bees, the protagonist’s mother dies leaving her young daughter and hostile father. Lily, the daughter, throughout the novel, seeks to fill the void that was left when her mother was killed. Other women begin to fill the role with love and acceptance, things that Lily did not recieve from her father. It’s set in South Carolina, so the dynamics are obviously different than China, yet the theme and strong relationship are universal.
Posted April 25, 2007, 10:00 pm-emily