Section 3: American Translation, Chapter 1: The Rice Husband

Chapter 1
The Rice Husband
Lena St. Clair

This chapter is narrated by Lena St. Clair who discussed the chapter titled "The Voice From The Wall". She explains how her mother was always able to predict evils, and she was curious as to what her mother will see upon visiting her and her husband Harold at their new home. Lena thinks back to a time when her mother told her that her future husband would have one peck mark on his face for every grain of rice that she did not finish from her bowl. Lena immediately thought of her neighbor Arnold who bullied her and had a pitted face. She began to eat every single grain of rice from her bowl, determined not to marry Arnold and marry a smooth faced man. Yet, Ying-Ying continuously found grains left in Lena's bowl. Lena became terrified that Arnold was destined to be her husband and began to hope for his death. Over time, Lena thought that the relationship between eating and the possibility of marrying Arnold developed into a relationship between her eating and Arnold's well-being. She refused to eat anything, hoping that it would cause illness on Arnold. Five years later, even though she had forgotten about Arnold, Lena's fears turned into anorexia. At 17 years old, Arnold dies of an extremely rare measles related disease. Although Lena can not find a logical reason that she is the cause of his death, she blames herself. Later, she wonders if her evil intentions caused her to be with Harold as punishment for the situation with Arnold. Harold is a controlling, manipulative man. He and Lena hold seperate bank accounts and all of their own products are paid for by themselves. Even though Lena is the sole reason for his success, he is overtaken by greed. Lena works for him as a project coordinator. Even though she shows great talent and brought the company to higher places, Harold refuses to promote her because he does not want to be unfairly favoring her because she is his wife. When Ying-Ying arrives, she notices the shared expenses list on the fridge. She tells Lena that she should not pay Harold back for ice cream because she does not eat it due to a vomiting episode when she was younger. She had eaten so much strawberry ice cream that her stomach could not handle it and she got sick. Lena later brings this up to Harold and even though he agrees, she picks a fight. The fight is interrupted by the smashing of a vase upstairs in the guest bedroom. Harold built the table when he was a student, but it was wobbly. Ying-Ying said "You put something on top, everything fall down". When Lena is cleaning up the glass she tells her mother not to worry, she knew it would happen eventually. Ying-Ying then asks Lena why she hasn't done anything to prevent it.
This chapter expresses the similarities between Ying-Ying and Lena. Ying-Ying's supersititions and constant fear of impending doom have reflected onto Lena. Her supersition that something as simple as rice controlled her fate of who she would marry eventually turned into the acceptance of her unhappy marriage. She accepts her "fate" because she believes she is in a world that has forces beyond human control. Ying-Ying uses the wobby table as a symbol to show Lena how imbalanced her marriage is. Ying-Ying finally sees that to fufill your own wishes is not selfish as her Amah had told her. She does not want her daughter to remain passively silent and accept her unhappiness as she did. When she asks why Lena did nothing to prevent it, she does not mean the vase, but Lena's failed marriage.

Section 2: Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Chapter 4: Two Kinds

Chapter 2
Two Kinds
Jing-Mei (June) Woo

This chapter is about June revisiting her childhood. It is about the pain and dissatisfaction of never becoming the prodigy that her mother tried to turn her into. After having to hear Lindo's constant bragging of her daughter Waverly, Suyuan tried to express her daughter's "inner prodigy". At first, June was open to the idea and tried a wide variety of talents. But after falling short of her mother's expectations countless times, June stood in front of the mirror and promised she wouldn't allow her mother to twist her into something she was not. Eventaully, Suyuan made June start playing the piano. She was instructed by their neighbor, Mr. Chong. June soon discovered that Mr. Chong was deaf, so she began to get away with playing the wrong notes but keeping the right rhythym. Soon, Suyuan entered June into a talent contest. Even though June was totally unprepared, she believed that her "inner talent" would make itself shown. The preformance proved to be a disaster, entire the entire Joy Luck Club and, of course, Lindo. A couple days after, Suyuan insisted that June practice piano. Being fed up, June refused and said she wished she was dead like her two sisters. Suyuan never asked June to play again. Years later, June recieved the family piano from her parent's as her thirtieth birthday gift. She had it tuned and played the song from her preformance, "Pleading Child". She then played the piece on the page next to it, "Perfectly Contented", and found each piece was complementary to eachother.
This chapter is about a clash between mother and daughter. A mother's faith in perseverence, and a daughters sense of uselessness. After looking at herself through her mirror, June promises that she will not allow her mother to change her. From this, she never devoted any of her will to trying to be good at something. The pain that June felt after falling short of her mother's expectations stems not only from dissapointment in herself, but the dissapointment from her mother. The shame and pain follows her through life. Her shame could possibly stem from the guilt she feels for willing to fail.
I also looked at Suyuan's side of the story. I highly doubt that this push to find June's "inner prodigy" was just for bragging rights. I feel that after losing her two daughters, she wanted to push June to find her strengths. What June thought to be manipulation and control, I found to be something quite different. I think Suyuan truly believed in her daughter and wanted to express her abilities. June discovers this when her mother gives her the piano. Suyuan then understands what June thought the piano lessons were all about, and by giving her the piano she offers her a chance to pick up where she left off but for herself and no one else. Sadly, after Suyuan's death, June discovers that what her mother did was not just a product of cruel expectations, but of love and faith. By playing the two songs, "Pleading Child" and "Perfectly Contented", she realizes the journey she has made from being pained and longing for her mother's approval to understanding why her mother pushed her so hard.

Section 2: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Chapter 3: Half And Half

Chapter 3
Half And Half
Rose Hsu Jordan

Rose begins this chapter with speaking of how important her mother's bible was to her. She brought it everywhere and trusted in its every word. Watching her clean her bible, she contemplates how she is going to break the news of her divorce with her husband Ted to her mother. Rose reflects on when she first started dating Ted, without the consent of either of their mothers. Rose expresses how she loved being Ted's "damsel in distress" and let him make all of the descisions. However, when Ted, whom is a dermatologist, loses a malpractice suit, their relationship falls apart. He believes since Rose has no voice and will not make any decisions that she is avoiding responsibility and blame. He then asked her for a divorce. This sends Rose further into her mind, flashing back to a terrible and scarring time in her childhood. She recalls a day when her family went to the beach, all of her brothers and sisters ran off and Rose became in charge of her four year old brother Bing. As her father fishes off some rocks further out in the water, Bing asks Rose if he can go to him. Rose, both watching her sisters down the beach and Bing, tells him yes but to be careful. Bing slowly walks acorss the rocks, and with Rose watching, falls into the water without leaving a trace. Rose stands in shock and the family, realizing Bing's absence, runs to the water. Authorities searched for Bing's body for hours with no success.Refusing to accept this, An-Mei drives to the beach with Rose early in the morning to search for Bing. She reads prayers from the bible on the beach and makes offerings to appease the Coiling Dragon who lives in the sea. She also believed that her ability to do anything she put her mind to (her nengkan) would find Bing. Eventually, An-Mei gives up on her search for bing. After this, Rose thought her mother had finally accepted the idea that faith cannot change fate. An-Mei instead tells Rose that fate is shaped "half by expectation, half by inattention" (hence the title, "Half and Half"). Just as her inattention caused Bing to drown, her inattention to her marriage caused Ted to request a divorce.
This chapter is about guilt and blame. Rose, after losing her brother while he was under her responsibility, now fears to take on any responsibility. When she asks An-Mei why she should save her marraige if there is no hope, An-Mei replies with "Because you must...this is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate...what you must do" (pg 130).
I learned that Rose is a very fearful person. She is similar to her mother. An-Mei was quiet as a child, she just took whatever was given to her and was scared to tell the world what she wanted. An-Mei does not want her daughter to be this way, so she basically tells her to change her fate. Take on the responsibility for her failing marriage and make it work. As I read the daughter's tales, I am starting to see that (though the daughters don't agree) each mother-daughter pair are very much alike in their own ways.

Section 2: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Chapter 2: The Voice From The Wall

Chapter 2
The Voice From The Wall
Lena St. Clair

This chapter is narrated by Lena St. Clair, daughter of Ying-Ying St. Clair. The story begins with Lena summarizing her family life. Her father was a man of Irish-English descent and his name was Clifford. He tells Lena that he saved her mother from an unspeakable tragedy in China. Lena's mother, Ying-Ying, is a very quiet woman. She rarely speaks and, when she does, it is in broken english or in mandarin. Conversation between Ying-Ying and anyone who doesn't speak mandarin is usually through gestures or phrases. Lena can understand her mother's mandarin and her father's english, so she acts as a bridge between the two. Though many of times, Lena constrews her mother's weird expresssions into more Americanized, mainstream thoughts. At one point, Clifford recieves a promotion and the family moves from Oakland to a highly Italian neighborhood in San Francisco. Ying-Ying claims their new home is not balanced and begins to constantly rearrange things. Lena began to think her mother was going crazy; but Clifford informed Lena that her mother was acting this way because she was pregnant. While her father was anxious for the baby, Ying-Ying showed no signs of joy or hope. One night, Lena hears fights between a girl named Teresa Sorci and her mother next door. In her mind, Lena imagines Teresa being beaten or even killed. But soon after, she sees Teresa running down the stairs, smiling and laughing. When Ying-Ying went into labor, the baby, (a boy) died immediately after birth. Ying-Ying layed with an empty look in her eyes, blaming herself for the baby's death and speaking incoherently of a child she had killed in the past. Instead of translating this to her father, Lena told Clifford that her mother was speaking words of hope and grief. Upon coming home, Ying-Ying began to deteriorate psychologically. As a form of comfort, Lena began to be thankful she was not as miserable as Teresa. One day, Teresa comes to Lena's apartment and climbs out of her windowsill. She tells Lena that her mother kicked her out and she is going to surprise her by sneaking back into her room from the window. Later on, Lena heard Ms. Sorci and Teresa both yelling threats at eachother, sobbing, and laughing.

This chapter, to me, was the opposite of Rules Of The Game. Rules Of The Game showed the strengths of silence and invisibility, whereas, The Voice From The Wall showed its dangers. Ying-Ying is silent for most of Lena's life. The few times she would speak, were to warn Lena of all of the dangers around her and to put fear in her heart. This causes Lena to grow with an ultimate fear of most things. When she hears Teresa "fighting" with her mother next door, she immediately thinks she is being beaten or killed by her mother. She cannot understand that that is how Teresa and Ms. Sorci express their love and endearment. Ying-Ying told Lena a story of her grandfather and how he sentanced a beggar to death. As legend says, the ghost of the beggar returned and said "the worst is on the other side". He then pulled Lena's grandfather through the wall and into the land of the dead. Lena once feared the other side of her wall, but discovered it is actually a loving household. This leaves her with the terrible thought that the worst side may be the St. Clair's side.

Section 2: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, Chapter 1: Rules Of The Game

Chapter 1
Rules Of The Game
Waverly Jong

This chapter is narrarted by Waverly Jong, Lindo Jong's daughter. Waverly starts off the story talking about how her mother taught her the art of "invisible strength" at age six.  She says that she became a chess prodigy because her mother taught her this. When Waverly was a child, "santa" came to the Jong's church and handed out gifts donated from another church. Waverly recieved a box of Lifesavers candies and her brother got a second-hand chess set with two missing peices. Waverly made a deal with her brothers that if she replaced the two missing peices with lifesavers, she could play. The deal was whomever won got to eat both of the candies. Waverly became very interested in chess, studying the instruction booklet and renting chess strategy books from the library. The was fascinated that the game was based on invisible strength which included secret traps and forward thinking. As her brothers lost interest, she began to play chess with a man named Lau Po. He taught her many new strategies. As Waverly continued to play so well, she attracted alot of attention and became quite famous in the Chinatown of San Francisco. By the age of 9, she became a national champion and was only 429 points away from Grandmaster status. Though Waverly began getting special treatment, she had to start feeding her mother's pride as well. Waverly's mother would walk Waverly through the streets, bragging of her prodigy daughter to anyone in earshot. One day, Waverly yelled at her mother in the street. She said she was embarassed by her constant flaunting. Waverly ran off, ignoring her mother's shouts, and did not come home until later that evening. When she returned, her mother looked at her and said "We not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us" (pg 100). Waverly then went to her room and envisioned a chess game, opposing her mother. Her mother's peices were shoving her's off the board, Waverly felt as if she became weak, and ended the chapter with "I pondered my next move" (pg 101).
This article seemed to have the theme of wanting independence. Waverly is trying to be disobideint with her mother. She strictly wants her chess playing to be her own individual achievement and misundersands her mother's pride. With her mother hovering over her during practice, Waverly feels as though her mother is trying to take credit for her own achievements. Thematically, Waverly's story connects with her mother's story (The Red Candle). As I analyzed in my Chapter 3 article, Lindo uses the "art of invisible strength" to get out of her unahppy marriage. She realizes the pregnant servant and, instead of telling the family instantly, waits to inform everyone until she can use it to her oppertunity. This was successful for Lindo, as she got to get out of her marriage and have enough money to immigrate to America. Waverly also can owe her success to the "art of invisible strength" that she uses to make strategic traps and decisions to anihilate her opponent. However, when Waverly yells at her mother in the street and loses her support, she reveals her secret weaknesses which are her feelings about her mother and her desire to be independent.

Section 1: Feathers From A Thousand Li Away, Chapter 4: The Moon Lady

Chapter 4
The Moon Lady
Ying-Ying St. Clair

This chapter is narrated by Ying-Ying St. Clair. She recalls a memory of when she was four years old, when she attented the Moon Festival with her family. She remembers the day clearly, yet she had forgotten it for many years. She expresses that she has kept so quiet her whole life that her daughter Lena doesn't even know her. The reason for her quietness, Ying-Ying says, is that she was scared of voicing selfish desires.Ying-Ying was hardly raised by her mother. She was mostly taken care of by her nurse, Amah. The day of the Moon Festival, Amah dressed Ying-Ying in a yellow silk outfit that her mother made for her. Amah told her that she would see the Moon Lady who granted wishes, but they must be secret wishes. If she voiced her wishes, they would become nothing more than selfish desires. Amah told Ying-Ying that it is wrong for a woman to voice her needs and that a girl can never ask, only listen. This bit of advice follows Ying-Ying for the rest of her life. Ying-Ying's family's party was held on a boat on a lake. Ying-Ying watches a chef gut fish for the feast, mesmerized, until she notices her nice, new outfit is covered in blood and scales. She tries to hide the fact that she ruined her outfit by smearing turtle blood all over it. Amah finds Ying-Ying, becomes angry, strips Ying-Ying to her undergarments and leaves to another part of the boat. Ying-Ying no longer has her pretty outfit which showed her social stature. During the festival, a firecracker goes off that startles Ying-Ying and causes her to fall overboard into the lake. Luckily, a fisherman caught Ying-Ying in his fishing net and hoisted her onto the boat. After looking for her family, the fisherman left her ashore, figuring her family would find her eventually. Ying-Ying is left cold, wet, and alone. So alone that she feels she has lost herself. She watches the play about the Moon Lady and secretly wishes she will be found.

The Lady of the Moon (Chang'e)

This chapter concludes section one and, though it is short, holds much value. Ying-Ying is seemingly the weakest and most hopeless character of this story. She follows the advice of Amah her enitre life, which is to never voice her own desires, never ask for things, and follow only what she is told. This opresses Ying-Ying her whole life. By the end of this chapter, I reflected on the stories of section 1 all-together. Each story deals with maternal roles in China and role of Chinese women. Each woman told a story of how they learned they would be expected to sacrifice themselves for their husbands. An-Mei learned this because her mother, instead to sacrificing herself for her late husband, was disowned for choosing to become a concubine. Lindo suffered a marraige that seemed more like enslavement because she was punished for not fufiling her one and only duty: to have children. Ying-Ying spends a lifetime of holding her tounge because she was told at a young age to never voice her selfish desires. Yet even through all their suffering, each of the women do not reflect on their mothers with negativity. Rather, they respect their honoring of tradition and sacrifices. They do not view their mother's actions as unfeeling, rather as a teaching lesson. The patriarchal society they were born into would not soon change, and their mother's hardened up their daughters at a young age so they could adequetely deal with the suffering that was to come.

Section 1: Feathers From A Thousand Li Away, Chapter 3: The Red Candle

Chapter 3
The Red Candle
Lindo Jong

This chapter is narrarted by Lindo Jong. The chapter begins with Lindo talking about a visit from the village matchmaker to her family. After this visit, two year old Lindo Jong became promised to marry Tyan-Yu, whom was a year younger. After this, Lindo's mother began to refer to Lindo as Huang Taitai's (Tyan-Yu's mother) daughter to cope with the fact that Lindo would not be hers forever. When Lindo turned twelve, her family's house suffered severely from a flood and the family had to move to another village. Lindo, however, had to live with Tyan-Yu's family where she was treated as a servant. After a couple of years, Lindo began to look up to Tyan-Yu's family, living for Huang Taitai's praise and looked at Tyan-Yu as a god. When Lindo turns sixteen years old, she marries Tyan-Yu. On the day of her wedding, Lindo feels nothing but hopelessness and despiar as she realizes that she will no longer live her life in the pursuit of her own happiness. She considers the thought of drowning herself in the river, but as she looks outside she notices the fierce wind blowing across the land. She realizes that she, too, is strong like the wind. One of my favorite quotes from the story is in this chapter, when Lindo realizes her strength.
"I asked myself, what is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person? And then I saw the curtains blowing wildly, and outside rain was falling harder, causing everyone to scurry and shout. I smiled. Then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried the water that filled the river and shaped the countryside. It caused men to yelp and dance.
I wiped my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pre. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind" (pg 58).
After this, Lindo decided to honor her family by marrying Tyan-Yu, but do as much for herself as she possibly could. According to custom, the couple had to light a red candle a wick at each end and their names carved into it. A servant was ordered to watch the candle all night to make sure it burned, because if either end extinguished, then the marriage would be predicted as a failure. That night, the servant required to watch the candle ran away at the sound of thunder because she thought it was a Japanese bomb attack. Lindo, who was walking nearby, ran into the room and blew out the candle. The next morning, the matchmaker showed the candle had burnt thoroughly and the marriage between Lindo and Tyan-Yu was sealed. Lindo looked to the servant, who must have relit the candle, and saw the look of shame on her face.
For months after their marriage, Tyan-Yu refused to consumate their marriage. Huang Taitai blamed Lindo for not being able to become pregnant, saying she was "spilling her son's seeds", so she confined Lindo to her bed so they could not spill out any more. Finally, after months of maltreatment, Lindo found out a way to get out of her marriage. She pretended that Tyan-Yu's ancestors came to her in a dream, telling her that the matchmaker's servant allowed the candle to burn out the night of their wedding, which would mean the demise of Tyan-Yu. Lindo convinced Huang Taitai that Tyan-Yu's ancestors planted Tyan-Yu's seed in the servant girl and that she was in fact Tyan-Yu's true spiritual wife. The servant girl confessed to this lie in order to have her child in wedlock and live a more comfortable life. This trick played by Lindo lead to the anullment of their marriage and Lindo emigrating to the United States.
I learned in this chapter that Lindo is a very tricky, intelligent character. She aims to do the best for herself and knows how to be independent. She, so far, is the only mother character in the story that really tried to better her situation and be a more powerful woman.

Traditional Chinese Matchmaker 

Section 1: Feathers From A Thousand Li Away, Chapter 2: Scar

Chapter 2
An-Mei Hsu
Scar

This chapter is narrarted by An-Mei Hsu. An-Mei begins the chapter with reflecting on her grandmother whom she called "Popo". Popo always told An-Mei that her mother was a ghost; not in the literal sense but in chinese culture, a ghost was someone whom is so terrible that you should never speak or think of them. An-Mei's aunt had told her, "Never say her name. To say her name is to spit on your father's grave" (pg 43). This was because An-Mei's mother was a window only a year when she became a 3rd concubine (woman who lives with a man but has a lower status than his wife or wives) to a man named Wu-Tsing. This action displayed lowliness and dishonor. However, when Popo becomes very ill and is lying on her deathbed, An-Mei's mother arrives. An-Mei says, "I was sitting at the top of the stairs when she arrived. I knew it was my mother even though I had not seen her face in all my memory" (pg 44). Though An-Mei's uncles and aunt's shooed her mother away, An-Mei's mother stayed to pay her respects. That evening, when An-Mei returns to her room, she finds her mother there. Her mother asks her if she knows who she is, then touches the scar under An-Mei's chin. This sets An-Mei into a flashback when she was four years old during an argument when her mother came home to retrieve An-Mei. Her family is arguing that if she goes with her mother, she will never be able to show her face to the world. During this argument, a pot of hot soup spills all over An-Mei which causes her to nearly die. This is why the chapter is named "Scar". Late that night, as Popo was dying, An-Mei saw her mother do a very honorable thing. Her mother cooked a soup that contained her own flesh and blood in a last attempt to cure her dying mother. An-Mei then says, "This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is a shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember whatis in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh" (pg 48). This quote really stuck out to me because, although it is grotesque, there is a beauty to it. It shows that truly sacrificing sometimes is the only way to show how much something means to you.

This chapter displayed a strong feminist theme. The reader starts to really understand what it was like as a woman during this time in China. I am starting to see that there were not many options for women, even less than in America during this time period.

Section 1: Feathers From A Thousand Li Away, Chapter 1: The Joy Luck Club

Chapter 1
Jing-Mei "June" Woo
The Joy Luck Club

This novel contains the stories of multiple fictional characters.
Mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, Ying-Ying St. Clair
Daughters: Jing-Mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, Lena St. Clair     


The first chapter of this novel provides some brief background information on exactly what the Joy Luck Club is and gives the reader some insight on June's mother, Suyuan Woo. June narrates this chapter. She tells the story of her mother's creation of the Joy Luck Club and how she must now take her late mother's place. She tells the troubles and tragedies her mother faced in China as the Japanese invaded. To have some kind of escape from these troubles, she created the Joy Luck Club with three other women in Kwelin. At the tie, Suyuan was married to a Chinese officer whom she had a set of twins with. June explains that her mother used to tell her the story of Kweilin and the Joy Luck Club many times, but always left something out. June's mother eventually had to leave Kweilin as it was facing invasion from the Japanese. She put her twins in a wheelbarrow and pushed as far as she could to Chungking. She was suffering from dissentary and, when she was close to death, realized she needed to leave the twins on the side of the road and hope that they would survive. As June recalls this tale, she does not think she is right to take her mother's place at the table. June is then informed by Suyuan's friends that her twin sisters are alive. Her mother had been trying to find them all this time and before she could go to China to see them, she died. June is assigned with the task of going to China, meeting her sisters, and telling them everything about their mother. However, June knows nothing of her own mother. Suyuan's friends are shocked to hear this, then become worried that their own daughters will one day say the same. Suyuan's friends begin to tell their own tales, thus starting the stories that will be told in the duration of the book.

Watercolor painting of Kweilin, China

Introductory Post

Hello! I am Emily Newman and this is a blog I will be keeping as I read The Joy Luck Club. I am 18 years old and I am both a high school and a cosmetology student. Some of my hobbies and favorite activities are: video gaming, hanging out with friends, swimming, hairstyling, and reading. I am pretty thankful that my current English class offered a novel project final because, with how busy its been, I haven't gotten the chance to curl up with a good book. When I saw the list of novels, I was thankful I found one that is very familiar to me. Though I had not read the book, I had watched the movie countless times with my mother. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a very powerful novel about 8 Chinese women, all mothers and daughters. I chose this novel 1. because I am familiar with it and 2. because it speaks to me in a personal way. Based on what I have seen in the film, a reoccurring message in the story is to be empowered as a woman. This is something my mother has taught me from a young age, so the story itself is similar to the relationship because me and my own mother. I hope to gain a better understanding of this novel and find the ultimate theme of the entire piece by the end of this project.