Joy Luck Club is a story about four mothers and four daughters discovering themselves and their difficult mother daughter relationship. The Film starts off with June and Suyuan. Suyuan escaped a worn torn part of china during her escape she lost her twin daughters. When in America she had June. Suyuan wants he best for June but June doesn’t want to do what her mother wants her to do so she end up disappointing Suyuan. June mistakes Suyuan’s love for criticism and gets upset at herself because she can’t live up to her mother’s expectations.
This is not true because Suyaun believes that June has the biggest heart and that’s what she’s most proudest of. Suyuan passes away and the club members tell June they have found her twin sisters. June goes to China to visit them and break the news of their mothers passing. The story continues with Lindo and Waverly. Lindo was brought up in a forced marriage that she got out of without breaking her families promise to her husband’s family. In America Lindo has two children a boy and a girl named Waverly.
When Waverly was young she became very good at chess and Lindo had a bad habit of showing her off so she can seem like a good parent. When Waverly gets older she has a baby with a chinese man who she later gets divorced to then gets engaged to a caucasian man named Rich. Lindo doesn’t agree with it and Waverly does everything in her power for her to like Rich. She even rings him to a dinner party where he brutally embarrass himself. Later on in a discussion the mother and daughter have in a hair salon Lindo gives Waverly and Rich her blessing.
The next pair are Ying-Ying and Lena. Ying-Ying was once happily married to Lin Xiao and had a baby boy with him. Lin Xiao starts becoming abusive which makes Ying-Ying depressed. In this depressed state of mind Ying-Ying drowns her son to get revenge on Lin Xiao. Ying Ying immigrated to America and started a new family. Still distraught on her past Ying Ying worried her daughter Lena as a child. When Lena got older Ying Ying is now over her trauma. Lena gets married to her boss and they have a fifty fifty relationship. Lena wasn’t happy with this and Ying Ying could tell. Ying YIng tells Lena to leave the relationship until you get what you want. They get a divorce am Lena then finds a new man who gives her everything she wants.
The last pair are An-Mei and Rose. An-mei never knew her mom because she was kicked out when she was only four because she had relations with a wealthy man after her husband died. An-Mei’s mother comes back to see her own mother on her deathbed. As she was leaving An-Mei begged to go with her so she wouldn’t lose her mom again. An-Mei learns her mother was actually raped and they kicked her out so she had nowhere else to go. An Mei’s mom commits suicide and at her mom’s funeral she causes a scene and tells them to honor her mom as if she was the first wife.
An Mei grows up and has her own daughter named Rose. Rose has a boyfriend who’s family is very racist towards Rose because she is Asian. Ted (Roses Boyfriend) stands up for her. They get married but soon become distant. Rose is a stay at home wife who pays the bills, cook dinner, and etc. She starts to become submissive and Ted starts to take notice. They have a kid but this does not solve much. An Mei talks to Rose and tells her to stop letting him take advantage of her. Rose tells Ted to leave and that he’s not taking their daughter to show that she can stand up for herself. Later on the couple got back together. I can’t pick one story because I relate to them all and they all hit me. The story overall is special to me because I can relate to it in many ways because a mother daughter relationship can be very difficult especially if your mother has been through certain things.
I feel as tho Chinese mothers want to pass on the same message as some American mothers which is to be strong as a women and as a person. They love that was shown was tough love and the mothers were basing their lessons off of their own experiences. The daughters in all the stories are struggling with their chinese identities but they found in their mothers stories which I thought was beautiful. Like with June she didn’t like when people spoe chinese around her because she couldn’t understand it or when Lindo handed her the letter. After she met her sisters i feel as tho she felt closer to her identity.
Two things that we talked about in class that I seen in the film was feng shui and the tiger mother. When Ying Ying is in the house and she starts trying to rearrange things is an example of fengshui. Or when June was younger and Susuyan said In this household, only the obedient daughter. this is an example of Tiger Mother.
