The Joy Luck Club Chapters 14-16

The titles of these chapters are "Waiting Between Trees", "Double Face", and "A Pair of Tickets".

The first of these chapters tells the story of Ying-Ying St. Clair and how she lost her vitality and sense of worth as a person after being used and treated like nothing in her first marriage. She lost her innocence and killed her unborn child hair because of her deep loathing for the man who had done this to her. She lost her soul and lived as a ghost of a person, leaving a life of riches to live a simple life, and finally marrying Mr. St. Clair and moving to America. She realizes that she must tell her daughter of the way that she lived.

"Double Face" is about Lindo and how she has a double personality, her American side and her Chinese side. She tells her tale of how she came to America and how she met Waverly's father. She is looking in the mirror at the end with her daughter, and sees that she has a crooked nose like her own. Waverly explains that this makes them look devious. She explains devious as saying one thing, but meaning another. Lindo sees that Waverly understands her more than she previously believed.

The final chapter tells the story of Jing-Mei and her father going to China to meet Jing-Mei's long lost sisters. On the way, they are to meet with her father's aunt and their family. Once they do, Jing-Mei is still having trouble accepting that she is Chinese, but tries to embrace the idea. She hears the family discussing the story of how her mother left her daughters behind, and wants to learn the truth. She learns that her mother gave them up because she believed that they would have a better life with someone else, but she still dearly loved them, and devoted her whole life to trying to find them. Once the girls are reunited, the RESOLUTION has been reached. Jing-Mei sees that she has been Chinese all along and sees what her mother has wanted her to see, as explained in the following quote: "Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish."

Jing-Mei has finally completed her mother's life journey for her, and is able to bring her memory to the daughters she never stopped loving.

The Joy Luck Club Chapters 11-13

The titles of these chapters are "Without Wood", "Best Quality" and "Magpies".

"Without Wood" continues telling the story of Rose and how she is  concerned about ending her marriage with Ted. She has a psychiatrist to help her figure out what her problems are, but she is completely confused and lost about what she should decide to do. She finds that her mother gives her the strength she needs to become strong enough to stand up to the man who she once thought loved her and give him a piece of her mind. She does not want to be pushed around any longer and she claims that she will live in the house that she loves.

"Best Quality" tells Jing-Mei's story of how she acquired a certain necklace from her mother called "life's importance". She recalls how she and her mother went to go get crabs to prepare for the new year's feast, and how one had its legs taken off. At the table, her mother takes this crab, but does not eat it. Jing-Mei tried to take this crab, but her mother would not let her. She later tells Jing-Mei that she knew she would be the only one to take this crab because while everyone else only wanted the best, she was thinking of others as better than she was. At this point, her mother gives her the jade necklace.

"Magpies" tells the story of An-Mei and how she went to live with her mother. Her mother was shunned from her own family because she was taken in as a concubine after becoming a widow, so An-Mei's grandmother even hated her. So when An-Mei goes to live with her, An-Mei's aunt and uncle are appalled. An-Mei finds that she is happy at first, living at the fancy house with servants, receiving whatever she pleases. Eventually she  talks to her mother's closest servant and learns how the second wife was deceitful and made An-Mei's mother join the family against her own will. An-Mei sees how Second Wife receives everything she wants and how her mother has been stripped of all her honor and happiness. Her mother poisons herself in order to return as a ghost and get revenge on those who have done ill to her. After learning about her mother, An-Mei vows to be strong in her stead.

I chose the term TURNING POINT to use in the chapter "Without Wood". Rose has a sudden moment where she is able to overcome her fear and turn it against the man who has ruined her life and takes a stand for herself. This is the turning point for her story because it has been the moment that all of her uncertainty has led up to.

The quote I found interesting was in "Magpies". An-Mei's mother told her the story of the turtle and how it cried and its misery and tears fed the magpies. She tells An-Mei that she is like the turtle, always experiencing pain for others' pleasure. An-Mei later goes on to read a story about how the peasants were plagued by birds who came and ruined their lives. Eventually, the peasants had had enough and decided to take a stand. The quote is, "The birds became more exhausted, unable to land, unable to eat. And this continued for many hours, for many days, until all those birds--hundreds, thousands, and then millions!--fluttered to the ground, dead and still, until not one bird remained in the sky." This shows An-Mei that if she is strong, she can ward off those who are feeding off her pain.

The Joy Luck Club Chapter 10

A compass for all "Four Directions"!

The NARRATOR for this chapter is Waverly Jong. This chapter brings up (once again) FAILED MARRIAGES!!!

Waverly Jong is thinking about telling her mother that she wants to marry a man named Rich that is now living with her and her daughter Shoshana.

She reminisces about the time she and her mother first started arguing and how she stopped playing chess. She became completely powerless under her mother's power and felt as though she controlled her. She was able to see bad in the things that Waverly thought were flawless and beautiful and was able to convince of it. She hated how her mother did this because it was what had ended her first marriage. It was actually bittersweet because the boy that she had married was a pretty awful husband, but it was bad for Waverly because she thought she had really loved him.

Near the end of the chapter, Rich goes to eat dinner with Waverly and her family in order to help Waverly convince her mother that marrying him was a good idea. She hopes that he he will be able to win her over by complimenting her cooking, but he makes mistakes in every way possible. At the end of the evening, Waverly realizes that the evening went horribly, but Rich is oblivious to her melancholy feelings about the situation.

She knows that her mother found him to be a bumbling oaf, but she still loves him and still wants to marry him.  She finally goes to her mother to tell her that she wishes to marry Rich, but her mother explains that she already knew this and she doesn't mind. Waverly and her mother continue talking, and finally understand one another.

This quote sums up how Waverly is feeling near the end: "But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers, I could see what was really there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in."

She has realized that her mother seemed like an enemy because she never took the time to understand her and felt powerless. This is true in real life as people often fear what they don't understand, so they just try to block it out and pretend that it doesn't exist.

I found it nice that Waverly thinks that the three of them, Waverly, Rich, and her mother, should move on together because it shows forgiveness and a new tolerance and understanding for her mother.

The Joy Luck Club Chapter 9

"Rice Husband" is focused on Lena St. Clair. I thought this picture would be appropriate:

A bowl of rice!

It is weird how her mother seems to have a knowledge of what is going to happen because of observations she makes in the environment around her. I don't know if it is some supernatural power or merely just coincidence, but it is certainly uncanny.

The chapter basically describes Lena's experiences with her mother's "gift" and how she always seemed to be right and then how she met Harold, her husband.

This brings us to an interesting point.... ANOTHER CASE OF A FAILING MARRIAGE!!!

This is the second of the Joy Luck Club daughters who has a failing marriage! This is kind of shocking, really. Honestly, why can't any of them seem to find a guy with whom they are truly able to be in love  and not have problems?!

Lena's mother points out at putting something else upon the table in the house will cause unbalance and cause the flower to die. This represents Lena's marriage. Once she puts out how she feels about the little lists that she and Harold make, it has been too much stress on the table of the marriage and caused an unbalance, leaving the flower to crash to the floor and die. This IMAGERY provides for the effect to show how the marriage is failing and will probably come to an end soon.

This chapter reminds me also of a matter that is important to me: equal treatment/anti-discrimination based on gender. It feels like Lena is being treated less than equal because she is always forced to receive less payment and not move up in the business world simply because her husband is her boss. Harold explains that it is because he doesn't want it to seem like her is giving her special benefits because she is his wife, but it seems like he is limiting her more than he should. If he truly cared about them being equals, he would allow her to work by his side and receive the same payment as he does, because it seems like his job and hers are intertwined. The whole "equal" thing is just a flop; it is just a word until is actually applied. If they are husband and wife, they should SHARE what they have TOGETHER and not act like they are from separate households. I would certainly feel unloved if my husband made me fill out those stupid sheets to see what money I had spent in relationship to his spending. 

In reference to Harold, Lena says, "He said he valued our relationship too much. He didn't want to contaminate it with money." To me, it seems that Harold has done exactly what he did not want to do. He let money become a concerning factor over the relationship because of the way he has made this attempt to be "equals". It just goes to show that attempts to prevent bad things have to be thoroughly thought out! 

The Joy Luck Club 8

This chapter tells the story of Jing-Mei Woo, the character from the first chapter.

This chapter really proves the point that I had originally presented in my first post: there is a very dysfunctional situation in this family.

Jing-Mei's mother had different ideas and thoughts about everything than Jing-Mei. She believed that Jing-Mei could be anything she wanted and make something of herself because America was a land of opportunity and freedom. She had never done anything great herself, so she pushed all of her dreams and desires onto her daughter and hoped that she would be a prodigy. 

After a while, Jing-Mei decides that she doesn't want to be what her mother keeps trying to force her to be. She just wants to be a normal person and doesn't want to achieve because her mother keeps trying to make her into something that she is not.

Soon after Jing-Mei stops trying to complete her mother's little tests, she thinks that it is over. Unfortunately, she finds that her mother will never stop. She becomes convinced that Jing-Mei will become an amazing pianist and will conquer the keys in order to show off to Auntie Lindo!

Jing-Mei finds a way to avoid having to actually play completely correctly as she practices with her deaf piano teacher, thus avoiding fulfilling her mother's expectations. When she enters a talent show, she must play a song called "Pleading Child". This is a SYMBOL for Jing-Mei's side that she tries to show her mother as she wishes to just be herself. She fails horribly when she plays this, and her mother gives up on Jing-Mei, to the point where it seems as though she no longer cares.

The chapter ends with Jing-Mei picking up the piano from her mother's home after she has passed away and looking back at the old pieces she had to play. She sees the book with the piece she played for the concert and sees that the opposite page has a song called "Perfectly Contented". She plays this piece along with "Pleading Child" and realizes that they are both halves of the same song. This is a SYMBOL, showing that these were both parts of Jing-Mei. 

I have chosen this quote for the chapter: "For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me."

This quote best describes the entire occurrences of this chapter. Jing-Mei purposely fails because she does not want to be a product of her mother's insistence on being "special". 

The Joy Luck Club Chapter 7

Yep. Half and Half.That is what this chapter is called. This is the first thing that shows up when you Google "Half and Half". 

This chapter is all about Rose Hsu Jordan and how she wants to end her marriage and also how she saw her mother lose faith in God. 

Rose describes how she met this American boy named Ted and how the two of them fell in love and needed each other. After a while though, the marriage started falling part because Ted was making all the choices. Ted had one bad experience where he was sued because of the decision he made and afterward, he wanted to have less of the responsibility. He kept asking Rose what they should do, but she never knew how to chose. Ted was angry with her because she couldn't make up her mind, and that was really when the marriage started to fall apart.

After realizing that Ted and she were going to get a divorce, Rose must face her mother. Her mother insists that the marriage must try to be saved, but Rose argues that it is not working out. This prompts Rose to have a FLASHBACK to the day her mother lost her faith.

Rose's mother used to believe that strong faith kept all good things coming their way. This was challenged when her youngest son, Bing, was swept out into the ocean. Everyone in the family took blame for this, but Rose felt most responsible for not watching him. The next day, Rose and her mother returned to the beach where he had disappeared and tried many different things to bring Bing back to them. Finally, after trying and waiting for many hours, Rose's mother came to the realization that Bing was gone and no amount of faith could bring him back. This was when Rose's mother lost her faith.

After this, Rose returns to the present, saying, "I know now that I had never expected to find Bing, just as I know now I will never find a way to save my marriage. My mother tells me, though, that I should still try." 

Seeing the way that Rose's mother still persistently tells her to try to save her marriage convinces me that she was not entirely lost her faith, but rather, she has a different understanding of her faith. As a Catholic, I believe that God will send us challenges that will make us want to question our faith, but those who are true believers in God will always return to Him. It is His way of showing us how strong faith can be. In this way, I feel like Rose's mother was awakened to a different part of her faith. Before, she blindly worshiped God, thinking that she would be rewarded and never have any harm done unto her because of her faith. She was worshiping for the wrong reason. Once this huge horror befell her, she saw that she could not just worship God and expect that everything would be easy from then on. It helped her to see that she still needs faith in God, but for a different reason than she previously believed. She has faith that Rose's marriage can be saved and wants Rose to see that even though there are difficulties, she should never give up.

The Joy Luck Club Chapter 6

Wow. This chapter is stee-range. (That's 'strange', but elongated for effect.)

I really had a hard time understanding what was happening here. It seemed to jump all over the place.



I found that to be a good visual aid to show where this chapter made my mind go... ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It begins by talking about how Lena heard stories about how her great-great grandfather had sentenced a beggar to death in the worst way possible, jumping to how some evil man lived in her basement and how seeing him had made her see the death of people and such gruesome things because of that experience... The list goes on and on.

The most important section, I believe, is when it talks about how Lena's mother was going to have a baby, but the baby died. Her mother gets very emotional, talking about how she had given up her other son so easily and then she starts to lose it. Lena describes it as "falling apart, piece by piece."

Another interesting tidbit is the namesake of the chapter, "The Voice from the Wall". The chapter describes how Lena would listen to the voices on the other side of the wall at night, hearing a woman beat a small girl and how Lena thought it seemed like the girl would die a brutal death every night. One day, the girl comes into Lena's home and Lena has the realization that what she thought was a horrible shriek from dying was a really twisted and messed up way to show the really weird relationship between this girl and her mother.

The MOOD of this chapter seems to be one of gloom and doom. The whole time, Lena seems to be a Debbie Downer, presenting her mother as broken and falling apart and showing how her father has great misunderstanding of his wife. The following quote references the voices from the wall and shows how depressed as a child Lena really was: "In bed, with the blanket edge lying across my neck, I used to wonder which was worse, our side or theirs? And after thinking about this for a while, after feeling sorry for myself, it comforted me somewhat to think that this girl next door had a more unhappy life."

Wow. That speaks volumes. Lena uses someone else's misfortune to feel better about her own. She really has a rough life.

I don't know how anyone could raise a child in that kind of environment.