“They are frightened...they see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese...they see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters...they see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” No generation is ever the same because everything keeps changing. The way people think, the things they do, is never the same. In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the differences between the generations pull the mothers and daughters apart, yet pulls them close together at the end. Their ideas and points of view regarding subjects like love and family manifest how unalike the two generations are. Along with the subjects of love and family come different branches like marriage, divorce, and child rearing.
To begin with, the mothers of the Joy Luck Club,were mostly a part of a broken marriage. For example An-mei Hsu never stood up to her husband and now her daughter Rose is struggling with the same problem. In China An-mei didn’t divorce her husband because she didnt dare stand up to him, so she led a long life of suffering. Now that her daughter is facing the same problem, An-mei actually advises her to stand up for what she wants and not let her husband Ted walk all over her. In An-mei’s generation divorce was rare and unacceptable, unlike in Rose’s generation where divorce was common and sometimes necessary. In this case Rose’s divorce with Ted brought the mothers and daughters together. Rose finally understood her mother’s decisions and why she did what she had to do to protect her.
Later in the novel we encounter Lena St.Clair and her mother Ying-Ying. Both Ying-Ying and Lena marry a man they don’t love, and took over their lives. Ying-Ying’s marriage was alike to Lena’s marriage because both Harold and Clifford St.Clair make decisions for them and control their lifestyles. When Ying-Ying married she knew he was a bad man, due to her ‘superpower.” She married him because she believed it was her destiny. Lena also married a bad man and her mother knows that. Lena’s marriage to Harold pulls her away from her mother. “Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything. I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body... but when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since.” In the quote Ying-Ying is saying how she sees Lena is in a fail marriage, but yet doesn’t stand up for herself. During Ying-Ying’s marriage she lived in a time where men ruled over the women, but in the present time with Lena’s marriage, women have a voice and can do what many women couldn’t do before.
When it comes to children and how to raise them, everyone thinks they know best. The four mothers in The Joy Luck Club each had their way to raise their daughters, but the result was mostly the same. The daughters didn’t know much, if anything, about their Chinese heritage. In an attempt to give their daughters the “american dream” the mothers forget to teach their daughters the importance of their pasts. Once they want to teach their daughters of Chinese customs it is too late. The girls are now American and don’t show interest in learning about their mothers pasts. “But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once again: My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other’s meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more.” For example in this quote Jing-Jing is saying how far apart her and her mother are due to their cultural differences.
Throughout the novel we see how the different generations handle situations differently, but yet get similar outcomes. The mothers think they know what’s best for their daughters, but end up leading them to commit the same mistakes they made when they were young. Each generation is different, which leads us to believe we have nothing in common with our elders. Although we are completely different, if we don’t learn about our parent’s mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.
