Best Writing of Freshman Year #2

The Joy Luck Club Analysis
Stuck in a small, dark room, your dad has been detained. A strange man is questioning and asking: follow Chairman Mao, or stay loyal to your family? This is Ji-li’s struggle in Red Scarf Girl. You are abducted from your bed and taken to an unknown location. You witness brutal attacks and murders. You wonder: should I follow the rebels in Uganda, or try to save my childhood? This is the struggle of many “Invisible Children” in Africa. Hearing stories about your mother’s life in China, but seeing a different world around you. You ask yourself: should I follow the culture I am in, or adapt to the culture of your immigrant parents? This is the main struggle of the four daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. Their mothers are stubborn in their old Chinese ways, while their daughters, however, are much more fit to the American way of life. The struggle between these Chinese immigrants and their American-born daughters symbolizes the struggle between Chinese and American cultures.

The American-born daughters have a very different idea about the dynamics of a marriage than their mothers. The daughters, along with most Americans, believe that a wife should be equal to her husband. The mothers, raised in China, believe the opposite. As a young wife in China, one of the mothers is scolded by her mother-in-law: “Bad wife! If you refuse to sleep with my son, I refuse to feed or clothe you” (61). At that time, a woman was to become a wife and bear many sons. This is still true in China today, where almost all marriages and families and patriarchal, and some are even still arranged. Every single mother, at some point in the story, tells her daughter to be a good wife and obey her husband. This is one of causes of most of the conflicts between the mothers and daughters. This is also a cultural clash between China and the United States. The mothers’ marriages and most Chinese relationships are patriarchal, while most women in the United States including the four daughters are more independent thinkers.

The daughters’ independent thinking leads them to stray from other advice given by their mothers as well. The mothers think, like all Chinese mothers, that their daughters should be completely obedient to them. “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (142). This is the traditional Chinese way of thinking, but in America, children are encouraged to follow their dreams, and often told they can be anything they want to if they put their mind to it. The mothers’ wanting obedience of their daughters is like the Communist Chinese government wanting obedience of the Chinese people. Likewise, the daughters being more drawn to freedom and thinking independently is like the freedom of Americans under the Democratic government. This is both a cultural and political clash between the two countries.

The one thing the mothers and daughters did not clash on was the fact that they needed to be the best. The mothers pitted their daughters against each other from a young age. They competed in everything, from grades in school to things like chess and piano. The daughters were just as determined to outshine each other as the moms were. Americans are also very competitive in everything from sports to the workplace. In this same way, America competes with China for power, influence, and other status symbols. These competitive instances occur in politics, culture, sports, and especially the education of the youth of the two countries. Through these competitions, the two countries push each other to advance even further.

One way America has become more advanced than China is in regards to the acceptance of women in the society. Americans have developed many new ways of thinking while China is still stuck on many of their old ideas. Women and their opinions are held in higher esteem in the United States than they are in China. “For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds” (81). Chinese focus on the fact that women are not as valuable as men. The mothers tell their daughters things like this, emphasizing the lower opinions of women, like what many other young girls are taught in China. Americans are more open-minded about the equality of women; now there are even many women in the leadership of the country. The United States is progressing toward equality between men and women much faster than China.

This progression says a lot about American culture. The United States were started by explorers, unafraid of new things. They expanded to the west for this same reason. This confidence and leadership has continued through the years, in the people and government. People in America are not afraid to stand up for themselves, and make the decisions that are best from them. Similarly, Ji-li chose to stay loyal to her family. Many “Invisible Children” ran from the Ugandan Rebels to save their lives. The daughters of The Joy Luck Club were able to stay independent and become American. They acted as leaders, not followers, just as the United States does almost every day in world relations.