Mother Daughter Relationship in Joy Luck Club

The brief opening tale sets the stage for the exploration and appreciation of this theme. A Chinese woman has brought a swan---which she is told was once a duck which stretched it neck trying to become a goose---to America to one day give to her unborn daughter as a symbol of the capacity to become "more than what was hoped for" (Tan 3). The bird is taken by customs officers, but the woman keeps a feather, hoping one day to give it to her daughter and to tell her the story and its meaning in "perfect American English" (Tan 4). This tale is an encapsulation of the message of the June-Suyuan relationship, containing as it does both the hope for a better life passed from the mother to daughter, as well as the cultural connection with their Chinese roots.

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triggered, replicating itself insidiously into a syndrome, a cluster of telltale Chinese behaviors, all those things my mother did to embarrass me. . . . (Schell 3). Of course, June will ultimately discover the depth and significance of these behaviors and come to cherish them herself and their role in the making of her own character. Her mother sees America as the land of opportunity, and raises her child to be a "prodigy" (Tan 141). But June fails to become a prodigy, and grows to resent her mother's ambitions: "I hated the . . . raised hopes and failed expectations." She pledges to herself, "I won't let her change me. . . . I won't be what I'm not" (Tan 144). However, her mother was trying to symbolically express in her daughter the hopes and aspirations she was herself unable to express in China or even in the United States. June simply does not yet understand the profound suffering behind her mother's efforts to shape her daughter's life. At this point, June primarily feels shame for her mother and the Chinese traditions her mother cherishes, but at the same time she has an inkling that there is more to her mother's life than she suspects. This is in large part made clear through Tan's effective use of the point of view.
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Approximate Word count = 1648
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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