It is not surprising to find in literature in general and literature based on autobiographical experiences of immigrants to the U.S. fiction that evolves around the theme of identity and a search for the self. In Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and Kincaid’s Lucy, this theme is primary. The Joy Luck Club unfolds the stories of four Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. The story evolves around the inherent ambiguities and conflict between the patriarchal and Taoist and Confucianist perspectives, culture, and learning of the mothers and the Americanized (read freedom of choice) daughters. In Lucy, Lucy leaves her native Jamaica to redefined herself outside of her mother’s domineering influence though she discovers this is impossible.
In The Joy Luck Club, we see many examples of how a woman’s identity is influenced by her mother. In the story of Ying-Ying St. Clair (“The Moon Lady”), we see that she is to learn of spiritualism and develop a worldview by observing her mother, “’What is a ceremony?’ I asked…’It is a proper way to behave. You do this and that, so the gods do not punish you…You don’t need to understand. Just behave, follow your mother’s example’” (Tan 66).
In Waverly Jong’s case, the mother-daughter transference of strength takes place. Waverly knows that the only rules that matter are those of her mother’s, and while she cannot understand them she understands they are powerful (after all, she gets her salted plums). She enjoys chess because its rules of manipulation seem simple in comparison to her mother’s manipulations and rules. Her mastery of the game is somewhat symbolic of the fact that she is beginning to understand her identity but through the mother-daughter relationship. In the novel we see this because the chess moves are described as Taoist winds.
The mothers in the story are also shown conveying information to their daughters about how to be ...