“They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters,
just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they brought to
American… They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting
hope passed from generation to generation.”
The
aunties see Jing-mei Yoo as a representation for their daughters and for
generations to come. She is like their American-born daughters, who don’t
understand their Chinese mothers or their Chinese traditions and values. Jing-mei
can understand how her aunties, the older generation, must feel, with their
distress that their hopes and dreams that they had and also had for their
daughters will not be able to be realized and survive in their American lives. I'm sure that she can understand or at least sympathize with both sides, the daughters and their mothers. However, poor Jing-mei probably realizes that her mother must have had that same fear
before she died. She showed that she cared through pushing her, which isn’t exactly the ideal way, but that is the only way she knew how to try to help her daughter.
In my eyes, this is the first greater human truth in this book. It expresses how there is almost always a confliction with a mother’s hope and a daughter’s desire. It has happened often with my mother and I. Specifically when she is trying to push her “old age” values on me. I can’t understand them. Times have changed and they just don’t apply to my life. I'm sure that my mother is worried about traditions and values being lost through me and not passed onto my children. I think that is inevitable though. I have gotten what I can from my mother's wisdom, as will my daughter from mine. Though of course she will only take what she feels applies to her and can help her get where she wants to end up in life.
In my eyes, this is the first greater human truth in this book. It expresses how there is almost always a confliction with a mother’s hope and a daughter’s desire. It has happened often with my mother and I. Specifically when she is trying to push her “old age” values on me. I can’t understand them. Times have changed and they just don’t apply to my life. I'm sure that my mother is worried about traditions and values being lost through me and not passed onto my children. I think that is inevitable though. I have gotten what I can from my mother's wisdom, as will my daughter from mine. Though of course she will only take what she feels applies to her and can help her get where she wants to end up in life.
This blog post highlights a theme in the book that continues to intrigue me: differences in culture. Growing up in a house where ethnicity/culture has never been very important, reading about such a cultural group of people is fascinating. It's amazing to watch the mothers struggle with the consequences of their actions (moving to america): their daughters' cultural identities.
ReplyDeleteI think almost every parent try to push their values on their children, but ultimately a person is going to form their own values and ideas. I can empathize with the mothers in the Joy Luck Club, because it must be difficult to watch your children grow up in a culture that values complete different things and goes against some of your core beliefs.