But I will win and give her my spirit because this is why a mother loves a daughter. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter’s tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. I will hold that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. How can I leave the world without leaving her my spirit? So this is what I will do. She sees her daughter as an extension of herself.Īnother mother plans how she will give her daughter this perception: it carries with it all my good intentions” (pp. and she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan. One mother dreams of doing this on her trip to a new life: “In America I will have a daughter just like me.

No matter how much the mothers care for them or how much they sacrifice to make their girls’ lives better, the daughters are blind to their mothers’ pain and feelings.Īll four of the Joy Luck mothers need their daughters to understand them, pass on their spirit after they are gone, and understand what they have gone through for their girls. The girls cannot relate to their mothers because they were raised in a different world.

One daughter shows her shame when she says to her mother, “I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everyone I’m your daughter” (p. When their mothers show pride in them, the girls only show their embarrassment. On page 6, one of the daughters states, “I can never remember things I don’t understand in the first place,” referring to Chinese expressions her mother used. This dismissive attitude prevents them from comprehending their own culture, which is a big part of understanding their traditional Chinese mothers. How could I tell him my mother was crazy?” (p. In The Joy Luck Club, the attitudes of four daughters toward their mothers change as the girls mature and come to realize that their mothers aren’t so different after all.Īs children, the daughters in this book are ashamed of their mothers and don’t take them very seriously, dismissing them as quirky and odd. Children, as they become adults, become more appreciative of their parents.

The joy luck club book