Without Wood and Best Quality Blog

I think the major themes of are having a voice and standing up for yourself and working hard to use your best qualities to the best of your ability to get what you deserve. The last one was sort of hard to put into words, especially to summarize it. What I am trying to say reminds me a lot of a certain Bible story, I’m not sure if it is from the Old Testament or the New Testament, but I think it is from the new one, but it’s the point made or the moral of the story that’s important to this theme. The basic plot line is that a man gives out a bunch of money to his servants and says he wants them to do what they think is best with the money and he will come back in a few years to collect the money. When he comes back years later he goes to the first group of servants and asks what they have done with the money and for whatever they have left or made back. The first group squandered away all of his money for their own uses and don’t have any left. He is disappointed in this group and moves on to the second group. He asks what they have done with their money and for it back. These very loyal servants of his tell him they invested the money for the better and in return have made three times as much as he originally gave them and offer to get the money, but instead he tells them not to and that he very pleased with what the have done. He tells them that his plan was only to see what they did with his money and since he knows they used it so well he tells them to keep all the money and that he is very proud of them. He then goes to the third group and asks them what they did with his money and for it back. They tell him they hid away the money and never used it for anything. They assume he will be pleased they kept his money and never squandered it away, but instead he is outraged. They ask why he so outraged at them, but not at the servants who squandered away the money and he tells him that when he left he told them to use the money to best of their ability and then return it when he returned. Instead though, they didn’t use it for anything, the first group may have not used as they should have, but at least they followed his orders to use it to the best of their ability, and second group used it as they should, to the best of their ability and for the best. Jing-Mei would be in the last group because this story was a metaphor for the talents God gives us when we are born. Waverly is right her work isn’t good enough, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. This is what Suyan is trying to say by agreeing with Waverly, and this is how An-Mei feels about Rose letting Ted control everything. They both have the talent, but neither use their talents and are like the last group of servants who will always be servants to others. The second group were no longer servants because they used their money and became rich and were now equal to the man they used to work for because they used them correctly. These servants are now lords and are being treated as they deserve. The last group could have also become lords, but instead they just remained lowly servants. Rose and June are like this because they could be treated better and they could be “lords”. So what I think their mothers are trying to say is that it’s not too late to use their talents, to make their lives better because at the moment their lives aren’t good enough for what they deserve. Suyan is just trying to tell June this, but An-Mei is trying to tell Rose this and that she herself was like this once, as was her mother. It was too late for her mother, but she managed to give An-Mei the best she could and now An-Mei wants to give her daughter this too, but she can’t because it isn’t in her hands anymore it’s in Rose’s so the best she can do is tell Rose this and warn her before it’s too late to have the life she deserves.

First JLC Blog

I’m not really sure if I like this story yet because it was kind of interesting, but so far it’s really weird and sort of confusing. There were lots of references to the game because the joy luck club is where all these women meet up to play mah jongg. From what I can tell so far if I had to write one sentence about the theme of this story it would be After her mother’s death a young woman takes her place playing mah jongg with her mother’s friends and begins to unravel her mother’s true story. I think I would like to read more of this story because, although I’m not really that interested in it, the story of this woman’s mother has intrigued me enough to want to keep reading to learn the story even if it’s one I don’t like. Now that I’ve finished the book I think this story was a really good way to start off the book, except for the fact that I don’t think it is interesting or intriguing enough to get people to want to really continue reading. For example, when I started writing this blog I said I didn't know if I wanted to keep reading because I didn't really like it all that much yet, in fact if this wasn't a school book, I probably would have put it down and stopped reading because I didn't like it. Now that I have finished it I liked it and I would have ended up regretting it if I hadn't finished reading it. Of course when I first started it though I would have never known that I would end up liking the book and I wouldn't regret putting it down because I wouldn't know what I was missing. I guess in a way I sort of have to thank Nijole for forcing me to read this because if she hadn't I would have never read this great book.

Rules of the Game and Wall Blog

I didn’t really like either of these stories all that much, but I did recognize some similarities between the mothers and daughters. I did like how the theme of wind repeated in Waverly’s story just like her mother’s. Wind was very significant in both of their stories. In Lindo’s it was what “blew out her husband’s end of the candle” and for Waverly it was the source of her skill. She said that when playing chess it was like the winds were blowing her pieces in the right directions, and whispering secrets in her ears. As for Lena’s story I didn’t really see that much of a point to it. I understand that in the story there were connections to wanting to be found, just like her mother, but in the end I think this story wasn’t really necessary for the rest of the book. I feel as though we didn’t need this story to recognize the connection and similarities between Ying-Ying and Lena. Like I said, I did see the connections between mother and daughter in this story. The neighbors Lena always heard fighting were sort of like her. The daughter would runaway and all she really wanted was to be found and all her mother really wanted was to find her, and they always did, and I think that’s sort of a metaphor to how Lena feels about her and her mother. All she wants is to be found and for her mother to want to find her, and for her to find her. The problem is Ying-Ying was never really found, so she didn’t pay attention, she didn’t know her daughter was “lost” and she didn’t know how to or that she needed to find her own daughter.

Two Kinds Blog

I would have to say in a way I sympathize with June, but in a way I also sympathize with her mother. Her mother’s intentions were good, but the way she tried to show them wasn’t the best way because to June it felt and looked like she was always a failure and was never good enough for her mother. It also felt like to June that her mother never wanted her as a daughter, instead she always wanted Waverly as her daughter, but this isn’t true, that’s just the way it seems. I think June was in the wrong here, but I still sympathize with her because she didn’t know she was in the wrong because she misunderstood her mother and her mother’s intentions and wants and dreams for her. Overall I can see it from both of their points of view, and because of that I sympathize with both of them equally.

tickets

I’d say thaat this story really finishes the book off very nicely because it brings it all together in one final sort of moment. It was funny to me how somehow out of the blue Jing-Mei’s great aunt was there and talking about what her father was like as a little kid. And it seemed ironic to me that everybody in the family wanted American food while Jing-Mei was eager to try real Chinese food. Then Jing-Mei’s family recounts her mothers journey from her home to her husband’s home. The journey it seems was extremely rough, and it seems many people were also fleeing. While it does kind of confuse me as to why she left her children on the side of the road, I can also understand it at the same time. I can see that while hundreds of people were fleeing death Jing-Mei’s mother had no food and no water for days and she was carrying twins that needed things she couldn’t provide. So she had to do it. She had to leave her children alone, and it seems that her wish came true. I really liked the whole book very much.

four directions

The story "Four Directions" is about Waverly, and her struggle to tell her mother about the engagement between her and Rich. In the beginning of the story she talks about how her mother told her to take the piano with her, and that it is always her piano no matter what happens. She talks about her long period of chess-less days and how her mother says she'll never be able to instantly get her talent of chess back, and when Waverly enters the contest, she looses against a boy that she easily beat before she quit. I'm starting to pity her a little bit because her mother is still holding that argument against her, and she's acting like each failure at winning a chess game that Waverly has, it's a good thing, and she's not being a very good parent. Something that i like in this story that Waverly has great friends that encourage her to stand up to her mother, and tell her that what she's doing is really affecting Waverly, and that she needs to stop. Something i find interesting though, is that Waverly has a strong weakness towards her mother, when to anybody else on the street, she'll snap on you like it's nothing. I think that both Waverly and Lindo have some growing up to do, and I think they need to put their differences behind them.

Western Skies

With this being the last part of the book, I think everything came together and everyone finally understood each other. I think the daughters did realize what their mothers were trying to get across and they are now taking that into consideration. And I also feel that the mothers have truly learned a lot from their daughters and can appreciate them to an extent where they understand the frustration their daughters dealt with while they were raising them. I will say that I am happy for June to go to China to find her sisters and even though things with her and her mother weren’t always kosher, they finally came to a point where they actually understood each other and they know that they love each other. The same thing goes for the other mothers and daughters, I’m really glad they all became unified with each other and know that they have each other’s support. I think they also realized that they did have a voice and knew that everything happens for a reason and know they can be happy with their lives and continue to grow each day while raising their families, working their careers and still being one big family.

Two Tickets blog

I really liked this story. I think it was a great, perfect way to end the book and it was very inspirational. It was a great way to finally connect everything. All the daughters and mothers had finally connected and understood each other; except for Jing-Mei who couldn’t really because her mother was dead, but in this last story they managed to still have that understanding and connection even though she was dead. I found the last part of Suyan’s story was very cool and interesting. I also loved that we got to hear a little bit about the dad because we didn’t get to know a lot about the men in any of these women’s lives and the ones we did hear a lot about were because they had bad impacts on one of these women. Of course there were some exceptions to this like Rich and most of the mothers’ current husbands, but it was nice to sort of hear how one of them views things. Overall this was the best story because it is mostly happy unlike my other two favorites, the red candle one and the one about An-Mei’s mother as a concubine. I don’t really have a reaction to the name of this section, but it does sort of how people say that when someone you love dies that they’re always watching over you. I sort of get a picture of all the grandmothers and June’s mother watching over their daughters from the sky and west because that’s where the sun sets and people also say that when someone dies you can see them in the stars. As for the Queen Mother only one person comes to mind and seeing as I am a Catholic that person is Mary the Mother of God. The teachings are that she is the mother of all and watches over each and every one of us as if we were her only child.

A Pair Of Tickets

The story, "A Pair Of Tickets" was basically ending the story in the beginning of this book with Jing-Mei getting money from the joy luck club, and getting a plane ticket to China so she can see her sisters that her mother left behind. I like the way this book ends, because despite everything that has happened to these women, these sisters have been able to meet, and come close, and i like that Jing-Mei had the chance to travel with her father, and they were able to form a good relationship. I like that the sisters don't blame Jing-Mei for their mother leaving them behind, and i find it interesting that the daughters don't expect their mother to still be alive when Jing-Mei tries to tell them what she thinks will be a shock to them. I think that this type of ending is getting a little bit old, but in the case of this book i find it necessary for these women to have some good int heir lives because each of the mothers and daughters are struggling with their marriage, or some kind of relationship, whether it be with their parents or their husbands. I liked this book a lot, and I'm happy i got a chance to read this story, and i might look for more books that this author has written, and maybe i could do a book report on the books. So in conclusion, i think this book was great.

Double Face and Tree blog

I feel really bad for Ying-Ying, but at the same time, I hate her and view her as a cold-blooded psycho-maniac murderer. I know I am just being stupid, biased, and prejudice, but I can’t help it. I want to feel bad for Ying-Ying, but I can’t because of how I view her. I know that I’m probably wrong about how I view her, but that’s Amy Tan’s stupid fault. I love Amy Tan and I hate her because of how she made me view Ying-Ying. I view her the way I do because she murdered her baby. In the movie, they make her love her baby and accidentally kill it after it is born, but in the book, its totally different because she says she killed the baby on purpose because of how mad she is at her husband. I suppose it could have been a mistake, but from the way it sounds, they make her like some murderer, but I don’t think that’s what Amy Tan wanted it to sound like, I think she wanted us to feel pity not hatred. I’m sure I’m wrong and my brain just interoperated what she said wrong and that Ying-Ying really is a good person, but I’m mad at Amy Tan for not making it clear what she wanted and I’m mad at myself or my brain for automatically coming up with this conclusion when I’m almost positive its wrong. As for Lindo, she has remained my favorite character, but in Gabby’s blog and other people say Lindo ended up loving her hair and how she looked, but I don’t remember reading that she liked it. Maybe I just missed that part somehow, but I definitely don’t remember it, all I remember is them looking in the mirror and the mom getting mad at the daughter because her nose is crooked and the barber said Lindo and Waverly looked alike. Either way I liked this story because Lindo and Waverly really, finally understood each other and connected. I also liked how Lindo saw herself in her mother and Waverly saw herself in Lindo and probably later in her life Waverly’s daughter will see herself in Waverly. It really reminded me of one of the other mother’s (I think it was An-Mei, but I don’t remember) when she said they were like stairs, each one slightly different, but at the same time still the same. The picture I get in my mind when I remember this story is sort of like the scene in the first Harry Potter book when he is looking in the mirror and sees his parents, only what I imagine is Lindo and Waverly at the hairdresser, looking in the mirror and you see three faces, Lindo’s mother, Lindo, and Waverly. Although, Lindo’s mother wasn’t there her sort of faded face in the mirror shows her presence and I imagine them all smiling, proud of each other and proud to be related to each other. Also, as I said before I can’t see her face, and her face isn’t in that scene, but I can imagine later Waverly in Lindo’s place seeing both Lindo and Lindo’s mother and Waverly’s daughter in Waverly’s place.

w/w and best quality

The story "Without Wood" really interested me. This story is about a woman that's having trouble standing up to her husband, and she's getting a divorce, and she is starting to feel badly about herself because she feels like she's nothing without her husband, and that she's letting her husband do whatever he wants with their divorce settlements. During this story, her mother starts telling her that she should talk to her mother instead of a psychiatrist because she says psychiatrists only make everything seem. I think that this story is about standing up for yourself, and, like the mother said "A girl is like a young tree, you must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you listen to other people you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind." In the story "Best Quality" there's a woman that's having major self-esteem issues. Her and her mother go to the market to buy crabs for a dinner they're having later on that night. After they buy the crabs, Waverly, like a jerk, takes the best-looking crab and gives it to her daughter, and talks about how badly Rose is doing in life. I think this story's meaning was that Rose needs to start standing up for herself, and start trying to think she deserves the best looking crab instead of the worst looking crab. I think the whole crab thing is just a metaphor for her life. She always puts her self down and gives herself the bad things while putting other people, such as her husband, up on a pedestal and giving them the best things.

waiting between the tree's/double face

In these two stories, we learn of all the hardships both Ying-Ying and Lindo went through before their children were born. In Ying-Ying’s story, she had an arranged marriage when she was young to a drunk man. She never liked the man but knew he was destined to be her husband. And eventully fell in “love” with the man. A few months after becoming pregnant with a boy, her husband left her after having cheated on her several times. Out of shame, she chose to abort her baby, never telling anyone she was pregnant. I think this is a very big deal and if her daughter had known even about the bogus marriage, it would have changed the way she viewed her mother. In Lindo’s story, she is worried about her daughters upcoming marriage and doesn’t think its going to work out. Her daughter Waverly wants to spend her honeymoon in China, but thinks they will mistake her as a Chinese citizen and not let her back into America. Her mother promptly tells her that they will know she is American before she even opens her mouth. Waverly is disappointed by this notion and blows her mother off. To Lindo’s surprise, she also visited China wearing her “Chinese face” and thought she blended in, but they knew that she too was from America.

Magpies

I found this story to be very interesting. This story is about the early life of An-Mei and the mystery behind her mother. We learn that she left with her mother after Popo dies to live in Tiensten and as soon as An-Mei leaves, she becomes dead to her family. She is told that once she leaves she will never be able to hold her head up again. She doesn’t believe him but when she looks back to see her little brother's sad face she realizes that this is true. And that she won’t be able to hold her head up any more. This relates a lot to Scar, involving the drama surrounding her mother, personal sacrifice, and the suppression of emotion. An-Mei’s mother was miserable being a concubine for that old man, but she didn’t have another choice. It turns out that her baby she had with Wu Tsing was taken from her at birth and disguised as one of his other wives children. I cannot imagine the heartbreak she felt at this and it is obvious that it hurt her deeply. I also feel that her mother was ashamed in a way for bringing her daughter there to witness the degrading life she lives. Both Scar and Magpies bring about the aspect of hiding one’s sadness because it only feeds upon other’s happiness. And that is what her mother tells her. It was told to her mother by the little turtle that lives in the pond.

waiting behind the trees/Double face blog

The story "Waiting being the trees" was about Ying-Ying and her personal struggles with marriage as a young woman. She married a drunken man that obviously didn't give a care about her, but even so she fell in-love with him. She really revolved her entire life around being with her husband, and she even got pregnant by him. Later on in the marriage, she found out that he was cheating on her, and she was bot mentally and emotionally crushed. After she found out he was cheating on her, she killed her newborn baby, and moved to America to marry an American man and have a whole new family. The story "Double Face" is about how Lindo's daughter Waverly is getting married, and she wants to go to a beauty salon-type thing and get "touched" up so that she looks beautiful for her new marriage. Also, this story really brings out the mother-daughter relationship between Lindo and Waverly. I'm starting to understand a lot of why problems in each of the families are so dramatic and harsh. For example, now i know why Ying-Ying had that hallucination of the baby floating in the air and pointing at her like it's mad at her, it's because when she was younger, she was so mad at her old husband that cheated on her, that she killed her new-born baby.

A Pair of Tickets

I think this was a satisfying way to end the story, with Jing-Mei telling of her journey to China to meet her long lost half-sisters. Seeing as her mother was absent throughout the book, I think it is nice to wrap it up with her one wish being fulfilled. Jing-Mei goes through a lot of drawn out anticipation and anxiety in this story, not knowing what to say or do when she sees her sisters. She is afraid they will be angry with her for not bringing her mother whom they think is still living. As soon as she meets them, however, something clicks inside them and they just know that she is gone. It was also an interesting experience for her to travel that long distance with her father and have the ability to grow closer to him. I think the parable in the beginning of the section relates to the mothers experiencing raising their children, learning through hard times that you need to let a person live and experience things, but to make sure that as they shed their innocence they must keep happiness in their hearts and never stop laughing. Throughout the book, the mothers have shed their sometimes hidden wisdom to their daughters and watched patiently as they learned. This was an incredible book and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to read it.

Behind the Trees/Double Face

In these two stories, we learn of the hardship both Ying-Ying and Lindo went through before their children were born. In Ying-Ying’s story, she had an arranged marriage when she was young. She never liked the man but knew he was destined to be her husband. A few months after becoming pregnant with a boy, her husband left her after having cheated on her several times. Out of shame and remorse, she chose to abort her baby, never telling anyone. I think this is a very big deal and if her daughter had known even about the botched marriage, it would have changed the way she viewed her mother. In Lindo’s story, she is worried about her daughters upcoming marriage and doesn’t think its going to work out. Her daughter Waverly wants to spend her honeymoon in China, but thinks they will mistake her as a Chinese citizen and not let her back into America. Her mother promptly tells her that they will know she is American before she even opens her mouth. Waverly is disappointed by this notion and blows her mother off. To Lindo’s surprise, she also visited China wearing her “Chinese face” and thought she blended in, but they knew that she too was from America.

Magpies

I found this story to be very intense, filled with lots of charged emotion ranging all over the place. This story let us glimpse into the early life of An-Mei and the mystery behind her mother. We learn that she left with her mother after Popo dies to live in Tiensten and as soon as An-Mei leaves, she becomes dead to her family. This relates a lot to Scar, involving the drama surrounding her mother, personal sacrifice, and the suppression of emotion. An-Mei’s mother was not happy being a concubine for that old man, but she had no other choice. It turns out that her baby she had with Wu Tsing was taken from her at birth and disguised as one of his other wives children. I cannot imagine the heartbreak she felt at this and it is obvious that it hurt her deeply. I also feel that her mother was ashamed in a way for bringing her daughter there to witness the degrading life she lives. Both Scar and Magpies bring about the aspect of hiding one’s sadness because it only feeds upon other’s happiness.

A pair of tickets blog

To mark this story as being the last one in the book. I’d say it really finishes the book off very nicely because it brings it all together in one final sort of moment. It was funny to me how somehow out of the blue Jimg-Mei’s great aunt was there and talking about what her father was like as a little kid. And it seemed ironic to me that everybody in the family wanted American food while Jing-Mei was eager to try real Chinese food. Then Jimg-Mei’s family recounts her mothers journey from her home to her husband’s home. The journey it seems was extremely rough, and it seems many people were also fleeing. While it does kind of confuse me as to why she left her children on the side of the road, I can also understand it at the same time. I can see that while hundreds of people were fleeing death Jing-Mei’s mother had no food and no water for days and she was carrying twins that needed things she couldn’t provide. So she had to do it. She had to leave her children alone, and it seems that her wish came true. I really liked the whole book very. It kept me entertained because I am so interested in Asian history and their ways that I just was drawn in.

A Pair Of Tickets Blog

I was very interested in how this book would end especially because it was called A Pair of Tickets, which led me to believe that she was going somewhere, perhaps to Waverly’s wedding. However, I believed that she was going for another reason. I found it so strange that she did not feel at all connected to her heritage in China. I kind of found it funny how on her first night, they ate American food and she was anticipating her first Chinese meal. I thought what was really cool was when she was talking to her father and she asked him to speak in Chinese. I thought that stood out to me the most because it seemed to me like she was reaching out to try and learn about her heritage. I thought that learning about her mother’s story gave her a better piece of mind, and although she may have felt that it would be difficult to explain, it would be easy for her to explain. I liked the book overall, I just wish that I could really know how the story ends for everyone as a whole. I think that she ends it the way she does to let the reader decide how it ends based on this last story.

Feathers from A Thousand Li Away

This would be the first section of the Joy Luck Club. I had a feeling that the mother’s would start out with their stories first, just because it seemed like the right thing to do. One thing I noticed is that the mother’s dealt with a lot growing up in China and pretty much made one heck of a sacrifice for their daughters to have a better life in a better country and what they’re trying to say is that their daughter’s don’t understand that. Because her mother died a few year’s earlier, Jing-Mei has a big responsibility to take her mother’s place in Mah-Jong. The problem is, is that she doesn’t know anything about her mother or her life but only the fact that she has two older twin sister’s that her mother left behind as infants in China. So Jing-Mei tells us her mother’s story in second person. Suyuan keeps alot of things from Jing-Mei but I just don't understand why. I'm not sure if it's that she feels Jong-Mei is too young or because she is american and won't understand the chinese values. All of the mothers pretty much have done something the daughters wouldn't even think about doing because there is a difference between them and I think that is what the paragrapgh in the beggining is talking about. Because of the fact that they are from China they grew up much different than their daughters and they have completely different views on life and life values.

JLC

I found that there is a lot from when we learned to play mah jongg. Her mother used to play it a lot with her friends and when she died there was only 3 people but they needed 4 people to play the game. So the next person in line was her daughter. The number 4 was also very important the needed 4 people to play. The signs on the pieces of wood it was N, E, S, W. and I believe that those four sign were though as to be the directions North, East, South, West. But any case 4 was an important number. I guess the theme would be 1 generation to the next. I’m not really sure if I like this book because it can be confusing at time to figure out who is talking. No I’m not interested in reading more.

American Translation

I think this section of the book is really interesting because there are a lot of conflicts throughout each story and it seems as if each person is holding some kind of guilt or shame on them. Since this is mainly the daughter’s telling their story, I think it reflects on how they react to their mother’s opinions and what they think about them. One thing I noticed about Lena, Waverly, Rose and Jing-Mei, is that they don’t like what opinions their mothers have about them, yet they criticize them or each other. Waverly in particular is one individual who feels that she shouldn’t be criticized but at the same time she is very opinionated. These stories reflect on the daughter’s and their growth and what their mistakes and their mother’s take notice in that. Two stories that I really focused on were Rice Husband and Best Quality because I feel sorry for Lena and Jing-Mei and what issues they have to deal with their mothers. With June it’s as if she doesn’t do anything right for her mother to be at least proud of her and personally I don’t think Waverly should have any say on her life. Part of Suyuan’s problem is that she wants Jing-Mei to be like Waverly instead of being herself, which to me is something that would hurt me. And because Jing-Mei can’t be like her or probably doesn’t want to be like her, it causes her mother to criticize her a lot and it also causes Waverly to look down on her. In Lena’s story, I really think her mom jinxed her when she was really young about the whole rice thing because that’s exactly what happened. Ying-Ying also confused Lena as well because it made her think that the one boy who was treating her bad as a kid would end up being the husband who would treat her bad so she made sure that wouldn’t happen and in the end he died and that made Lena feel terrible. Now that she’s older and married to a husband who treats her bad, she feels horrible about everything and to me I think Lena is mad at her mother for telling her about it and making her believe it too. If I were Lena, I would think that it was my mother’s fault who got me in a situation like this. I think the paragraph relates very much to the Rice husband story because Ying-Ying has all of these visions of the bad things that would happen in the future if certain things were out of place nad that's exactly what happens to Lena.

other essay ideas

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Joy-Luck-Club-Study-and-Homework-Help-Essay-Topics-and-Review-Questions.id-39,pageNum-101.html

A Pair of Tickets Blog

How do you feel about this story being the final one in the book? Was it a satisfying ending? How do you think the title of this section, "Queen Mother of the Western Skies," relates to the stories in this section?

Waiting Behind the Trees/Double Face Blog

What do we learn about Ying-Ying and Lindo in these stories that maybe makes us more sympathetic to them? Do you think their daughters would have been more sympathetic to them if they'd known these stories all along?

Magpies Blog

What do you think of this story? How does it relate to An-Mei's first story, "Scar"? What do you think she passed down to her daughter, Rose?

Waiting by the trees and Doulbe face

In the first story “Waiting By The Trees”, I think it has to do with a little deception that is well known around the world. It was a strang kind of deception. One to get a person into marrying someone else. Apparently after accidently cutting a flower it seems this young girl, Ying-Ying was forced into a marriage she didn’t want. It’s really strange, because Ying-Ying doesn’t even know this guy and all of a sudden she is sleeping with him. And then right after she has a kid, her husband up and cheats on her and eventually disappears. The rest of the story details her transformation from a small girl into a strong western woman. In “Double Face” it seems that Waverly is very scared to go to China for her honeymoon, because she is afraid that they won’t accept her. This story details, Waverly’s marriage from her mom’s point of view. Then (I can see how why this story is called “Double Face”) Mr. Rory says that the look very much a like, and it seems to be very true. Waverly’s mom then talks about how she met An-Mei Hsu in China.

Waiting Between The Trees/ Double Face Blog

I thought that this was an interesting part of the book because it showed another change in a relationship in the story. I think what has surprised me the most about these last few chapters in the book is how quickly everyone started to realize how wrong they were about each other especially the daughters and their mothers in particular. I thought that this was significant because it showed all the progressions that have been made in the story. I also think is starting to bring up the question of whether this family will find “balance.” I found this story particularly interesting because of what Ying-Ying does. It seemed as if the roles switched as she found herself talking about her daughter June’s marriage, which then goes into her story. One thing I noticed was this questionable superstitious idea that Ying-Ying has that her daughter has not taken on the spirit that she should have due to her being born on the Year of the Tiger. I say questionable because it is a question of the heritage that has been passed down to her. All throughout the book, each mother and daughter seem to have very similar events that have happened in their life. In Double Face, I thought it was weird because it revolved around heritage as well. I think that Waverly and Lindo’s relationship has showed the most change because you can see that their interactions with each other have changed greatly. I am curious about how this story will end especially because it ends with Jing-Mei who has been through some tough situations through most of the book.

Magpies blog JLC

This story is about a woman named An-Mei, and her struggles to watch her daughter go through her divorce, and she remembers a lot of different; depressing, and cruel stories of her past life. For example, An-Mei, as a child wasn't aloud to see her mother because she was shunned by her family. Something that really made me feel bad is that An-Mei was only aloud to take one of her two children back with her to America. She made the choice to take her daughter to America, and to leave her only son in China, and it was very likely that she would probably never going to be able to see him again. Eventually An-Mei moves in with her mother, even though she's a concubine with a lot more women, and she begins to see the hard life of living with a lot of women that really don't have a life outside of a house with an terrible and cruel man that abuses his wives. As An-Mei continues to live with her mother, she seems to start to dislike the other women in the house, and they seem to grow a type of "Hate" towards each other, and they show this hate by committing many different rude and disrespectful actions towards each other. Something i think would've been hard for An-Mei to do is to grow familiar with the different rules of America, because she comes from a very different culture, and she's diving into a whole other society filled with ignorant jerks.

Without Wood and Best Quality

The story "Without Wood" really interested me. This story is about a woman that's having trouble standing up to her husband, and she's getting a divorce, and she is starting to feel badly about herself because she feels like she's nothing without her husband, and that she's letting her husband do whatever he wants with their divorce settlements. During this story, her mother starts telling her that she should talk to her mother instead of a psychiatrist because she says psychiatrists only make everything seem confusing and covered without a dark fog. I think that this story is about standing up for yourself, and, like the mother said "Girls are like trees, but if you're a weak tree you'll end up being a wild weed that will get torn out by the roots and get thrown away." In the story "Best Quality" there's a woman that's having major self-esteem issues. Her and her mother go to the market to buy crabs for a dinner they're having later on that night. After they buy the crabs, Waverly, like a jerk, takes the best looking crab and gives it to her daughter, and talks about how badly Rose is doing in life. I think this story's meaning was that Rose needs to start standing up for herself, and start trying to think she deserves the best looking crab instead of the worst looking crab.

Four Directions JLC

The story "Four Directions" is about Waverly, and her struggle to tell her mother about the engagement with her and Rich. In the beginning of the story she talks about how her mother had told Waverly to take the piano with her, and that it was always her piano no matter what happened. She talks about her long period of chess-less days and how her mother says she'll never be able to instantly get her talent of chess back, and when Waverly enters the contest, she looses against a boy that she easily beat before she quit. I'm starting to pity her a little bit because her mother is still holding that argument against her, and she's acting like each failure at winning a chess game that Waverly has, it's a good thing, and she's not being a very good parent. Something that i like in this story that Waverly has great friends that encourage her to stand up to her mother, and tell her that what she's doing is really affecting Waverly, and that she needs to stop. Something i find interesting though, is that Waverly has a strong weakness towards her mother, when to anybody else on the street, she'll snap on you like it's nothing. I think that both Waverly and Lindo have some growing up to do, and I think they need to put their differences behind them.

waiting between trees & Double Face

These two stories were quite interesting as they show how the two mothers, YingYing and Lindo describe and their daughters and display their feelings on them. In the first story, YingYing tells of her life before Lena. She tells of how she has not shared her past with her daughter because it was painful and looked down upon. She is ashamed all her previous actions but at the same time wants her daughter to finally know all the pain and disgrace she went through. Ying Ying tells of how she was married to a drunk guy at a very early age because of something to do with a watermelon. She hated him and eventually got pregnant with his son, which she then killed before the baby was born. She told the nurse to throw the child away into the river like a piece of trash because she wanted nothing to do with her husband. This is when she states that she can first predict the future. Late on she tells of hw she runs away from her husband and becomes a sales lady, bitter with her own actions, she sometimes contemplates suicide but does not go through with it and eventually meets St.Clair which she then marries. The next story, Double face is not as bleak as the first but depicts the differences Lindo has with her daughter appearance wise. Waverly is getting married for the second time and is going to china for her honeymoon. She is worried of her mothers appearance and wants to modernize her in a sense. She wants to cut her hair and make her look nice for the wedding. In the end Lindo is totally shocked by her makeover and sees her face as it was so many years ago. It makes her think of her mother and her grandmother and makes a very sentimental tale.