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.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Behind the Trees/Double Face
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.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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.
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