Essay: The Joy Luck Club

Susana Vazquez

December 13, 2014

Period 3          

Chinese-American superstition

Many new generations have to apply two cultures in their lives. In The Joy Luck Club both Chinese and American superstition drive the characters’ thoughts and choices. Superstition can make the mothers seem strange and outmoded to their daughters, but it also makes them aware of their deep spiritual inheritance. The two generation seemed more separated by the superstition of both cultures but really they just understand each other more.

Both mothers and daughters believe in spirits and in reading signs, although the daughters can be reluctant to accept what they see. For example didn’t see what was wrong with her marriage. The mothers want their daughters to have all the privileges they could not and they try to teach them about Chinese customs and beliefs. As Chinese –Americans, they reflected most strongly in their relationships with men. Ted, Harold, and especially Rich, represent the American part of their wives, which for the mothers seems frighteningly disconnected from Chinese thinking. This drives Daughter and mother apart. For example when Waverly wants to marry Rich Schields she is scared to tell her because she criticizes everything. However this caused Waverly speak up and she said how she felt. 

            Mothers think it’s necessary to teach their daughters superstition, because they think their daughters are naturally blind to the spiritual world. It an example of this quote “What we don't understand we can make mean anything,” by Chuck Palahniuk.  My mother is the same she wants me to know about Mexico and America.

Superstition also makes them feel helpless; Rose has the premonition that Bing will die but cannot do anything to stop it. In the same way, Lena sees her marriage falling apart but feels helpless to prevent it. In the end, the daughters' connect to their mothers through the ghosts of their ancestors. For example, she meets her sisters and realizes that she has been connected to her Chinese heritage all along in spirit, even if not in her actions. When Jing-mei and her sisters look at the Polaroid, they see themselves appear like ghosts out of the mist to become the striking image of Suyuan. At the end of The joy luck club, Jing-mei and her sisters, realizes they were just as much a part of her mother's spirit as of her flesh. Furthermore, Jing-mei is the only one who can save her mother from becoming a ghost, by learning from her strength and keeping her heritage alive.

            Different superstition causes misunderstanding between generations. Therefore leads to separation. In joy luck club the mothers and daughter were distanced, they would show how they felt and it hurts the daughter-mother relationship.  It might seem as superstition separated the mothers’ from their daughters’ it actually helped them become closer.