Mothers in The Joy Luck Club Essay

For a lot of us growing up, our mothers have been an integral part of what made us who we are. They have been the one to forgive us when no one else could. They have been the one to comfort us when the world seemed to turn to evil. They have been the one to shelter us when the rain came pouring down. And most importantly, they have been the one to love us when we needed it the most. This is become difficult for those mothers who move from their own country to another one. Everything become different, culture, language and all the teaching methods. Raising child will be difficult for the immigrant mothers.

In the book Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan the mothers depend on the Chinese cultural as a way to tell their daughters all about life, yet these daughters are Americanized to such a degree that this form of communication may not always be completely effective. A Chinese mother will say listen, follow, don't ask questions it is rude -- you do not need to understand. This may not have been so difficult when both mother and daughter were Chinese born and bread, but it is a real challenge for this set of cross cultural pairings. "Now I must tell her everything about my past. It is the only way to penetrate her skin and pull her to where she can be saved."(Joy 274) Ying-Ying realizes the need to share all her stories with her daughter before she dies so Lena can gain strength from the stories and from her spirit. The stories are so rich, and although the mother shares her stories, the translation is up for grabs. One distinct advantage to the story telling method of giving advice is that it allows these mothers to say much more than their counterparts in America. While difficult topics are often avoided in America, these Chinese mothers rarely avoid anything and almost always have a story to tell.

In the book Two Kind by Amy Tan throughout the story, her mother repeatedly pressures her daughter Jing-mei to be something that she is not. She wants Jing-mei to somehow become a prodigy child. She has such high hopes for her daughter that she doesn't realize the amount of distress she causes Jing-mei. Like all good mothers, she only wants the best for her child. Jing-mei reacts extremely negatively to this pressure. This is only exemplified when she states, "'I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I am not."(Two Kind ) She is forced to take a stance against her mother primarily because she doesn't want to be forced into becoming something that she is not. By the end of the story the outlook on these pressures take a different turn. Jing-mei has matured from a girl into a woman and, as a peace offering, her mother offers to give her the piano-the main object of adversity between the two of them. This offers her the realization that she has become herself on her own terms, even with all of this hardship .

As you can see through this two books by Amy Tan a different environment make it difficult for mothers to raise their child. Everything become different for them. Raising child will be difficult for the immigrant mothers.