Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club is the embodiment of understanding through communication in

order to come together to accept your cultural beliefs and to establish strong relationships
and identity. These values are articulated through June Woo and Suyuan Woo who are
distanced through the generational and cultural views that they hold and through the
piecemeal growth of understanding, are able to endure beyond hardship. Further examples
of caught- between-worlds mother daughter dynamics that develop their relationships
along with their identities, due to their joint connection to the past, include Lindo and
Waverly Jong as well as Ying-Ying and Lena St. Clair.

Relationships that yield a blood tie but have the lack of communication lead to
misunderstandings in cultural values and the loss of cultural heritage. This ideology is
articulated through June and Suyuan whose inability to communicate creates the
misconception of Suyuan’s concern for her daughter as oppression hindering the autonomy
of June and suppressing her American beliefs. This is depicted through the first person
narrative of June declaring “I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China,” suggesting that she feels
that her mother lacks intelligence to make decisions as she is not accustomed to the
American circumstances. This statement then creates a greater obstacle in mother’s ability
to communicate her Chinese heritage and prevents her from imparting the wisdom of her
experiences from China. Furthermore, the juxtaposition, “I didn’t know anything. She was
my mother” refers how their cultural differences led to June never being able to relate to
Suyuan as she never paid heed to her teachings as the ‘endings’ of her mother’s stories
were always changing and she found the context and imagery of her mother’s stories in
Kweilin irrelevant to her life in America. This difference is reconciled when June herself goes
to China to reflect upon the death of her mother and acknowledges her mother lessons on
her heritage through the repetition “It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood. After
all these years, it can finally be let go,” showing how no matter how irrelevant she claimed
her culture to be in the life of an American, her newfound acceptance of Chinese culture,
shows that it was in fact part of her identity. The strain on relationships due to June not
communicating her acknowledgement of Chinese values shown through their mother’s
lessons is also portrayed through Lindo Jong and her daughter Waverly. Through directly
addressing her daughter in first person narration, Lindo declares “I once sacrificed my life to
keep my parent’s promise. This means nothing to you, because to you promises mean
nothing”. This resentment reflects the impact of her daughter growing up in American
circumstances and how Waverly does not value the communication or the weight of the
words in a promise as would someone raised the “Chinese way”. Therefore, Lindo believes
Waverly will not be able to simply vicariously live off the weight of the words of her lessons
which the reader also takes heed of. Waverly too sees her mother’s teachings as
antagonism and tackles her ‘criticism’ symbolically as a round of a chess game between her
individuality and her mother’s advice on what’s best for her. Through communication and
coming to leave cultural differences behind she acknowledges her mother and her past and
through first person narrative states she was “stepping on the plane together, sitting side by
side, lifting off, moving West to reach the East”. Not only is this symbolic of her joint
relationship with Lindo, this is also symbolic of context of the Mah-jong table in which
“things begin from the East” Her returning from her own western world back to the
beginnings of her own heritage shows he has come to acknowledge her heritage through
the teachings of her mother. This shows that she has too, similarly like June, through her
mother’s lessons is able to develop a stronger relationship between her heritage and her
mother whose lessons she no longer takes as criticism but valuable lessons she can
vicariously live off.

The Joy Luck Club explores the ascension of identity and belonging through the gradual
understanding between the strained mother daughter dynamics. As the initial
communication between mother Suyuan and daughter June was already limited, Suyuan
was not able to express her lessons on belonging as June neglected to recognise her
mother’s storytelling creating an obstacle for Suyuan in coming to pass her own lessons for
them to have value for June. Through the first person narration “I can never remember
things I didn’t understand in the first place”, June’s frustration and inability to understand as
she didn’t acknowledge her mothers context and language. Showing how June never had
the chance to live viscariously through her mother’s lesson as she didn’t verbally understand
for her to remember them anyway. Which is to why Suyuan passes lessons through the
symbolic tangabile objects which which she passes down as if she was passing down a part
of herself to enhance their relationship. This is shown through the symbolism in the jade
pendant given to June to reflect her “life’s imporatance”. Through first person narration she
expresses “ which I never seem to notice until they are pointed out to me, always mean
something to Chinese people.”showing how even though she refers to Chinese people as
those different to her she searchs through the meaning of the pendant to revaluate her
mother’s message and the link between her own worth. Suyuan’s first person narration “I
wore this on my skin, so when you put it on your skin, then you know my meaning.”
Symbolises her pride for her daughter and her promotion of self-worth through the
traditional use of jade known for spiritual property of “encouraging your consciousness”
showing how June gradually finds a sense of belonging through her mother various lessons
on her Chinese heritage which she and the reader both vicariously use to obtain a greater
relationship and a sense of identity. This inability to develop a sense of identity and
belonging due to the strain of relationship is also present in Ying-Ying and Lena St. Clair but
contrast with Woo’s relationship since it is not that the mother that is not able to express
her, it is that the mother who never a spirit of her own to pass down to her daughter, Lena.
Mother Ying-Ying’s lesson are not portrayed through object’s that she passed down but
through her own confrontation of the past. As Lena never grew up with spirit or belonging
as her mother had none to pass on to her, she attempted to find her own belonging through
her marriage with Harold but as Ying-Ying “sees the signs” and recognizes lack of self-worth
and identity within Lena, she is determined to “gather the threads of her past” and uses
them symbolically to penetrate Lena’s “tough skin” and to restore her chi. Through this
process of storytelling Ying-Ying realized that she too had a wish “to be found”. Through the
use of first person narration Ying-Ying claims “she will fight me as that is the nature of two
tigers, but I will win and give her my spirit as that is the way a mother loves a daughter.” She
is able to portray the symbolism of a tiger’s golden fierce spirit and its opposing black side’s
ambition and through the process of Lena acknowledging her own spirit, she uses her newly
passed identity to venture through hardships. “The way a mother loves a daughter” is also
symbolic of Ying-Ying’s legacy of freeing her daughter's strength she achieved vicariously
through the valuable lessons Ying-Ying presented to her daughter and the reader by her
confronting her past which she used to create a mutual sense of identity and belonging.
In conclusion, although the trait of the daughters misinterpreting their mother’s lessons as
criticism is common in the relationships, it is their relationships and use of communication
through the knowledge of the past of their traditional heritage that the mother daughter
dynamics are able to build their idenity, sense of belonging and cultural values. For it is
through these valuable lessons that not only the characters but we as readers are able to
fully appreciate our mothers along with ourselves and are able viscariously and
simultaniously virture through hardship through these valuable lessons.