In this section of The Joy Luck Club, An-mei Hsu and Lindo Jong recount brief stories of their past experiences as women in China, and it quickly becomes clear that both had to deal with strong women in their lives. In “Scar,” An-mei tells of the struggle and shame of having a mother who fled from her household to become a concubine as opposed to staying with her family after the death of her husband. When An-mei’s grandmother, Popo, became fatally ill, however, An-mei’s mother returned to see Popo one last time. Her mother then proceeded to cut a piece of her own flesh and added it to a concoction which she fed Popo in the hopes of healing her. In a very powerful statement, An-mei professes, “This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones.” This quote is particularly effective because it reveals An-mei’s revelation that a mother-daughter relationship goes beyond worldly factors and is rooted in our hearts and souls, or as she says, “in your bones.” An-mei is reminded of the bond she shares with her mother despite the fact that the family has rejected her.
In “The Red Candle,” Lindo Jong shares the story of how, when she was a mere twelve years old, she was forced to bid farewell to her own family and became a member of the household of her future husband, Tyan-yu. Despite the fact that she is practically oppressed by Tyan-yu and her mother-in-law, Huang Taitai, Lindo Jong concludes on her wedding day that she is strong like the wind, and she pledges that she will always maintain her own identity. Lindo’s story draws a strong connection to the song “Reflection” from the Disney movie Mulan. In this movie, a young Chinese woman struggles with her identity as she realizes, like Lindo, that she must sacrifice her own happiness and marry someone she does not love if she is to bring honor to her family. A literary term that is apparent in this section of The Joy Luck Club is epiphany, or a moment of sudden revelation. Just like Mulan, Lindo Jong has an epiphany as she realizes that she is beautiful and pure and cannot be defined by the role she was destined to play as someone’s wife. She states, “I would always remember my parents’ wishes, but I would never forget myself.” While she may have had to exchange her free will for the honor she was obligated to bring to her family, nothing could corrupt the strong woman within her.
Because of the strong mother figures that were present in both An-mei and Lindo’s lives, the women learned critical lessons about their identities and their relationships with their mothers that they wished to pass on to their children. This reinforces the major theme of mother-daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club which will develop further as the novel progresses.
**For some reason I was unable to upload this link to my blog, but please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A_Rl8aQxII for a video of the song "Reflection" from the movie Mulan
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