The Joy Luck Club, Section 3: "The Moon Lady"

Literary Term: Flashback

In this section of The Joy Luck Club, entitled “The Moon Lady,” Ying-Ying St. Clair has a flashback, which refers to the insertion of a previous event into the normal chronological order of a story. “The Moon Lady” begins with Ying-Ying discussing her daughter, but she then has a flashback to the Moon Festival in 1918, when she was just four years old. At this time, Ying-Ying, both literally and figuratively, became lost. Her family had rented a pavilion boat to celebrate the Moon Festival, and Ying-Ying, who was a very curious little girl, inquired Amah about the Moon Lady. Amah explained that the Moon Lady would accept a secret wish from each person during the Moon Festival, but that this secret wish was not to be disclosed to anyone, for if it were, it would transform into a selfish desire. Amah then made it explicitly clear to Ying-Ying that a girl was meant to listen but never ask nor consider her own needs. Ying-Ying was a very free-spirited and adventurous young girl, but she was often rebuked for behaving in such a manner. Later that evening, after being left alone at the rear of the boat as punishment for tarnishing her new outfit, Ying-Ying was startled by a sudden explosion of firecrackers and fell off the boat. While narrating the story, Ying-Ying focuses mostly on the fact that she was literally lost and separated from her family for a majority of the night, but it becomes clear that she was even more hopelessly lost to herself. Ying-Ying had been denied the joy of wishing and dreaming and was discouraged from developing her carefree nature. In this way, her mother and Amah had instilled fear in Ying-Ying, and, consequently, she resigned to a life of quiet, unselfish existence in which she resembled more of a shadow than her true self.

*This is a depiction of the Moon Lady, to whom Ying-Ying was told she could tell a secret wish.

One particularly potent quote found in “The Moon Lady” is when Ying-Ying, who is discussing her daughter Lena, confesses, “And I want to tell her this: We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing, unheard and not hearing, unknown by others.” This quote is so effective because it reveals two very critical things about Ying-Ying. First of all, this remark made by Ying-Ying shows that she has harbored resentment all the many years for the way in which she restrained her true nature. It is quite apparent she now fears that because the way in which she has lived, her daughter does not see or hear her. This quote also shows that Ying-Ying has channeled some of her resentment into her relationship with her daughter, Lena, and now criticizes the way that Lena has been lost in her “fancy” things, such as her swimming pool and walkman. The fact that Ying-Ying’s relationship with her own mother and Amah affected her relationship with her daughter is something that many readers can surely relate to, for this influence on mother-daughter relationships is very prevalent in today’s culture and society, as well.