Beenish Ali

Ms. Smit
12 AP English
13 November 2014
Women Yesterday and Today
People, since the beginning of time, have had their own unique story. These stories have
been shared and passed down for generations, meant to teach young ones of certain manners and
behaviors. But, these stories tend to be from males and a male perspective. Throughout time,
women have struggled to show and define their own stories. As time has progressed, women
have gained power in society and have used some of that power to help tell their stories. But
even with such power, women have told these stories more often to each other rather than
society, specifically men. In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan, has a group of
older Chinese women tell their own stories to their daughters. These stories are meant for their
daughters to learn and understand the world, society, and culture they have come from and how
the daughters should work harder to portray this modest form of a young Chinese lady.
Unfortunately, the difference in the way of life between the mothers and daughter show
difficulties between the two. In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan shows the difficulties
and differing views that the mothers and daughter have about what it means to be a young lady
due to the diverse areas and times they were raised, but Tan is still able to find similarities in
both womens views.
In the novel, the mothers perception of what it means to be a lady is defined by terms
like silent, skillful, and cautious. For the daughters, to be a lady is defined by terms like curious,
easy going, and independent. In the novel the mothers and daughters constantly argue on the
fortune of the daughters future due to the fact that they both have different views on how it

should be. The Jong family in The Joy Luck Club, the mother, Lindo, and daughter, Waverly,
face the difficulty of what Lindos fate for chess should be due to the diversity in the areas they
were brought up and what they were taught. Lindo grew up and was taught the certain
mannerisms of a lady in China. In China, Lindo adapted to and mastered the skills of invisible
strength (Tan 57). For Lindo, invisible strength was to conceal her thoughts and learn to
strategize otherwise. For very long, Lindo was unhappy and after years of an unhappy marriage,
Lindo left the marriage. This story is very hard for Lindo to tell, but she is able to tell her
daughter because Lindo left with integrity and the key skills of invisible strength. To this day,
she refuses to discuss the matter with her husband or anyone, but her close friends. But to
Waverly, the act of invisible strength does not work, but hurts one emotionally. Waverly, as
skilled as she is, wants to leave the game of chess in the past. It is her mother who wants her to
pursue the game further on. Lindo tries to get Waverly to continue through invisible strength,
but Waverly finds that she no longer has interest in it and that there is so much more she can do.
In that moment, Lindo finds that she made the mistake of raising Waverly in America and thinks
Waverly has lost the meaning of what it means to be a Chinese lady. To Lindo, women are to
conceal their thoughts and do what they are put to do. Lindo hopes that Waverly does not have a
story of failure like she did. Tan shows the difference in what it means to be a lady by showing
the perspective of a Chinese raised women and an American one.
In Chinese culture it is seen that women are not to speak above men and are to keep to
themselves. But in the novel, An-mei, the mother from China, finds herself believing otherwise.
In contrast, Rose, the daughter from America, feels dominated in her marriage, by her husband
Ted, and practices the manners of the Chinese culture by keeping to herself and letting her
husband do all the work. An-mei only opposes these ways because she sees a danger in not

speaking up for ones self. In the novel, Rose is not use to all the work her husband puts on her
and finds herself victim to Teds hero, letting him make all of the decisions in their life (Tan
117, 118). After this change effects the marriage, Rose gets divorced. An-mei finds resentment in
herself for not teaching Rose to properly stand up for herself and have a strong communication in
her marriage. Tan emphasizes the need for communication even with differences standing in the
way. An-mei should have told Rose the experiences of hardship she faced and allowed Rose to
understand and see for herself. The misinterpretation of culture and experiences had the mother
and daughter, in this case, face challenges in communication.
In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan shows the difficulties and differing views that
the mothers and daughter have about what it means to be a young lady due to the diverse areas
and times they were raised, but still finds similarities in both womens views. For Lindo and
Waverly there was different understandings on how a lady should hid their emotions and instead
learn to strategize and for Rose and An-mei it was the difference in time and experience that lead
to miscommunication of how to speak up for ones self. The perception of a lady is different for
both the mothers and the daughters is because the mothers grew up in a different country where
moral and values where different. From there, the mothers grew and had to change and adapt to
different circumstances in a matter that was appropriate for women. On the other hand, the
daughters grew up in America with more American values, morals, and the approach of things.
Also, during the time the mothers were raised, women did not have the same rights or
responsibilities as women during the time the daughters were raised. Timing and location are key
for what set the mother and daughter relationships apart, but understanding of the situation can
help with the issues that are being faced.