THE JOY LUCK CLUB RICE HUSBAND-A PAIR OF TICKETS

AMERICAN TRANSLATION

• The third parable, “American Translation” deals with a Chinese mother telling her daughter that she should not have a mirror at the foot of her bed because she superstitiously believed that “all marriage happiness will bounce back and turn the opposite way.” The mother then takes out another mirror she brought out as a housewarming gift, and then she put it behind the bed to reflect the “marriage happiness.” The mother believes this will bring “peach blossom luck” and a happy family for her daughter.

• This is an example of the cultural divide that exists between the mother and daughter (the daughter says that that is the only place the mirror would fit), so the mother insists another mirror be hung to reverse this abstract notion about the mirror being unlucky.

• The mother grew up in a culture that heavily believed in the power of luck, superstition, and symbolism, while her daughter was clearly an American who is having trouble translating these ideas into her own life. This difference is one of many examples throughout the following four chapters that show the conflicts that will arise because both the mothers and daughters have trouble understanding each other’s worldviews because of language/cultural barriers.

• This also shows how the mother is trying to be helpful, while her daughter sees this as an invasion of her personal life.

• The mother tells the daughter that her future grandchild is the reflection. When the daughter looks, she sees a reflection of herself. This symbolizes that her daughter will be a reflection of herself, that her daughter will be impatient with her and dismiss her beliefs or advice.

RICE HUSBAND (LENA, YING-YING’S DAUGHTER)

• This chapter begins with an example of the cultural differences between Lena and Ying-Ying. Lena describes her mother as having the Chinese ability to see things before they happened. Chunwang chihan “If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.” Lena translates this to mean “one thing is always a result of another.” If you think back to Ying-Ying and Lena’s chapters and how Ying-Ying seemed to possess the ability to predict things (like her unborn baby not surviving) and she thinks she’s being punished for aborting her son in China. Ying-ying always regretted not being able to do anything to prevent them.

• Lena is interested to see what her mother will say about their home and relationship, since she credits her mother with being able to “see things before they happen” Ying-Ying makes negative comments about the house Lena shares with Harold (literally, shares, as Lena and Harold split everything in their marriage 50/50).

• Lena has a difficult relationship with Harold. She inspired him to open his own architecture firm, specializing in theme-based restaurants, he “makes seven times more than what I make.”

• Ying-ying is shocked when she sees a grocery list (that they split 50/50) and she sees that ice cream is on the list.

• **Lena developed an eating disorder when she was young and Ying-ying told her if she didn’t finish the rice in her bowl that she would marry a boy with scars on his face. Lena thought of her neighbor, Arnold, who had scars on his face. She equated her eating to his well-being and years later, while Lena was battling anorexia, Arnold died. She believed, even though irrational, that she killed or willed the death of Arnold. When he died Lena ate a huge carton of ice cream, threw it all up, and Ying-ying found her, and Lena was never fully able to eat ice cream again.**

RICE HUSBAND CONTINUED

• Ying-ying stays in the guest room with a slanted, flimsy table that Harold built. Ying-Ying delivers her prediction/warning by telling Lena that the table is like Chunwang chihan because if you put something else on top, everything falls down. This quote represents the lack of a loving and strong foundation of Harold and Lena’s marriage.

• Lena ends up fighting with Harold the night her mother is staying over. She questions their marriage and what it’s based on. Suddenly, Ying-Ying breaks the vase that was on Harold’s flimsy table. When Lena goes to investigate, her mother doesn’t apologize or say anything about knocking it over. Instead, Lena says she knew that it would happen and Ying-ying responds, “then why don’t you stop it?”

• This cryptic message Ying-ying delivers is the basis for her character (regrets for seeing the future and not stopping bad things before they happen) while she tries to warn her daughter of the doom of her marriage.

• Ying-ying’s constant belief that something bad was going to happen, it also reflected (like a mirror) in her daughter. Lena shares the same quality that she needed to regain control in order to prevent bad things from happening, this resulted in a major eating disorder, and she accepts her poor marriage as her “fate”

FOUR DIRECTIONS (WAVERLY, LINDO’S DAUGHTER)

• Waverly always feels like nothing is ever good enough for her mother. Lindo is clearly a very opinionated woman, she seems to have a negative comment about everything. Waverly takes Lindo out to lunch to tell her about her engagement to Rich.

• A friend suggests Waverly just elope with Rich instead of telling her mother, but then Waverly tells her about how she eloped with her high school sweetheart, Marvin, and how upset Lindo got when she found out. Waverly had one child, Shoshana, with Marvin and then they got divorced.

• Waverly decides to bring her mother to her and Rich’s apartment so Lindo would get the hint that things were becoming very serious with Rich.

• Lindo insults Waverly’s mink coat, a gift from Rich, and Waverly is reminded of her mother’s ability to hurt her deeply with her words.

• Waverly is reminded of her childhood as a chess champion and how after she quit and wanted to return, Lindo mentions to Waverly that “it is not so easy anymore!” and Waverly is unable to play chess well ever again. Waverly also reminiscences about her failed relationship with Marvin and wonders if her mother “poisoned it” by pointing out things about him that made Waverly insecure.

• Waverly and Rich are invited to dinner at Lindo’s, where Rich embarrasses himself, and every free moment Lindo had she criticized Rich, which continued the vicious cycle of causing Waverly to feel insecure and mess up what’s important to her.

FOUR DIRECTIONS CONTINUED…

• Waverly gets so upset that she didn’t tell her mother about their engagement at dinner, that she shows up at her mother’s house the following morning. She is prepared to tell her mother about Rich and to make her assertion that she knows Lindo hates him and just enjoys being mean to her.

• When Waverly gets there, Lindo catches her off guard by telling her that she already knows Waverly’s engaged to Rich, and she gets highly offended that Waverly thinks she purposely tries to be mean and insult her, “so you think your mother us bad.”

• Then Lindo launches into a monologue about how Waverly is a reflection of her because Waverly is comprised of half of her genes. Waverly finally realizes after all these years that her mother has her best interests at heart, and that Waverly shut herself away from her mother a long time ago (when running away from her) and she thinking she’d be safer if she protected herself from her mother.

• This is a significant moment for Waverly because she finally sees behind her mother’s tough “barriers” and sees a woman who truly loves her daughter.

WITHOUT WOOD (ROSE, AN-MEI’S DAUGHTER)

• This chapter begins with Rose reflecting on how she always believed everything her mother told her, whether it be superstitious stories about locking doors, or a man who opens the door to dreams. Now that Rose is older, her mother still tries to make her listen.

• While Rose and her mother attend a funeral for China Mary, a woman who played godmother to all the kids at the First Chinese Baptist Church, Rose reveals that she received a check for her divorce from Ted.

• When An-Mei finds out that Ted sent Rose a check, she thinks Ted has met someone new. Rose dismisses this idea and thinks it’s ridiculous.

• An-Mei finds out Rose went to see a psychiatrist and has difficulty pronouncing the word, perhaps purposely, and is upset with Rose. “psyche-atricks, she corrected herself. A mother is best, a mother knows what’s inside you.” Page 210.

• An-Mei criticizes Rose and tells her that she is “without wood” and that a young girl “should stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way people grow strong and straight.” Page 213

• The quote on page 210 examines the language and cultural barriers between Rose and An-Mei. An-Mei purposely mispronounces psychiatrist in order to label them as people who play tricks on your psyche, and then tells her that psyche atricks will only make her see heimongmong (dark fog) and feel hulihundu (confused). When Rose goes home, she realizes that these were words she never thought of in English terms and how in translation the power of their meaning was lost.

WITHOUT WOOD CONTINUED…

• Pages 212-214: Rose laments over what to do about Ted’s check and how Americans and Chinese have different ways of making decisions. She thinks about how her mother used to tell her she was confused all the time because she lacked wood and couldn’t stand up for herself.

• Followed by a phone call from her mother, the chapter ends with Rose speaking up for herself when she realizes that Ted plans to get remarried soon and move into the house with his new wife. An-Mei delivers a powerful line by saying, “I am not telling you to save your marriage, I only say you should speak up” (216).

• This is when Rose realizes that her mother was right about the other woman all along.

• This chapter relates to the parable about the mirror because it describes the wisdom of an elder, the difficulty of translations, and the struggle for control between mothers and daughters.

BEST QUALITY JING-MEI (JUNE) SUYUAN’S DAUGHTER• The chapter opens with June discussing her mother’s “life’s importance” a jade pendant

on a gold chain. June doesn’t know the meanings of the carvings on it, but she has assigned her own personal meaning to the necklace and wears it everyday after her mother dies. Pages 221-222.

• June flashes back to the Chinese New Year dinner her mother hosted a few months before she died. Waverly and June clash at the table about some freelance work that June had done for Waverly’s firm, which Waverly claims were not good enough for her prestigious firm.

• After dinner Suyuan and June talk in the kitchen, and Suyuan reveals to June that she thinks June is a great daughter with a good heart. Suyuan’s proof is when she talks about how June was the one who took the worst quality crab while everyone else took the best quality one. “You think differently.” This means that June is humble and considerate of other people and their needs and that Suyuan is proud of this quality in her daughter. This is what Suyuan considers “the best quality.”

BEST QUALITY CONTINUED…

• After their conversation, Suyuan gives June the necklace which June thinks is because her mother feels pity for her, instead she’s giving it to June because she’s proud of her and proud of her “best quality” personlity. June always used to mistake Suyuan’s wisdom and love for criticism, superstition, and sadness with June’s shortcomings, but with this necklace, June realized that was not the case

• Suyuan wants June to wear the necklace against her skin, as she wore it on her own for so long, so that June can absorb Suyuan’s love.

• This chapter relates to the idea of wisdom and cultural division between mothers and daughters, because at first June thought her mother’s pendant was ugly and unfashionable, then she realizes the true meaning of it (love and affection for her daughter) and what she once viewed as a cultural distinction between the two of them becomes something that infinitely ties them together.

QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WESTERN SKIES THE FOURTH PARABLE

• This sections opens with a grandmother playing with her giggling granddaughter. The woman wonders whether or not she should teach her granddaughter to shed her innocence in order to protect herself against the heartbreak of life, or if she should preserve her granddaughter’s innocence by letting her believe people are good.

• The grandmother laments that she shed her innocence early and also taught her daughter, the baby’s mother, to shield herself from the evils of people.

• The grandmother makes an assertion that in order to recognize evil in other people, then you must also have evil within you. The woman calls the baby “The Queen Mother of the Western Skies” and says she has lived many times and has returned to give her the answer:

• One must learn how to lose your innocence without losing your hope for goodness among people.

MAGPIES AN-MEI (ROSE’S MOTHER)

• This chapter deals with An-Mei being upset about her daughter’s decaying marriage. An-Mei feels that Rose is making a distinct choice by not speaking up for herself. An-Mei knows her daughter is making this choice because An-Mei was always taught to desire nothing.

• An-Mei was brought up not being able to voice her desires and she witnessed her mother doing the same thing when she went to live with her and her husband’s (Wu-Tsing) family. Two days before the lunar new year An-Mei’s mother committed suicide. According to Chinese folklore that the soul returns on the third day after death to “settle scores” and get even with the people who wronged them.

• When An-Mei goes to live with her mother’s new family, the second wife gives An-Mei a “pearl” necklace and her mother breaks one of the beads to show her that it is nothing but glass, then her mother gives her a blue sapphire ring, this same ring makes an appearance in Half and Half when she throws it into the ocean in hopes that it will appease the evil spirits and bring back Bing.

• Wu-Tsing wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t be punished by a vengeful spirit he promised An-Mei that he would raise her and her brother Syaudi as his “honored children.”

• An-Mei’s story relates to the parable because she suffered a loss and a traumatic experience in her life that forced her to grow up and lose her innocence in the world.

Who suspects that there was foul play is the death of Duncan?

A. Macduff and Banquo

B. Donalbain and Malcolm

C. Ross and Lennox

D. Both A and B

WAITING BETWEEN THE TREES, DOUBLE FACE, AND A PAIR OF TICKETS

• These last chapters tie up the loose ends of the mother’s stories we experienced in the beginning of the novel. It is revealed in Waiting Between the Trees that Ying-ying has an abortion to spite her husband, thus killing the only thing he truly loved.

• In double face Lindo explains to Waverly that she named her Waverly to help her become more “Americanized” and feel as if she belonged to San Francisco and not China. Unknowingly, this caused alienation between Waverly and Lindo because she already placed a cultural divide between them from the time she was born.

• Lindo also realizes that something in her has changed and even when she visits China and wears Chinese clothing and uses Chinese currency, she realizes that somehow it is still obvious that she lives in America.

• In a Pair of Tickets, Jing-Mei travels to meet her sisters. When she is united with the twins, all three of their faces together evoke (bring up) and resemble Suyuan. *Major difference between the movie and the book is that in the book, Lindo is persuaded by Jing-Mei to write to the sisters and inform them of their mother’s death.