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  • Essay / How cultural differences complicate the mother-daughter relationship, as illustrated in The Joy Luck Club

    Intergenerational relationships between mothers and daughters are even more complicated in The Joy Luck Club, as cultural differences come into play for the mother first generation Chinese immigrant and her Americanized. girl. This is made clear when Lindo Jong shows off his daughter at the market, announcing "to anyone who looked in her direction" that "this is [his] daughter Wave-ly Jong" (90), but his behavior only arouses resentment on the part of the population. Waverly wishes her mother “wouldn’t do that” (91) and considers accompanying her to the market a “duty she couldn’t avoid” (90). Using this scene, Tan plays up the mother-daughter tension, as Lindo's older generation's Chinese mentality that a child's success is a reflection of good parenting clashes with Waverly's Americanized thinking according to in which the success of each belongs to one. The daughter's struggle for an identity separate from her mother gives rise to the idea that the older generation views a mother and daughter as a single entity, but from young Waverly's Western perspective, this poses a threat to her individuality , which is evident when she retorts to Lindo "if you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess" (91). The distance between the two is double, as not only is Lindo older than Waverly, thus causing a generation gap, but she is also from the Old World and brings with her Chinese habits that Waverly is unable to relate to. First- and second-generation Chinese Americans are represented by Lindo and Waverly Jong, with Tan attributing the lack of understanding between the two to a cultural difference rather than a generational difference. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayIntergenerational tension also manifests itself through Waverly's difficulty reconciling and identifying with Lindo's seemingly mysterious power over She. This is best described when Waverly imagines her mother as a chess opponent, simply "two angry black slots" (92), failing even to give her proper physical form, but the latter has such great power over her chess pieces they ""screamed as they rushed and fell off the board one by one." When Waverly imagines her mother saying "the strongest wind cannot be seen" (92) in the final page of this section, the reader senses that Lindo's mastery of "the art of the invisible force" (80 ) is incomprehensible to him. girl because logic fails to explain why she is so immense that it can determine the failure or success of her actions. Lindo's possession of this great power and her omnipotence are, in Waverly's eyes, associated with qualities not only of the older generation, but also of the Old World, as she highlights how this concept is said "in Chinese » (80). This suggests that the idea was conceived in ancient China and when Lindo could express it in his native language without the need for translation, such as in America today. Here, Tan highlights the seemingly impossible task of bridging the gap between first-generation immigrants and their children, as they are like chess opponents with “conflicting ideas” (85). With undertones of intergenerational relationships, the feminist notion of mothers empowering their daughters is highlighted as Lindo passes down the rules of life to Waverly. When Lindo teaches Waverly "the art of the invisible force" (80), this,.