Arnold Reism In The Joy Luck Club

In The Joy Luck Club, Lena St. Clair is lost when she blames herself for someone else's problems. Arnold Reisman, her old neighbor, died because he was infected with measles and the complications tremendously worsened his condition. After putting herself down and hating herself for in her opinion, causing this, she finally realizes the way she has been acting was a mistake and she was never meant to end up with Arnold. Instead, she married her coworker, Harold, who she had known for eight years. Lena begins to lose herself when her mother tells her that she will not marry a good man. Ying-Ying says, "your future husband have one pock mark for every rice you not finish" (Tan 151). Lena immediately thinks of her mean neighbor, Arnold, because he has pock marks on his face. She assumed her mother was right because the marks on Arnold's face were "the size of rice grains" (Tan 152). Typically, girls are very excited about meeting the man they will marry. In this case, Arnold had been very mean to Lena by shooting rubber bands at her legs as she comes home from school. Lena was distressed and upset that she would marry this bully, so she began to eat less and less of the meals Ying-Ying served her. She wanted to cause Arnold pain, or rid him from her life. At this point, Lena was anorexic solely because her mom wanted her to finish her rice. This is very powerful, because later in life,

The purpose of this is that when the person finds themselves after a period of time when they had been in a troublesome environment, they are different. Whether it is for worse or better, they have matured in a sense that teaches them how to survive in the real world. "The real world" means a place where obstacles can always get in your way, but you must overcome them in order to survive. To lose oneself is to learn a lesson, and to find oneself again is to