Excerpts from ”The Violin”taken from the memoir “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom”, written by Amy Chua, and “Jing-Mei-Woo” taken from the novel “The Joy Luck Club”, written by Amy Chua, both differ in tone and mother-daughter relationships .In the memoir, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom”, Chua and Lulu seem to be much calmer when confronting problems, abstaining from physical confrontation and using a more verbal approach. While in Tan’s novel, Tan and her mother’s relationship is strained and focused on hostility .
Chua opens her memoir with her recalling techniques on how to properly play the violin. Chua is a mother that is trying to set their daughter for prosperity later on in her life, but her teaching methods are questionable even though
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The novel contains an abundant of physical, verbal, and emotional aspects regarding Tan and her mother through the excerpt to set the tone. The excerpt, from Tan’s point of view, begins immediately with Tan’s mother switching off the television and forcing Tan to stand up and pulling against her will towards the piano room. As this confrontation progresses, the pair get into a fierce argument. This is expressed when Tan and her mother were struggling with each other and Tan screams, ”you want me to be something I'm not!”....”I wish I were dead! Like them!”(Tan 141-142). Once Tan admits how she feels, the argument quickly dissolves. Tan’s recollections could be taken as seriously, dark , intense or fearful from all the rapid changes in Tan and her mother’s emotions.
The relationship that Tan and her mother had situated themselves in differs drastically from Chua and her daughter, Lulu. Tan and her mother carry serious animosity and bitterness towards each other leaving no space for things such as compassion. Overall, Tan has a a very problematic relationship with her mother. While Chua and Lulu have a fairly normal with each other with usual squabbles that a mother and child would have. Slight annoyance and frustration between a caring mother that just wants to see her daughter succeed is a typical type of relationship could describe the tone of Chua’s