Interracial Relationships In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Incompatible

Interracial relationships are difficult to maintain in the United States because of differences in cultural upbringing as well as racism and xenophobia. The book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan focuses on four Chinese mothers who describe their past hardships and adjustment to the United States as well as their relationships with their American born daughters. The mothers try to save their children from experiencing the same things that they have been through. In the book, there are a few interracial couples such as Rose Hsu and Ted, Waverly Jong and Rich, and Ying Ying St.Clair and her husband Clifford. They all have trouble loving and understanding each other. There is always someone who doesn’t accept the relationship. When Rose Hsu and Ted Jordan began their relationship their parents didn’t accept their relationship. Ted’s mother didn’t understand Rose and who she was. “She said it was so unfortunate the way the rest of the world was, how unpopular the Vietnam War was. Mrs. Jordan, I am not Vietnamese”(214). Ted’s mother thought that Rose was

Ying Ying St. Claire and Clifford St. Claire had a tough relationship. “So my father would put words in her mouth” (108). It was tough for Ying Ying to speak english so the husband would say it for her. The significance of this was that the relationship was not shared but one did everything and the other would just watch and stand there. Ying Ying vigorously wanted to love Clifford but Ying Ying’s love was impotent because the perennials trauma she had been through. “But it was love of a ghost. Now Saint is a ghost he and I can love equally” (286). They can love equally because they Clifford is dead so there is no love there. They both didn’t understand each other which was a problem because they were lying to themselves. They couldn’t get past the differences and love each