Mothers And Daughters In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club presents the stories of eight women who have multiple cultures in their lives who struggle to accept them both. Jing- Mei “June” Woo is one such character. Over the course of the novel, Jing-Mei experiences conflicts between her mother’s Chinese heritage and her American upbringing.The two cultures present in June Woo’s life cause both confusion and frustration with herself and within her relationship with her mother, revealing the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. While June wanted to only appreciate the American culture in her life, frustratingly for her the Chinese culture was still present, causing doubt and a lack of self worth. This frustration and dissatisfaction with her two cultures led her to doubt herself, despite her mother’s hope for success. For example, “I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me”(Tan 154). June harbored this sense of inferiority for all of her life, never

Throughout the novel, June and Suyuan often find themselves disagreeing. Even though they fight all the time, June still wishes her mother was proud. “After seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside me began to die”(Tan 144). Despite the fact that June fights frequently with her mother, she still feels awful knowing she’s disappointed. This shows the complicated dynamic between June and her mother. Suyuan mainly expressed her doubts, seemingly never being proud. Surprisingly to June, a friend of Suyuan tells her, “‘She loved you very much, more than her own life'’”(Tan 29). June’s mother showed disappointment, regret, and frustration– but still she holds so much love for her daughter. This is a complex thing to understand from an outside perspective, but most mothers and daughters have experienced this. Suyuan loves Jing-Mei dearly, but she still wants her to work