Relationship Between Jing Mei And Suyuan

Mother and daughter relationships aren’t always perfect. Most of the time, they see things from different perspectives. This could be caused from bad communication or being brought up differently. Amy Tan shows this through Jing-Mei and Suyuan in The Joy Luck Club. Tan is trying to prove that even though a parents and child's relationship isn’t always perfect they can still learn from each other. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan shows numerous conflicts between Jing-Mei and Suyuan; one conflict that arises in the novel connecting Jing-Mei and Suyuan is when Suyuan wants her daughter to be a prodigy. Jing-Mei feels her mother wanted to change her, make her something she’s not. Suyuan made Jing-Mei take many tests. She could never remember all

Suyuan had many different conflicts that shaped her differently from her daughter. When Suyuan was trying to leave China due to a war she had to make the hardest decision of her life. She had to leave her daughter’s behind in hope for the best. For years Suyuan searched for her children but, when she never found them she used Jing-Mei. Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to be something great because she couldn’t watch her other daughters do this. Jing-Mei was Suyuan's long cherished wish, Jing-Mei says “I think about this. My mother’s long-cherished wish. Me, the younger sister who was supposed to be the essence of the other’s”(Tan 321). Jing-Mei was Suyuan's long cherished wish because she had lost so much. Suyuan stayed on Jing-Mei because she lost her other daughters so she wanted Jing-Mei to be the best. In the novel Suyuan was shaped as a strong woman. While she was, one topic brought her much pain. During an argument Jing-Mei tells her mother “‘Then I wish I’d never been born! I shouted. I wish I were dead! Like them…her face went blank, her mouth closed, her arms went slack and she backed out of the room’”(Tan 153). This topic destroyed Suyuan everytime because all she wanted was a chance to have her daughters