The Joy Luck Club Conflict Essay

When people experience something it has an effect on their views, and this can cause many problems in their lives. In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, she shows how conflict can affect the relationship between mothers and daughters. Through the mother Suyuan and her daughter Jing Mei, Tan shows us what can happen when you let those experiences become a conflict. In the novel The Joy Luck Club Suyuan only wants what's best for her daughter, but sometimes her love can seem like disappointment or as her mother being hard on her. When Jing Mei is practicing piano with her mother she says, “‘Play notes right, but it doesn't sound good! No singing’, complained my mother’’(Tan 145). This shows that her mother has set high expectations for her

Suyuan wanted Jing Mei to become a child prodigy, and every failed attempt led to yet another piece of Jing Mei's confidence chipping away. “And after seeing my mothers disappointed face once again, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations’’ (Tan 144). This is showing us that even Jing Mei wants more than anything to make her mother proud and everytime she fails it leaves her with an empty feeling inside. She even says at one point that she wants to be good at something, but every failed attempt has her losing hope in herself. She also thought that if it didn't come soon the opportunity would be gone and she would see herself as a failure. This is showing that if Suyuan would show her love in a less direct way there would be less

Suyuan on the other hand had to flee China, leaving her twin babies in order to survive she says, “Maybe they left the house before the bomb fell,’ I suggest. ‘No,’ said my mother.’Our whole family is gone. It is just you and I.’ ‘but how do you know? Some of them could have escaped.’ ‘Cannot be,’ said my mother” (Tan 311). This shows that not only did she leave her daughters behind, but none of her family made it out and she has to live with that for the rest of her life. This causes Jing Mei to finally realize, “...I've never really known what it means to be Chinese. I am thirty-six years old. My mother is dead and I'm on a train, carrying with me her dreams of coming home. I am going to China'' (Tan 305). This shows that Suyuan sacrificed so much to go to America and Jing Mei has finally realized all that her mother has done for