In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the book is dense with symbols, allusions, and motifs that involve the Joy Luck Club, food, and the Chinese language and Chinese-English patois. Tan breaks down the book into four sections, each with four stories within of the different women present throughout the novel. In each story, the women talk about their lives, both past and present, and some include symbols that are important to them. Three symbols that stood out in The Joy Luck Club were Jing-mei’s pendant, Lena’s vase, and Lindo Jong’s candle.
In Jing-mei’s story “Best Quality,” she talks about the pendant her mother, Suyuan, gave her. Throughout the story, the meaning of the pendant changes. At first, it represented the differences between her and her mother. After her mother’s death, she sees it as a symbol of her mother’s love and concern. It also symbolizes our ability to give new meaning to items around us. The change that she undergoes in understanding the gift of the pendant symbolizes her understanding of her mother’s gestures. While she used to interpret her mother’s words as criticism, she now sees them as expressions of wisdom and love.
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Lena had placed the vase on an unsteady table, knowing that the placement of the vase there was dangerous. But, she did nothing to protect the vase from breaking. Like the vase, Lena’s marriage was in danger of shattering. It was her husband, Harold, who built the unsteady table. The marriage also results from Harold’s failure to be supportive enough, as he, like his table, is also not very supportive. Lena is at fault as well. With the vase, Lena realizes that her marriage is in danger of shattering, but she refuses to take action. When Ying-ying “accidentally” causes the vase to break on the floor, she lets Lena know that she should prevent disasters before they happen, rather than stand by as Ying-ying herself has done throughout her