The Joy Luck Club Part 3
American Translation
A Chinese mother argues with her daughter about the placement of a mirror at the foot of the daughter’s marital bed. The mother claims that it will reflect away all of the couple’s ‘peach blossom love,’ while the daughter is frustrated with her mother’s superstition. The mother adds a smaller mirror to the head of the bed to fix the issue and claims that she sees a new grandchild in the mirror while the daughter only sees herself.
Chapter 9: Rice Husband
Lena believes that her mother can see things that will come to pass, an ability she had demonstrated to her countless times over her childhood. She worries about her mother coming over to stay with her and her husband, Harold because she knows that her mother will see that something is wrong with her marriage. She recalls the time that her mother had told her that she would marry a bad man because she left rice in her bowl. The rice that she would leave in the bowl was said to become the pockmarks on her future husband’s face, which could have been a boy in her neighborhood. Lena did not want to marry the boy from the neighborhood and so she began to leave more rice in her bowl, and eventually, she found that the boy from her neighborhood had indeed died. She felt immensely guilty and felt like she had caused his death.
Lena and Harold were working together when they began to date, and she always felt that she wasn’t truly good enough for him. He was immensely kind to her, but he insisted that they split all of their expenses evenly, even when she encouraged him to start his firm and they moved into an apartment together. They eventually got married to one another, and Lena came to work for him. They had a large house, and Harold earned a lot more than her yet he insisted they split their expenses evenly. Lena no longer felt comfortable with the arrangement and felt that there was something unnatural about it. These feelings were mirrored in Ying-Ying when she learned of their arrangement and pointed out that Lena was still paying for the ice cream although she hadn’t eaten any ice cream since the night of her neighbor’s death. Ying-Ying points this out to Harold, who has never noticed that his wife doesn’t eat any of the ice cream although he splits the bill for it with her ever so carefully.
Chapter 10: Four Directions
Waverly and Lindo are out for lunch, and Waverly takes her mother home on some pretext to show her that she is very serious about her current boyfriend, Rich. Waverly thinks her mother disproves Rich even though she has never met him, and she is worried that Lindo will point out some flaws in Rich that will forever change him in her eyes. She recalls the time she had argued with her mother when she had been young. Waverly had become tired of Lindo acting like she was helping Waverly with her chess, and so she had publicly yelled at her mother to remind her that she knew nothing about chess. Lindo had shunned Waverly after that experience, and Waverly had tried to gain her mother’s attention by not playing chess for the next tournament. This hadn’t bothered Lindo, and Waverly then decided to return but Lindo told her that it would not be so easy. Waverly did not believe her mother, but it had been true, her ability to win at chess had suddenly failed. She also felt that she had done something similar to Waverly’s ex-husband, and the father of her daughter.
She decides that she must introduce her future husband to her mother, and so she has her mother invite them to dinner. The dinner does not proceed well as Rich doesn’t quite understand the nuances of the Chinese social rituals and Waverly ends the dinner thinking that her mother dislikes Rich. She confronts Lindo even as she tells her mother she is going to marry Rich, but she is surprised by Lindo’s reaction. Lindo says that she had known about their plan to get married for a long time, and Waverly realizes that she has often misunderstood her mother.
Chapter 11: Without Wood
An-Mei believes that her daughter doesn’t have enough wood in her and that is why she stoops to listen to others. Throughout her married life, Rose has given over to her husband’s judgment until he suddenly told her that he was leaving her and sent over divorce papers along with a cheque for $10,000. Rose doesn’t quite know what to do, but her friends, Waverly and Lena, tell her that she should be glad to get out of the marriage because she hadn’t ever been happy in it. Rose is unable to decide on the papers, and she spends nearly three days in bed. She is woken up by a phone call from her mother, who wants to come over but Rose refuses the offer. An-Mei breaks down and asks her daughter to stop being quiet and finally speak up for herself. The next call that Rose receives is from Ted, and he is asking her about the papers that she still hasn’t signed. She asks him to come to the house and hands him the papers without signing them along with the undeposited cheque. She tells him that she will be taking the house and that she will contact her lawyer before proceeding with any signatures.
Chapter 12: Best Quality
June recalls a New Year dinner with her mother and Waverly’s family that Suuyan had hosted. Suuyan had prepared 11 crabs for the feast and hadn’t considered that Waverly would give a whole crab to her daughter. June and Suuyan are the last to select crabs for themselves. Since there are fewer crabs that Suuyan had intended, June decides to take the damaged crab for herself but her mother stops her and gives her the last intact crab. During the dinner, Waverly and June get into an argument about the payment of copy that June had written for Waverly’s firm. Waverly tells her that the written content had not been very good, and June is hurt when her mother agrees with Waverly. Later, June asks why her mother had taken the bad crab, and Suuyan says that she knew that June would take the bad crab. She says that everyone wants to have nice things except for June, who always chooses to have the next best thing. She gave June her jade necklace right after that dinner. June thinks of her mother’s words as she cooks her father’s meal, and believes that she understands things a little better now.
Analysis
The fable that begins this part of the book brings the story to the point of reconciliation as the mother uses her traditional Chinese knowledge to create a more auspicious environment for her daughter. In much the same way, the mothers from the Joy Luck Club bring their experience to add value to their children’s adult lives. Ying-Ying can show her daughter the cracks in the relationship that she had with her husband, which had always had a twisted element that made Lena uncomfortable. Lena can confront her husband about the discomfort that she feels in the relationship only after she has had a conversation with Ying-Ying. Similarly, Rose has always belittled herself and allowed Ted to take charge of her life. It seemed likely that she would have signed the papers and handed over the house to Ted if An-Mei had not implored her to speak for herself. Waverly and June have always misunderstood their mothers, and ascribe emotions to them that they truly hadn’t intended for them.
