Marriage And Divorce In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

‘“Not know your own mother?” cries Auntie An-mei with disbelief. “How can you say? Your mother is in your bones!”’(Tan 40). The Joy Luck Club has recurring messages throughout the book, including: marriage and divorce, culture and beliefs, and mother and daughter relationships. The author writes with cyclical elements to show that mothers and daughters may be more alike than they may seem

The theme of Marriage and Divorce is cyclical because two of the daughters get divorced, and one has great deal of problems in her marriage. In The Joy Luck Club, the daughters start learning how to stand up for themselves to their partners. Rose Hsu Jordan finally tells her soon to be ex-husband that she wants their old house, and she is willing to fight for herself (Tan 196). Lena St. Clair tells her husband Harold that she isn’t happy with their marriage (Tan 164). The daughters don’t think their mothers have substantial advice to give them about their relationship issues, but they realize their mothers are wiser than they thought.

There is cyclical nature in the culture and beliefs in

Each daughter thinks she is not even comparable to her mother, but they soon realize that that is not the case. The daughters also feel that they can never make their mothers proud of them because they are always criticizing everything they do.Waverly Jong told her a friend, “‘You don’t know my mother, she never thinks anybody is good enough for anything.’”(Tan 167). Waverly Jong stopped playing piano because she was tired of her mom showing her off when she did well, but cutting her down when she was perfect enough. (Tan 170-172). The mothers are actually very proud of their daughters, though, they just want them to strive for excellence. Lindo Jong states, “‘I am ashamed she is ashamed. Because she is my daughter and I am proud of her, and I am her mother and she is not proud of me.’”(Tan