The mother’s traditional views are that daughters should be obedient. She wants her daughter to have a Chinese character in American circumstances. Language is also an issue in both novels. Linguistic barriers have triggered many misunderstandings between the mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club. Furthermore, the language in Dreams of Joy becomes necessary if not lifesaving.
Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club is an amazing representation of what Chinese immigrants and their families face. The broad spectrum of the mothers’ and daughters’ stories all connect back to a couple of constantly recurring patterns. These patterns are used to show that how the mothers and daughters were so differently raised affected their relationships with each other, for better and for worse. To begin with, the ever-present pattern of disconnect between the two groups of women is used to show how drastically differently they were raised. For example, in China, Suyuan hoped for a better life for her next daughter, June.
Which supports her argument later on that nothing is fun until you are good at it. In her article she states, “Chinese parents can get away with things Western parents can’t” –because of the stereotypes regarding child upbringing, Chinese parents have got a bigger room for raising their children as they see fit without being judged she writes that Chinese parents can tell their children that they need to lose some weight if they see fit, but Western parents have to tip-toe around the subject to prevent their child getting a negative self-image. But in her opinion it does not do the children any good to treat the subject ‘health’ as a taboo, because they still end up in therapy for eating disorders
Here in America is an entirely different set of standards, which does not require that women sway helplessly on little feet to qualify them for good matches..” (72). Today, it is illegal to bind a girl’s feet. But the bitter taste still lingers on our tongues from the realization that this horror was recent, and that woman alive still hold the memories of their feet being bound. We all now know that Chinese footbinding was a terrible practice of mutilating little girl’s feet for the vacuous reason of “beauty”. Binding the feet was a tradition for beauty and status, passed down from mother to daughter.
Although Zhu feels sorry for Liang, Zhu hasn’t say a word after realizing she is betrothed to Ma by her parents. What she did is to hide her grief from her parents and accept the arrangement obediently. When she is questioned by Liang of her own thought, she defends that “ancient times a girl at home obeys her parents” and breaking the promise to marry will greatly harm her family. While it is a totally different case for The Love Eterne and Butterfly Lovers. For these two versions, Zhu placed one 's benefit over the whole family.
Cultural differences are prevalent in both of Amy Tan’s novels, The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife. The mother’s face gender inequality based upon living in a patriarchal society in China, where they are oppressed with silence by their dominating husbands. Nevertheless, their daughters live in American, where they have an opportunity of freedom, have not faced constrainment in their lifestyles as their mother’s have. The independent girls have their own authority and mindset, being raised in western societies. Therefore, it is quite difficult for the mother’s and daughter’s to have a sense mutual understanding.
The main character of the book is Betty Mahmoody. She is a loving mother and is remarried with Moody. If they are going to Iran for a holiday, he refused to allow them to leave. She never thought Moody would take her there against her will, because he had sworn by the Koran that they will return to the USA after two weeks and she believed him. Betty is a strong woman who keeps having faith that she and her daughter will escape Iran and can go back to the USA some day.
Continuously, I want to mention another aspect of Confucianism that significantly effects the Vietnamese families is the strong preference to have boy to carry on family name. Daughter is not considered necessary in heritage because people think girls from birth bring nothing for parents. Like almost traditional families, there are both son and daughter in my family so fortunately, my mother at least does not have to face intense pressure and malicious gossip from in - laws about childbirth. Since I was mature enough to think critically about an issue I have regarded it as an old prejudice needed to be broken down. I want my extended family and relatives to fully realize that children are special gift for each family regardless of boy or girl.
The ways she challenge gender tasks is seen through her efforts to cover her as a man. Mulan thus shows those who face the argument between how they want to act, and how women are supposed to behave keeping in mind the society’s principles and expectations. Usually it comes to mind that women are weak and cannot bring honor to her families by physical strength and they should bear sons, but Mulan proved this wrong by saving all of China. Women can be as powerful as any man; therefore
They play 4 roles in the life of their husbands, namely the mother, older sister, friend as well as a servant. They have to be tolerant no matter how badly their husband treats them. Isn’t that devastating? The Constitution of Cambodia guarantees maternity leave at full pay for employed women and also prohibits employment discrimination for reasons of pregnancy. However, 53% of female workers are employed in unwaged or low-skill informal employment, meaning that these benefits are not available to them (Genderindex.org, 2014).