She dreams of giving the feather to her future daughter but, ironically, the daughter .
becomes so Americanised that she cannot communicate with her mother, for the daughter speaks only English and the mother speaks only Chinese. .
Language is not the only barrier between mother and daughter. The daughter has grown up in America, where life has been relatively easy and sorrows have been relatively few. The woman, on the other hand, has struggled greatly and remembers sorrow well. Her life has been shaped by a Chinese upbringing and a set of circumstances her daughter will never understand. The difference of thoughts and experiences between mother and daughter is a theme that permeates the entire novel.
The Joy Luck Club - Jing-Mei Woo .
Suyuan, Jing-Mei Woo's mother, started the Joy Luck Club in San Francisco. It is composed of a group of Chinese women who come together to share their friendship and to play games. The real purpose, however, is to support one another and to save their Chinese culture and heritage. .
At the beginning of this part of the book, Jing-Mei is thirty- six years old, and her mother, Suyuan, has suddenly died of a cerebral aneurysm. Jing-Mei's father asks his daughter to go to the Joy Luck Club in her mother's place, to honor her memory. Jing-Mei agrees to attend one of the meetings. She then tells the story of the Joy Luck Club. .
Suyuan had told Jing-Mei that she began the first Joy Luck Club back in Kweilin, China. Then, when Suyuan moved to America in 1949, she formed a Joy Luck Club in San Francisco. She had chosen members for the second club from the First Chinese Baptist Church; all of the selected women had undergone suffering, much like she. When Suyuan tried to tell her daughter all about the club, Jing-Mei .
never really listened. As a result, all she knows about the Joy Luck Club is that the ladies meet to play mahjong, to gossip, and to share gifts with one another.
