The Joy Luck Club Entry #3
The Parable and its Relation to The Stories.The parable in The Joy Luck club taught a moral lesson that has been revealed to me until just now. It seems as if future generatiosn care less about the life before them. In the parable of The Joy Luck Club, the mother takes a swan with her to America, buying this swan with all of her life's savings. She wanted to go to America so that her daughters "worth would not be measured by the belch of her husband," but of her acheivements in life. But the mother soon realized that the girl was swallowing more Coke than sorrow. From this parable, we realize that contemporary generations lose the interest in their past. Who knows if many suffered just to keep us into this country, but this parable was connected with the other stories as well. The characters gain a new perspective on what their predecessors faced in order for their future generations to remain content in their lives. For homework, we created a sheet about how the Parable excerpt was connected to the story excerpts.
Parable Excerpt 1: Now the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow.
Story Excerpt 1: “There’s a school of thought,” I said, “that parents shouldn’t criticize children. They should encourage instead. You know, people rise to other people’s expectations. And when you criticize, it just means you’re expecting failure.” “That’s the trouble,” my mother said, “You never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to expectations.(page 20)
Explain Connections 1: The connection between these two is similar. In a way, the parable excerpt tells readers that many of the future generations are ignorant of the lives and sufferings before them. In the parable excerpt, the mother intended to come to America for the daughter to learn many things and be open to opportunities in life; however her expectations for her daughter were quickly shattered. In The Joy Luck Club Jing Mei Woo is looked down upon because she has never achieved what her mother always thought she could be. Yet, Jing Mei chose to pick a different path in life.
Parable Excerpt 2: For a long time now, the woman had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather, and tell her, “This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.” And she waited, year after year for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English.
Story Excerpt 2: All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. And because I moved so secretly now my daughter does not see me. She sees a list of things to buy, her checkbook out of balance, her ashtray sitting crooked on a straight table. And I want to tell her this: We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing, unheard and not hearing, unknown by others. (page 64)
Explain Connections 2: I thought that these two excerpts shared similarities because both mention wary mothers who want to tell their daughters that they have no idea behind what their mothers faced in order to live in America. However, this message was never really told, because of all the cultural assimilations in this “new” environment.
Parable Excerpt 3: On her journey she cooed to the swan: “In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan—a creature that became more than what was hoped for.”
Story Excerpt 3: Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain. This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.
Explain Connections 3: I believe that these 2 excerpts were interrelated with one another because in both stories, the mother tries to present the daughter the message. In the parable, the duck represents her life’s worth, and how she will develop like this swan as more than what she is hoped to be. In the other story, the daughter realizes the message when the mother cuts off her flesh to sacrifice it to her mother. This pain was a reminder that pain should be ignored and that you should remember what is truly “in your bones.”
posted by QHSSYC Photography Club @ 5:34 PM
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