In the movie, Joy Luck
Club, mothers and daughters have special connection. They
take different roles depending on cultural demands. In China, the mothers were
expected to be obedient wives and to never openly challenge authority. While
in America, the daughters are independent, have the option of divorcing and
taking almost any job. For the mothers, moving to America creates a future full
of privilege and success. For the daughters, it is the freedom to take their
opportunities and do with them as little or as much as they want. The mothers
want their daughters to have all the privileges that they could not have, but
are disappointed to realize that this in turn means their daughters will not
truly understand them. Their daughters gains respect, however, they becomes so Americanized that
they speak only English. They are able to communicate with one another but
unable to understand each other.
Inability to communicate is one of the themes of this
movie. The daughters can speak very little Chinese, and their mothers's English
is poor. This is important because the daughters grows up without any suffering,
so they cannot understand their mother's painful past, and their mother knows
no way that she can communicate the depths and the details of their suffering
to their daughter. I can somewhat relate to this. Me and my mother have very
different views about most of the things, and she will take different meaning
of whatever I say. She becomes over protected about me all the time and starts
lecturing me. For example, she did not want me go to the prom because she
thought that people get drunk there and that is dangerous because there are
boys as well. It took me ages to convince her that there are teachers there so
one drinks. Whenever I do something wrong she yells at me by saying that I am
becoming so American. However, I think that this because of our cultural
differences too. My mother like all the mothers, in the movie, also wanted me
to have all the freedom and rights but the disadvantage of that is that we will
have different opinions about things.
