CBBC Week Four: The Joy Luck Club, Part IV

Past discussions:
Week One: Part I
Week Two: Part II
Week Three: Part III

Welcome to Week Four of Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) for The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This week we'll be discussion Part IV. 

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What happened in these chapters?

We begin with a nonsense parable.

Then it's back to An-mei (her mother cut off part of her arm!) and she tells a story about how her mother was the fourth wife of a rich man after being widowed. The second wife gave An-mei a pearl necklace, but it was fake. The second wife was unable to have a child, so when An-mei's mother did give birth, the second wife took the child and raised it as her own. And Rose gets ignored for the rest of the book.

We next switch to Ying-Ying and hear her side of the story about breaking the vase. She does a flashback in which we learn about her past with an arranged marriage to a man who abused and cheated on her. Many years later she married an American and it wasn't until many years later that she told him about her life in China. (Poor Ying-Ying.)

Waverly Tells Lindo that she will blend in so well with the Chinese on her honeymoon that she won’t be allowed to return to America. When Lindo replies that the Chinese will know Waverly is American before she even opens her mouth, Waverly is disappointed. Lindo remembers her early days in the United States, working in a fortune cookie company and meeting Waverly's father and having two sons - Winston (wins ton) and Vincent (win cent). There's a thing about how both Lindo and Waverly have crooked noses and Lindo urges Waverly to get it fixed, but Waverly likes how it makes them look devious.

We finish with June going to China with her father. He reunites with family. She learns about how her mother stuffed her half-sisters shirts with jewelry and money and wrote their names on the back of photos with a message asking their rescuer to care for the babies and bring them to her address when safe again. Unfortunately, their rescuers were never able to find her mother. She meets her half-sisters and they greet her joyfully.

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Hat mentions (why hats?):

small brown felt hat ("Magpies")

tucked into this hat ("Magpies")

foreign men in hats ("Magpies")

I see cat. I see rat. I see hat. ("Double Face")

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Lines of note:

Wearing those clothes, I felt as if I had grown new hands and feet and I would now have to learn to walk in a new way. ("Magpies")

"She makes clouds with one hand, rain with the other." ("Magpies")

I was far more pretty than my daughter, who has country feet and a large nose like her father's. ("Waiting Between the Trees")

When my daughter looks at me, she sees a small old lady. That is because she sees only with her outside eyes. She has no chuming, no inside knowing of things. If she had chuming, she would see a tiger lady. And she would have careful fear. ("Waiting Between the Trees")

She learned these things, but I couldn't teach her about Chinese character. How to obey parents and listen to your mother's mind. How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. Why easy things are not worth pursuing. How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best. ("Double Face")

I walked up this hill and then I saw a tall building. This was Old St. Mary's. Under the church sing, in  handwritten Chinese characters, someone had added: "A Chinese Ceremony to Save Ghosts from Spiritual Unrest 7 A.M. and 8:30 A.M." I memorized this information in case the authorities asked me where I worshipped my religion. And then I saw another sign across the street. It was painted on the outside of a short building. And I thought to myself, This is where American people worship. ("Double Face")

...I think about all the different ways we leave people in this world. Cheerily waving good-bye to some at airports, knowing we'll never see each other again. Leaving others on the side of the road, hoping that we will.  ("A Pair of Tickets")

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Things I looked up:

famous Shantung sing-song girl ("Magpies") - Sing-song girls, also known as flower girls, is an English-language term for the high class prostitutes in China during the 19th century

The whole watermelon scene in "Waiting Between the Trees." - Turns out kai gwa is a euphemism for taking her virginity. Once I figured this out, it made more sense and the whole scene was even worse to read. 

soups served out of a carved winter melon ("A Pair of Tickets") - Is this a thing?

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Questions to ponder:

1) Please explain the parable to me.

2) The novel begins with the mothers, includes two parts on the daughters, and returns to the mothers in the last part. Why do you think it's structured this way? Why do you think the book has Suyuan die so that her part of the story is told from June's perspective?

3) There are so many heartbreaking birth/childhood stories in this book - Ying-Ying's dead baby, Bing's death, Suyuan's abandoned daughters, An-mei's stolen child - what purpose does this serve in the theme of the mother and daughter relationships? 

4) How much of the communication breakdowns between the women and their daughters was because of culture? How much was generational?

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Last week's homework:

What was your theme last week? Did you pick it up when you were reading?

My theme was color and I think the biggest example of it was white, particularly in "Magpies."

And when I opened that box, all my shame, my fears, they fell away. Inside was a new starch-white dress. It had ruffles at the collar and along the sleeves and six tiers of ruffles for a skirt. The box also contained white stocking, white leather shoes, and an enormous white hair bow, already shaped and ready to be fastened on with two loose ties. 

Later on in the chapter: I looked down at my own white dress covered with grass stains and I felt ashamed.

The white stands for the symbolism of the child An-mei here. She has no idea what she's stepping into by going to her mother's home. Her mother as the fourth wife, bringing shame on to her family. And then the grass stain is her mother's shame. 

There are also the white pearls that the second wife gives An-mei, which we soon learn are fake glass. 

It was interesting to see the parallels here between An-mei and her mother as the story progressed. 

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Upcoming CBBC schedule:

November 10: Wrap up!