Jing-mei Woo: The Joy Luck Club (Chapter 1)
Main character Jing-mei (June) Woo recently endured the tragic death of her mother, Suyuan, and is asked to join a group called the Joy Luck Club; a group created by her mother. While thinking about her mother and the club, she begins to think about the stories her mother told to her about the formation of the group.
Her mother started the group during the second World War while living in Kweilin, China. Although Kweilin was a beautiful city itself, the war put fear into the civilian’s hearts, made it crowded by refugees, and led to widespread disease and a lack of food. Instead of focusing on the horrible situation that they’ve been put into, the women decided to come together every week and take their minds off of their situation by eating food that brought luck, playing games and telling each other stories. Though due to increasing intensity in the war, Suyuan is forced to evacuate Kweilin and leave two of her daughters in the city.
After the memory of her mother’s story, Woo decided to travel to the Hsus household where the next Joy Luck Club meeting was being held. When she arrived, Woo was informed by the club that they had contact with her mother’s long lost daughters that still lived in China. Because of this surprising contact, the women bought Woo a plane ticket to China to meet the sisters and tell them of their mother’s story.
An-mei Hsu: Scar (Chapter 2)
At the gathering of the Joy Luck Club, An-mei Hsu began to tell a story about her time in China with her grandmother, Popo. When living in China, An-mei lived with her grandmother due to her mother abandoning the family to live with a rich man. Nearing Popo’s death, An-Mei’s mother returned and it was like the first time An-mei met her mother because they were seperated when An-mei was very young. When meeting with each other, An-mei’s mother rubs a scar on An-mei’s neck and her mother begins to cry. This scar is such an upsetting thing to An-mei’s mother because scalding hot soup was spilled on An-mei’s neck when she was a small child. This event is so upsetting to An-mei’s mother because it occurred while she attempted to take An-mei away with her.
Because of her mother so close to death, An-mei’s mother made a sacrifice by preparing a soup with her own flesh and giving it to Popo, but Popo died anyway.
Lindo Jong: The Red Candle (Chapter 3)
While still at the meeting, Lindo Jong began to tell a story of her arranged marriage with a boy named Tyan-yu. After a flood struck Lindo’s family’s farm, she was forced to move in with the family of Tyan-yu at the age of 12. Through the years, Lindo was treated with little respect and was expected to be a devoted wife. On the day of the wedding, Lindo realized her strength and wanted to be the truest form of herself.
An important visual that was incorporated into the ceremony is the lighting of two red candles, which represented the lasting love for one another. Because Lindo disliked her husband greatly, she attempted to blow out her candle, but ultimately failed. But this didn’t stop the will of Lindo, Lindo went to the mother of Tyan-yu and told her she had a dream that if her and Tyan-yu continued their marriage, he would die. Though this dream was made up and was used as a scheme to end the marriage, it ultimately worked and the marriage was ended. After this ordeal, Lindo earned enough money to come to San Francisco to begin a new destiny.
Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady (Chapter 4)
Continuing on with the club meeting, Ying-Ying told a story from the Moon Festival of 1918, when she was four years old. At this festival, Ying-Ying was expected to encounter a figure called the Moon Lady, where she would tell this figure one wish she would like to be granted. This wish needed to be extremely secret and something that only the Moon Lady would know because in Chinese culture, it was necessary that women didn’t share their desires and only listened to what they were told.
During the festival, Ying-Ying encountered a series of unfortunate events and ended up falling into a body of water. Luckily, a group of fishermen rescued young Ying-Ying and brought her to shore where she met the Moon Lady. When Ying-Ying met the Moon Lady and began to tell this figure her secret, she figured out that the Moon Lady wasn’t a lady at all, and was just a man in a costume. According to Ying-Ying, this was the first time she ever felt lost.
Waverly Jong: Rules of the Game (Chapter 5)
We start with Waverly Jong getting a flashback to her mother and her in the market when she was six years old. Waverly was complaining about not getting a treat and her solution is to tell her “The strongest wind cannot be seen” teaching her about invisible strength. During the christmas party at the baptist church Waverly or Meimei becomes obsessed with the chess set her brother got as his gift, she starts to question all the rules after her brothers let her play and her mom compares the rules of chess to what immigrants have to deal with when moving to America. Waverly soon begins to become more well known after being mentored by an old man named Lau Pao, she wins many tournaments in chess and is featured on the cover of LIFE at the age of nine. She soon becomes disconnected with everything but chess and school while also receiving small benefits at home such as no chores and sleeping away from the room closer to the street. She gets more annoyed with her mom as time goes on, at one point snapping when her mom takes her to the market again and she believes she’s just there to be shown off and runs away.
Lena St. Clair: The Voice from the Wall (Chapter 6)
A flashback to Lena St. Clair starts the story with her mom saying how her great grandfather sentenced a beggar to the worst possible death, while trying to imagine what that could be she asks her mom to which she only responds with calling Lena a morbid american and how it didn’t matter. Lena learns that her mom hides things from her on her “dark side” being told not to question certain things about her stories. Lena is mixed and finds out that her mom’s birth certificate was changed so she could make it through immigration, and her parents being white and chinese have trouble communicating but even though Lena knows Mandarin she still can’t understand why her mom is so fearful of certain things like Rape and kidnapping. When her family moves from Oakland to San Francisco, her mom starts to become more paranoid and Lena is able to see the racism her mom deals with, like being called her maid because of Lena’s caucasian appearance. Lena’s mom seems to have bad feelings about the new apartment and keeps hitting her pregnant belly on furniture forgetting that she has a baby. Lena starts having bad feelings and she hears a mother and daughter arguing next door, since she has the imagination for the worst outcome, she imagines that the daughter is murdered each night but when she runs into her she finds a happy girl.
Later that day she’s taken to the hospital and her mother and dad are arguing, but her dad can’t understand so she has to translate what her mom said. Her mom tells a surreal story about how the baby took revenge on her for not wanting her and that’s why it died, Lena tells her dad that the baby will be happy on the other side. Her mom starts to fall apart and her dad can’t fix any of it, the only way Lena can find comfort is by thinking the little girl next door, named Teresa. Has a worse life then her, but when Lena actually realizes the women next door love each other, she has no more comfort. When Lena imagines “saving” her mother, she sees a girl crying from being ignored by her mother. The only way to save her is to give her the worst possible death sentence, slicing her 1000 times like she imagined how the beggar dies. In the end the mother experienced the worst in the world, and now she doesn’t have to worry anymore.
Rose Hsu Jordan: Half and Half (Chapter 7)
Rose tells her mom that she wants to divorce her husband Ted, we get a flashback of how they met and that rose was attracted cause he was American and therefore different from all her past boyfriends. Her mom doesn’t approve though, and neither does ted’s because she tells Rose she’s gonna hurt her sons future. Also having prejudice against rose because of the vietnamese war at the time. The two stay together and Rose becomes somewhat of a victim with Ted being the hero, Rose never has any vocal input as Ted makes all the decisions. The malpractice suit causes Ted to tell rose to be more decisive and accuses her of never doing anything which is what causes the divorce.
Rose has another flashback about when her mother lost her religious faith, hence why the bible was used to stand up the table in the beginning of the chapter. Her mom believes in Nengkan which is the ability to do anything with your mind set, as rose watches her seven siblings she’s worried about the youngest one, Bing. As time goes on Bing falls into the water and the rescue people can’t find him so her mom goes into the water believing in her faith so much that she thinks she’ll find her son. Rose and her mother return to the beach doing religious rituals, her mom tries different faiths hoping it’ll bring her son back to her, as nothing happens the reality hits her mom. As the flashback ends, Roses mom wants her to save the marriage as rose draws a parallel between her marriage and bings death as she sees the danger but does nothing about it.
Jing-mei Woo: Two Kinds (Chapter 8)
Going back to Jing mei, her mom always believed in the fake American Dream that she and her daughter could be anything they wanted. In a flashback, when Suuyan sees Waverly’s success she believes that her daughter can be a prodigy too. Suuyan forces Jing mei to try all these activities but as her disappointment grows after each one Jing Mei is determined to try hard to do bad so her mom will give up on her. As Suuyan sees a young chinese girl playing the piano, she offers to clean a teachers house so her daughter will get lessons. The problem is that the teacher is deaf and Jing Mei isn’t trying either, she doesn’t want this but her mom brags to Lindo about her natural talent and now Jing Mei is stuck playing at a talent show a few weeks later. At the talent show everyone is there including Waverly, while Jing Mei feels confident about her dress, she bombs the song and everyone makes fun of her. Especially Waverly, her somewhat rival. Her mom continues to try and force her to practice by physically dragging her to practice. This causes a huge fight and her mom says there are two daughters, obedient and disobedient ones. Jing mei retaliates by bringing up the dead twins left in China, and this subsequently ends the flashback with Jing Mei saying she’s herself and can’t do anything different about it. On her 30th birthday her and her mother reconcile with a piano as a gift, but Jing Mei is afraid to ask why her mom gave up on her as a prodigy. As we go back to present time Jing Mei still has the piano and plays pleading child, but realizes there’s another piece that matches with it called Perfectly contented. She realizes later that they are two parts of the same song.
Lena St. Clair: Rice Husband (Chapter 9)
Lena begins her story by explaining that her mother has an ability to see the future. For example, Lena’s mother knew that Lena’s father would die because of the way the plant the father gave her died. Harold and Lena are driving Lena’s mom over to see their house, which is in a semi-isolated area up on a hill. Lena’s mom is worried that Harold’s driving style will put too much wear and tear on their nice car. Right now Lena’s mad at Harold. They’re feuding about money, again. He wants Lena to pay for the flea exterminator because Lena’s cat brought the fleas in, so the fleas are obviously Lena’s as well, but although most of the property is in Harold’s name, he gets to make all of the decorative decision. Then Lena switches her narration to describe the new house, which is a converted barn, Lena’s mother points out all the flaws with terrifying truth, that it cost too much, the floors are bad and slant, and it’s full of spiders and fleas. Her mother doesn't seem to trust Harold for the marriage, she thinks it is a broken and problematic marriage. Lena’s mom can tell that she has lost a little weight and she has gone through that herself and does not want to see her little daughter go through that.
Waverly Jong: Four Directions (Chapter 10)
Despite the genetic bond between mother and daughter, there is another complex relationship between predestined personality types in Chinese tradition. Certain personalities simply do not get along. Waverly’s insistence to make Lindo accept her American values – such as moving in with a man before marriage, is at odds with Lindo’s Chinese style of denial. Waverly craves her mother’s acceptance, which Lindo does not hand out easily. As said by Lindo before, the daughters of the Joy Luck Club do not think through their actions, and therefore don’t anticipate the extent of their consequences. Waverly thinks she can do anything as if life were all a game, but Lindo teaches her about repercussions and sacrifice. This lesson shakes Waverly’s confidence because Waverly no longer believes she can beat anyone—not after she feels that her mother has beaten her. Lindo represents someone more knowledgeable and stronger-willed than she is. Rather than appreciate her mother’s insights, Waverly continues to see her as an opponent, which poisons their relationship. Waverly twists Chinese etiquette and tradition to her advantage, making her mother feel obligated to host someone she doesn’t want to. This manipulation of superstition echoes Lindo’s childhood cunning against Huang Taitai. Even though he is a good man, Rich has no understanding of Chinese values. Rather than forgiving him, Waverly internalizes her mother’s complaints. When Waverly sees her mother’s unguarded expression, she realizes how similar they are to each other. She also discovers that she underestimated her mother’s compassion all her life, she did not realize that her mother could see past Rich’s cultural blindness to the good man he is underneath, and Waverly didn’t realize this because of her own misunderstanding of her mother's sacrifice.
Rose Hsu Jordan: Without Wood (Chapter 11)
Rose used to believe every superstition her mother An-mei mentioned, even when she didn’t quite know what it meant; the power of An-mei’s words were just that strong to her. In the present day, Rose and An-mei attend the funeral of a family friend, and Rose tells her mother more about her impending divorce from Ted. She also tells An-mei that Ted sent her money, which immediately makes An-mei suspicious that Ted’s “doing monkey business with someone else.” Rose brushes the accusation off, but An-mei says that “a mother know what is inside you” in a way that no one else can.Chinese mothers in the novel all have intuitions that the daughters don’t initially trust, in part because their expressions seem outdated and out of place in modern America. Yet the mothers suggest that their sensitivities to their daughters are timeless, because they have a bond unlike anything else. Over the next few weeks, Roses Inventories her whole house, dividing furniture and remembering the history of everything she and Ted bought together. One day, she gets the official divorce papers from Ted, along with a written check for $10,000. Rose becomes overwhelmed because she realizes her divorce has become a reality and seems she can’t decide if the check is a trick or an attempt to be compassionate. Rose stays in bed for three days, taking sleeping pills to numb her chaotic mind. Rosestarts to tells her the marriage is unsalvageable, but An-mei interrupts, saying “I’m not telling you to save your marriage. I only say you should speak up.” An-mei seems to be the only one who can snap Rose out of her depression, because they have a bond that goes beyond any other relationship. An-mei wants her daughter to voice her fears, and not be silent as past generations of women have been forced to be. Ted comes over after work, expecting the divorce papers to be signed. However, Rose has finally made up her mind, and refuses to bend to Ted’s will without a fight. She tells him that he can’t just pull her out of his life and throw her away, and gives him unsigned divorce papers. For the first time, she sees fear in Ted’s eyes, as he acknowledges how powerful her words are.
Jing-Mei Woo: Best Quality (Chapter 12)
On the Lunar New Year holiday before she passes away, Suyuan gives June “her life’s importance,” a jade pendant on a gold chain. June is unsure why Suyuan calls it that, and Suyuan dies before June thinks to ask her. June reflects on her inability to make sense of her grief without her mother’s help to get her through. June is the first of the Joy Luck Club daughters to experience life without her mother’s guidance, and immediately struggles to understand large life values such as her core purpose. June then flashes back to that Lunar New Year day, when she went with Suyuan to Chinatown to buy ten whole crabs for a holiday dinner with the Jongs. Eating a large, healthy crab at New Year’s signals good fortune for the rest of the year, and Suyuan sifts through a large tank to find the best live crabs. June accidentally pulls out a crab with a missing leg, a bad omen, but the storekeeper makes her buy it. Suyuan tells June that it counts as an extra eleventh crab, which shouldn’t affect their luck. At Suyuan's dinner party, Waverly ruins Suyuan’s headcount by bringing her daughter Shoshana and giving her the biggest, best crab to eat. She also takes the second-best and third-best for her fiancé, Rich, and herself. By the time the plate of crabs reaches Suyuan and June, only a smaller crab and the broken-limbed crab remain. Without hesitation, June reaches for the broken crab so her mother can have the luckier whole one, but Suyuan makes her take the better one and throws the broken one away. While everyone else enjoys their dinners, Suyuan goes hungry. Midway through dinner, conversation strikes back up again. Waverly compliments June new haircut, but then acts horrified when she learns that June goes to a gay hairstylist, who “could have AIDS.” Waverly recommends her own stylist, but quickly notes that he’s probably too expensive for June’s small budget. Angry at Waverly's pettiness, June retorts that she’d have more money if Waverly’s advertising firm paid her for completed work. Waverly coolly dismisses her, saying June’s writing was too unsophisticated and the firm couldn’t use any of it. She mocks June’s language, considering it old-fashioned in style. Suyuan agrees that her daughter is less sophisticated than Waverly. Humiliated, June carries dirty plates into the kitchen so no one sees her tears. After everyone leaves, June asks Suyuan what was wrong with the broken crab, and Suyuan says that it had died before being cooked, leaving it with a bad taste. June asks what Suyuan would’ve done if someone else had chosen it, but Suyuan proudly says that only June, who thinks differently than most, would sacrifice the best quality meal for someone else’s sake. Suyuan then gives June her jade pendant.
An-Mei Hsu: Magpies (Chapter 13)
In this chapter An-Mei Hsu is worried that her daughter, Rose Hsu, is repeating the same mistakes that she made, and that her mother made before her. She is concerned that her daughter is giving up on her marriage and is saddened by the fact that instead of talking to her, Rose lies down in front of psychiatrist to relay her problems. An-Mei decides that it is time she tell her daughter of her past in China, and what it was like growing up the daughter of a disgraced widow.
An-Mei begins to tell of how after her mother came back to say goodbye to Popo but this time refused to leave her daughter behind when she was forced to leave again. An-Mei chose to follow her mother to Tientsin, and live in the house of the man who owned her mother. While living there she learned many evil secrets. She learned of how her mother was tricked, raped, disowned by her family, and then forced to live as a concubine, or fourth wife, to the man who took advantage of her. She learned of her other baby brother who Second Wife pretended was hers. She learned of how broken and worthless her mother felt, and she cried as her mother died from poisoning herself with opium to give An-Mei a better life by striking a superstitious fear into her “husbands” mind. An-Mei tells Rose all of this in hopes she won’t lose her face, and that she will speak up and fight.
Ying-Ying St. Clair: Waiting Between the Trees (Chapter 14)
This chapter has a similar theme to the previous chapter about An-Mei Hsu. In this Chapter Ying-Ying St. Clair also wishes to tell her daughter of her past, and to let her have a glimpse of her old life in China. Ying Ying has a gift to see things before they happen and she feels as though her daughters house is going to fall apart. She begins to think back to her life in China and of her first husband with who she fell madly in love with. She did not chose him, her rich family chose him for her when she was still young and very beautiful. But he was not loyal to her, and he eventually left her for another woman which broke her heart. She was pregnant when he left and out of hatred she killed her own baby before he was born. She eventually went to the countryside of Shanghai with some distant family. Ten years later she moved again and worked as a shopgirl. This was when her beauty returned, and this was when she met Clifford Saint Clair, an American man. When her husband died she agreed to marry Clifford, but this was after four years of him courting her. But she could not love fully, she could only love like a ghost because she was so broken. She doesn’t want her daughter to become a ghost.
Lindo Jong: Double Face (Chapter 15)
This chapter has to do with two faces, an American face, and a Chinese face. Lindo jong talks about raising her daughter and how she tried to balance between the two sides. Her daughter, Waverly Jong, takes her to a salon to get her haircut and the barber tells them how much they look alike. Lindo is hurt because she thinks Waverly is ashamed to look like her. She then starts to tell Waverly of when she was a young girl back in China and how her mother sat her down once and started examining her beautiful face and telling her how her life would turn out because of her straight nose and big earlobes. She then told of how she came to America and how she lost her Chinese face in the crowds of American streets. She started working in a factory that made fortune cookies and that is where she met An-Mei Hsu. An-Mei ended up introducing her to her future husband at church, and helped Lindo find the perfect fortune cookie to convince him to ask her to marry him. At one point in America Lindo falls and hurts her nose, causing it to be crooked. At the end of the chapter Lindo notices her daughter’s crooked nose, and is horrified. But Waverly is proud of her nose, of how she got it from her mother. She says it’s how people know they’re two faced.
Jing-Mei Woo: A Pair of Tickets (Chapter 16)
In the final chapter of the Joy Luck Club we pick up where we had left off in the first chapter. After her mother’s tragic death, Jing-Mei Woo is travelling to China to meet her two long lost half sisters. Ever since she learned they were alive they have been occupying her mind, and she is scared to see them again when her mother is dead. Her father is accompanying her to Shanghai where she will meet her sisters, and he is very happy to be back in China. He is reunited with his aunt and her family and it is a beautiful moment that Jing-Mei doesn’t want to be a part of because she is afraid of how meeting her sisters will be. They stay at a magnificent hotel and Jing-Mei is worried that it was more expensive the she wanted, but feels sheepish when she realizes how cheap everything is. There’s a moment when Jing-Mei is sitting in the hotel room with her father, while the rest of the family sleeps, and he tells her the meanings of her name. He also tells her why her mother did not feel guilty for leaving her daughters on the side of the road because she left them with her most valuable possessions, photos of her and a note to a kind hearted stranger in hopes someone would save her babies. Jing-Mei’s mother searched and searched for her babies and even still in America she did not give up hope that her baby girls were alive. The chapter ends with Jing-Mei embracing her long lost sister as if she has know them all her life, and it is a beautiful ending to a sorrow-filled book.