The Joy Luck Club -American Translation Four directions.

The Joy Luck Club

-American Translation Four directions

American TranslationA mother is upset that her daughter has put a mirror at the foot of her bed in her new bedroom: she believes it is bad luck. The daughter is upset that her mother is so negative and superstitious, but then the mother pulls out another mirror. She places it above the headboard, so that the two mirrors face each other. She says that this will multiply her luck. When the daughter looks in the mirror, she finds that her mother is right: through her own reflection, she can see her future child.

Page 166

“This greasy thing, do you expect me to eat with it?”

She made a show of washing out her rice bowl with hot tea, and then warned other restaurant patrons seated near us to do the same.

She told the waiter to make sure the soup was very hot, and of course, it was by her tongue;s expert estimate “not even lukewarm.”

Page 167

And that’s what she is, a hose, born in 1918, destined to be obstinate and frank to the pint of tactlessness. She and i make a bad combination, because I'm a rabbit, born in 1951, supposedly sensitive, with tendencies toward being thin-skinned and skittery at the first sign of criticism.

My mother had never met Rich. In fact, every time I brought up his name- … -my mother found a way to change the subject.

Page 168

I pained for the bill, with a ten and three ones. My mother pulled back the dollar bills and count out the exact change, thirteen cents, and put that on the tray instead, explaining firmly: ‘No tip !’ She tossed her head back with triumphant smile. And while my mother used the restroom, i slipped the waiter a Five-dollar bull. He nodded to me with deep understanding.

My mother had not been to my apartment in months. When i was first married, she used to drop by unannounced, until one day I suggested se should call ahead of time. Ever since then, she has refused to come unless I issued an official invitation.

Page 169

‘This is not so good,’ she said at least. ‘It is just leftover strips. And the fur is too short, no long hairs.’ ‘how can you criticise a gift!’ I protested. I was deeply wounded. ‘He gave me this from his heart.’ ‘That is why I worry, ’ she said.

Her look was one of painful denial, reminding me of a time long ago when she took my brothers and me down to a clinic and get our polio booster shots. As the needle went into my brother’s arm and he screamed, my mother liked at me with agony written all over her face and assured me, ‘Next one doesn't hurt.’

And looking at the coat in the mirror, I couldn’t fend off the strength of her will anymore, her ability to make me see the black where there was once white, white where there was once black.

Page 170

My mother knows how to hit a nerve. And the pain I feel is worse than any other kind of misery. Because what she does always comes as a shock, exactly like an electric jolt, that grounds itself permanently in my memory. I still remember the first time i felt it.

• “And my mother loved to show me off, like one of my many trophies she polished. She used to discuss my games as if she had devised the strategies” object of pride

• “To our family friends who visited she would confide, “You don’t have to be so smart to win chess. It is just tricks. You blow from the North, South, East, and West. The other person becomes confused. They don’t know which way to run.”

• “… she wouldn’t speak to me. … as if I had become invisible and she was talking about a rotten fish she had thrown away but which had left behind its bad smell.” simile

Page 171 + 172

• “So I ignored her. I refused to speak and waited for her to come to me.” stubborn

• “I realized my mother knew more tricks than I had thought. But now I was tired of her game.” Waverly is playing a metaphoric chess game with her mum

• “You think it is so easy. One day quit, next day play. Everything for you is this way. So smart, so easy, so fast.”

• “It is not so easy anymore” - returning to chess is not so easy anymore - mother-daughter relationship is not easily patchable

• “I had made the white squares black, and the black squares white, and everything would be all right.” foreshadows Waverly losing her talent in playing chess

• “I could no longer see the secret weapons of each piece, the magic within the intersection of each square. I could see only my mistakes, my weaknesses.”

White squares black = good became bad = “I could no longer see the secret weapons of each piece, …”

Black squares white = flaws became visible = “I could see only my mistakes, my weaknesses”

When Waverly returns to chess to find her prodigy gone, she realises that part of what sustained her had ben her mother’s love and support.

Although she believed that the talent was all her own and that her mother was taking credit for her successes, she nows sees that her achievements always depended mostly on her mother’s devotion and pride in her.

• “she was feeding me this because I had the chicken pox and one chicken knew how to fight another.” Chinese superstitionDespite the conflict between them, Lindo still loves her daughter

Page 173

• “I already knew what she would do, how she would attack him, how she would criticize him.”

Page 175

Because Shoshana really was a miracle. She was perfect. I found every detail about her to be remarkable, especially the way she flexed and curled her fingers. From the very moment she flung her fist away from her fingers. From the very moment she flung her fist away from her mouth to cry. I knew my feelings for her were inviolable.

• Reflects the feeling the mothers have of their daughters. Which the daughter’s can’t see because of language and cultural barrier

Page 176

Auntie Su was my mother’ friend from way back. They were very close which meant they were ceaselessly tormenting each other with boasts and secrets.

• Demonstrates Chinese culture.

I knew she would do this, because cooking was how my mother expressed her love, her pride, her power, her proof that she knew more than Auntie Su. “Just be sure to tell her later that her cooking was the best you ever tasted, that it was far better than Auntie Su.• Chinese Culture.• Love to show off.• Love to compete.

Page 177

So many spots on his face,

• Language barrier• Culture differences

Page 179

‘Linda, Tim,’ he said, ‘we’ll see you again, I’m sure’ My parents’ names are Lindo and Tin Jong, and nobody, except a few older family friends, ever calls them by their first names.

• Cultural differences• Cultural barrier

Page 180

I woke up late, with teeth clenched and every nerve on edge. Rich was already up, showered, and reading the Sunday paper. “Morning, doll,” he said between noisy Munches of cornflakes.

All her strength was gone. She had no weapons, no demons surrounding her. She looked powerless. Defeated. And then I was seized with fear that she looked like this because she was dead. She had died when I was having terrible thoughts about her. I had wished her out of my life, and she had acquiesced, floating out of her body to escape my terrible hatred.

Page 181

And now I felt numb, strangely weak, as if someone had unplugged me and the current running through me had stopped.

“Jrdaule”− I already know this− she said, as if to ask why I was telling her this again.

“You know?”

“Of course. Even if you didn’t tell me,” she said simply.

You think I have a secret meaning. But it is you who has this meaning.

Oh, her strength! her weakness! − both pulling me apart. My mind was flying one way, my heart another. I sat down on the sofa next to her, the two of us stricken by the other.

Page 182

I felt as if I had lost a battle but one that I didn’t know I had been fighting.

I…..I just don’t know what’s inside me right now…..You know Sun Yat-sen, hah?”

Their arrows bounced off the shields like rain on stone. Sun Wei had….So now you know what is inside you, almost all good stuff from Taiyuan.

Page 183

“I was born in China, in Taiyuan,” she said. “Taiwan is not China.”

“People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.”

“You call Apple for New York. Frisco for San Francisco.”

“Nobody calls San Francisco that!” I said, laughing. “People who call it that don’t know any better.”

I saw what I had been fighting for: It was for me a scared child, who had run away a long time to what I had imagined was a safer place…..getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.

Page 184

I laugh nervously, and Rich jokes: “That’d be great, Lindo. You could translate all the menus for us and make sure we’re not eating snakes or dogs by mistake.” I almost kick him.

And I know what she really means. She would love to go to China with us. And I would hate it……lifting off, moving West to reach the East.