Unhealthy Relationships In An-Mei Husu And Rose Hsu Jordan

Joy Luck Club Essay Rough Draft

Both An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan have traits that contribute to their unhealthy relationship. An-mei seems to have developed a strong sense of crypticness and secrecy, while Rose is often unmoored and passive - which demonstrate how a strong mother can raise a weak daughter.

An-mei and Rose demonstrate a complex relationship, as An-mei sends cryptic messages to her daughter that she is unable to comprehend; therefore, Rose was not able to inherit the same strength of character that her mother did. This communication barrier creates a dynamic where An-mei struggles to get through to Rose and leads Rose to disregard her mother’s wisdom. As An-mei re-enters Rose’s life when she is nine, she begins to send

Instead, she chooses to accept decisions others make for her, which encompasses her with no control over the life around her. An instance where this takes place is when Rose reveals to her mother that she is separating from her husband Ted, and explains to An-mei “don’t tell me to save my marriage anymore. It’s hard enough as it is”, to which she retorts “I am not telling you to save your marriage, I only say you should speak up”. (193) Moments such as these can also be depicted in a previous instance with An-mei, where Rose mentions that “[she] used to believe everything [her] mother said, even if she didn’t know what she meant” (185). Through these passages, it is apparent that Rose lacks wood, one out of five Chinese elements, and therefore making decisions for herself makes her confused. As she listens to too many people but is unable to take her mother’s advice, she steers clear of making her own decisions which ultimately build up to her marriage with Ted to crumble. Since Rose was a child, An-mei pushed strongly for Rose to try and fight her divorce with Ted and take control of the situation, however, Rose allows her marriage to end and does not take her advice into consideration. As Rose allows others to make choices on her behalf, she becomes passive to those around her, specifically to her mother An-mei. Rose’s passivity conclusively contributes to their unhealthy relationships as Rose does not learn how to stand up for herself and is unable to pick up on her mother’s assertive qualities. From both of these traits, it causes this dynamic to suffer as the passivity of Rose and secrecy of An-mei conflict, as Rose does not see the importance of listening to her mother as she is unaware of where those traits come