Joy Luck Club: Cultural Differences Across Generations

As long as the world continues to revolve, generations will come and go. Considering that they follow in turn, different generations make themselves disparate from others. This becomes what is known as a generation gap, one we will never be able to fill in, due to our contradictories. As the gap gradually develops, it struck modern generations apart from the others before them. As Lindo stated in Joy Luck Club, “American circumstances but Chinese character…How could I know these two things do not mix?” Culture acts as a crucial influence to why relationships suffer because it has made the new generation indifferent and unable to recount to the monetary struggles the older generations has gone through. Considering our roles in the family, divergent

teachings and dreams generated a divisive schism between my mother’s generation and mine, provoking us to be unable to relate to each other.
A key factor that differentiates my mother’s generation from mine is our role in the family.

Born in the seventies in the city of Taishan, China, my mother was the oldest of three children; she has a younger brother and sister. Due to the fact that my grandparents worked throughout the whole day, it was her liability to take heed of the household. My mother gained valuable independence and leadership skills from her responsibilities because her parents rarely paid attention to her and expected her to figure out her obligations. Because my mom was often disregarded in her childhood after her siblings were born, she deduced that her children should not have to experience what she went through. Aside from being the only child in my family, I have become unconsciously spoiled because my parents are always there to help me dodge hardships and provide me with the luxuries that I yearn for. Thus, I was never properly taught how to take care of myself and relied on my parents for everything. Both our parents made sure that we received superior education, yet the quality of the teachings was interpreted

discretely.
The education that my mom received greatly contradicted to the teachings that I am currently encountering. In my mother’s generation, her teachers strictly pushed her to study and learn what she was supposed to because their test score-rankings were compared and publicly announced. Back then, it was evident that students were compared with their peers because test scores, which determined their intelligence, were a big deal and caused great stress. In my generation, instructors allowed students to study independently, in our own will, and ensured us that we are responsible for our own grades. Thus, we are only compared with ourselves, and improving based on our own abilities. As a matter of fact, this was one of the reasons why my mother decided to immigrate to America before I started school, so that I would not have to deal with the stress that she had during her generation. Moving to the U.S. has been one of the most significant decisions that she has made in her life, as well as being her greatest dream.
The dream of my mother’s life that she attempted to suppress never went away.

My mother’s dream throughout her whole life was to get a better life and possess luxuries. During her childhood in the villages, my mother’s family encountered severe hardships, and just simply staying alive had been an obstacle. Food and pollution were vast complications in my mother’s generation, which never allowed her to feel safe in her environment. However, in my generation, I have never truly encountered a hardship, which permits me from relating to my mother’s horrid experience. The dream that my mother valued in her generation have now lost its value due to the generation gap, lost in the barrier that provoked us to relate to each

other.
In regards to our roles in the household, contrastive teachings and dreams created a divisive schism between my mother’s generation and mine, causing us to be unable to relate to each other. Our position in the family was a key factor that disconnected us because while she was an independent child that took liability for everything, I was unconsciously spoiled and relied on others for my needs. The education that she received in her generation created unsatisfying effects on her, which she reckons as an indication that future generations should not have to encounter what she went through. The trials that she faced in her generation caused my mother to have a yearning of luxuries, making it a dream that she was determined to achieve. The generation gap that developed over time has struck the two generations apart from each other, causing them to be indifferent and unable to relate to each other.