Mother-Daughter Relationships In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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Mother-Daughter Relationships Mother-daughter relationships are unique and can involve a complex and intense range of emotions. Chinese-American authors Amy Chua and Amy Tan explore the nature of mother-daughter relationships from an Asian perspective. In an excerpt from her memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, Amy Chua recounts her struggles and frustrations with her daughter, Lulu and violin lessons. On the other hand, Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, paints a vivid picture of Tan’s exasperation with her mother over piano practice. She describes an intense exchange in which she resorts to shouting the most hurtful words she can at her mother. Both excerpts have a different tone and diction that describe their unique mother-daughter relationships.
In Amy Chua’s excerpt from “The Violin,” the tone is annoyed but caring. Chua wants the best for Lulu, her daughter, and tries to help her by sitting through violin lessons and intensely watching her practice. While Lulu practices, Chua attempts to remind her of instructions from the lesson and ironically …show more content…

Chua and her daughter have a normal mother-daughter relationship. From trying to help Lulu practice by giving her tips (even though she may not be doing it correctly), to Lulu calling Chua “Mommy,” they have a normal, caring, mother-daughter relationship even though Lulu is annoyed with her mother in the excerpt. On the contrary, the mother daughter relationship between Tan and her mother is very bitter. In the excerpt, Tan uses her words like knives trying to cut her mother as deeply as possible. Tan is not the ideal, obedient daughter Tan’s mother imagined, but nevertheless, Tan’s mother attempts to force her to become the daughter she wants and causes a reaction that has a dark and negative outcome that hurts them both. These excerpts bring to light the differences and intricacies of mother-daughter relationships, both good and

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