Joy Luck Club Character Analysis

Lindo Jong is a member of the Joy Luck Club along with Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, and Ying-ying St. Clair. Lindo Jong is a mother to three children, a divorcee, and a wife to a second husband. She grew up in China, and even though her children are American, she wants them to have some Chinese character also. Lindo’s character encompasses three major traits including cleverness, being controlling, and loving.

When Lindo turned the age of two, she was engaged to marry Tyan-yu who was one year old at the time. When her family's house was destroyed by a flood, Lindo left her mother to live with Tyan-yu and his family while her’s lived with other relatives. Over a time period of about 4 years, Lindo began to forget who she was and where she came from partly because of Huang Taitai’s supervision. Since she didn’t want to be in the marriage, she cleverly devised a plot to escape from her awful commitment with Tyan-yu. She told Huang Taitai that their ancestor is going to give their family three forewarnings that Lindo and Tyan-yu should not be married. First, a black. finger-print sized mark on Tyan-yu’s back will start to eat away at his flesh. Lindo saw this mark ever since she had been sleeping with him as if they were brother and sister. Secondly, the tooth in Lindo’s mouth, which had rotted and fallen out four years ago, had disappeared. She said “He said my teeth would start to fall out one by one, until I could no longer protest leaving this marriage.” (Tan 61) Lastly, Lindo proclaimed that the servant girl has already been chosen to be Tyan-yu’s true wife, and that a seed has already been planted into her. Unknowingly to Huang Taitai, Lindo had seen the servant girl speaking to a delivery man who had actually impregnated her. After receiving a ticket to Peking, she married Tin Jong and had three children, Winston, Vincent, and Waverly.

Waverly, her only daughter, became a national chess champion by the time she was nine years old. After she and Lindo got into an argument over chess, Waverly decided she would stop playing. After Waverly and Lindo have a chance to think about their argument, Waverly decides to play chess again. Her mother remarks with “You think it is so easy. One day quit. Next day play. Everything for you is this way.