Rough+Draft+-+Younsuk



In what way is a daughter the “American Translation” of her mother? Choose a mother/ daughter pair and discuss

While conventionally mothers try to teach their daughters life lessons from their experience, in reality not all mothers succeed in enlightening their daughters. This is especially true with the existence of cultural barriers between mothers and daughters. In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Ying-ying St. Clair initially fails to give Lena, her daughter, the lesson Ying-ying learned from her life. However, Lena, despite the lack of stimulus from her mother, proved that she is an “American Translation” of Ying-ying by succeeding to reveal her “tiger” nature, just as her mother does almost simultaneously.

Both Ying-ying and Lena were born in the year of the Tiger. Being a tiger gives the person two characters, gold and black. When Ying-ying asks her mother why a tiger is gold and black, her mother explains that “it has two ways. The gold side leaps with its fierce heart. The black side stands still with cunning, hiding its gold between trees, seeing and not being seen, waiting patiently for things to come” (282). In other words, a tiger lady can wait doing nothing, until she decides to leap with her tiger claw. Although Ying-ying and Lena are easily able to unveil their black quality, their struggle stems from their lack of gold quality, one that takes action.

Ying-ying’s conflict with her first husband is somewhat ironical given that Ying-ying is able to see bad things come before they happen. Ying-ying’s ability to see things before they happen comes from her black characteristic; she patiently waits for things to come, becoming a shrewd observer of the world. However, her reluctance to change her situation also stems from her dominating black characteristic. For instance, she ignores her own will by letting the “arranged” marriage force her to love his husband. After marrying, she has “a swimming feeling in [her] heart like a creature thrashing to get out and wanting to stay in at the same time. ... There is a part of [her] mind that swims to join that person against [her] will” (280). Her passivity to display her will proves her black character dominating her gold character. When she decides to love her “arranged” husband, she simply becomes the observer of the world around her, “waiting patiently for things to come” to her (282).

As Ying-ying’s American Translation, Lena shares the dominance of black side of the tiger with her mother. Dozens of times in the novel, Lena lets her fate overwhelm her ability to take over her situation. For example, her mother’s superstition quells Lena into thinking that she caused Arnold’s death. When she is young, her mother warns her that every grain of rice she leaves will result in a pock mark on her future husband’s face. Intimidated by her mother’s words, Lena decides to scrape all the “last few grains into [her] mouth ... [so that her] future husband would be ... someone whose face was as smooth as the porcelain in [her] clean bowl” (164). When she learns that Harold died from complications of measles, she cannot clear her mind from blaming herself for his death. She starts to believe that conceivably “he was destined to be [her] husband” (168). Overpowered by her guilt, she gorges herself with strawberry ice cream, which does no good except resulting in her vomiting all night. Like her mother, Lena waits patiently for her so-called “fate” to take over her emotion.

Regardless of her initial lack of ability to change her fate, Ying-ying eventually decides to reveal her gold quality and her secret claw. For years, Ying-ying waits between the trees, not communicating at all with her family. She “kept [her] true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch [her]” (64). She originally does not realize that her passivity is affecting Lena to be passive as well. Ying-ying explains that they “are lost, ... unseen and not seeing, unheard and not hearing, unknown by others” (64). Nevertheless, when Ying-ying visits Lena and, with her ability, sees that Lena’s submissiveness will ruin her life, Ying-ying’s gold quality awakens inside her. After decades of reticence, Ying-ying feels the need to open up and use her tiger claw to “cut [Lena’s tiger] spirit loose” (286). When Lena says that she knew the vase and the table would break down, Ying-ying starts to get to work by questioning her why she didn’t do anything to stop it (181). Although the story ends here, one can predict that Ying-ying successfully overcomes her conflict and becomes a true tiger lady.

Although Lena needed a few words of her mother, Lena is able to start to reveal her gold quality before Ying-ying. After being submissive to Harold, her husband, for the whole time, Lena voices herself for the first time when Harold wants her to eat dessert. “‘I’m full,’” says Lena, after Harold asks who is ready for dessert. After her mother follows up by stating that Lena does not like ice cream, Lena goes on by saying “‘It’s true, ... I’ve hated ice cream almost all my life’” (177). This is before Ying-ying is sent to the guest room, where she ponders about her past and decides to enlighten her daughter. Even though Lena probably becomes a true tiger after Ying-ying’s influence later, it is true that Lena “starts” it before Ying-ying.

The above details illustrate how Lena is an American Translation of Ying-ying. Despite her English name and her first husband who is American, they both experience the same conflict and succeed in the same manner. Considering this, after all, one should not forget that what one experiences is also what one’s mother experienced decades ago.

Source: Tan, Amy. Joy Luck Club. New York: Ivy Books, 1990. Print.