Dayeon's+Rough+Draft

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

By simply looking around, we can notice several similarities between ourselves with our mothers both externally and internally: We are the translations of our mothers through either appearances, or personalities. In the same way, in literary works, Amy Tan utilizes the relationship between the daughters and mothers in __The Joy Luck Club__ to pinpoint the daughter’s translation of the mothers internally. The most distinctive pair is Jing-Mei and Suyoun. Thus, we can see that by having inherited characteristics from her mom, Jing-Mei has gained independence, pride, and a skill to be acceptable.

To begin with, the initial characteristic that stands out from Jing-Mei is the ability to be self-reliant. For instance, “Two Kinds” in __The Joy Luck Club__ illustrates her strong instinct to not be dependent. When Jing-Mei finds out that Suyoun has scheduled piano lessons and piano practices, she becomes frustrated to an extent that she bursts out, not being able to hold her feelings to herself. Instead of being submissive or obeying her mother, she “whine[s] and then kick[s]” (Tank, 146). She tries to exhibit her another strong dislike of playing the piano through a rude back talk by exclaiming, “I wouldn’t go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!” (146) Jing-Mei displays her frustration and argumentative speech to explicitly illustrate her strong insistence to overrule Suyoun’s request. In return, her lack of obedience leads herself to be less dependent on her mom, but to be dependent on her.

Furthermore, Jing-Mei has the pride that she has inherited from her mom. For example, in “Two Kinds,” Jing-Mei strongly shows her confidence to play well in the church hall for all the Joy Luck Club, though Jing-Mei gives up to practice and play the piano. She constantly reminds herself that the way she plays is “so beautiful,” (150) whereas in reality, the piece that she played was horrible. Moreover, though she hits the wrong note, she would catch up in how lovely she looked. Usually lack of practice does not prepare anything; however, Jing-Mei’s pride allows her to have a strong sense of self-confidence to play well even without a practice. With such reaction during her recital, Jing-Mei’s pride can be vividly noticed.

Moreover, by being the daughter of Suyoun’s, Jing-Mei has the skill to be tolerant. In “A Pair of Tickets,” Jing-Mei finds out that abandonment of the twin half sisters wasn’t deliberately done; Ironically, she realizes it was her love for the twins that initiated the separation. From such realization, Jing-Mei attains the ability to understand more about her values and the importance of her. Though accepting abrupt finding of her two half sisters seems too intimidating for Jing-Mei, she still accepts them as her sisters, noticing the similarities in three images with “[Suyuan]’s eyes [and] and mouth” (332). The acceptance of Suyuan’s “long-cherisehd wish” by valuing two half sisters and recognizing her mother’s suffering history signifies Jing-Mei’s ability of deep understanding.

Jing-Mei is able to exhibit the three distinctive characteristics because she is the translation of Suyuan. In the same way, the original three aspects are found in Suyuan as well. Just as Jing-Mei exhibits her strong independence, Suyoun displays the same behavior. In “Two Kinds,” Suyoun fails to notice what Jing-Mei truly desires, but to perpetuate her own will by ignoring Jing-Mei’s opinion. For instance, after watching “Shirley Temple” she takes her to a “beauty training school in the Mission district” (142) and by reading “Ripley’s Believe It or Not, or Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, and a dozen other magazines” she tests whether she has the genius ability name foreign cities correctly. All these actions are deliberately planned by Suyoun to reach her expectation, and her independence neglects the opinion of Jing-Mei’s. Thus, Suyoun’s growing self-reliance influences her to look for the best desirable skill that satisfies her, not Jing-Mei. Furthermore, ability to understand another can be found in Suyoun. She does not simply neglects things, but takes care with prudence. Even when she is enervated due to dysentery pains in her stomach, she does not easily give up on her two children carrying heavily with her both hands. So she uses her last energy to provide a better situation for her babies even when “she knew she would die of her sickness, or perhaps from thirst, from starvation” (324). Thus, her sacrifice for her babies shows her act of appreciation. In addition, just as Jing-Mei has pride, so does Suyuon. Suyuan constantly brags about her daughter when she talks to other mothers, such as Lindo Jong. She tries not to make another person the better one, but eagerly tries to place herself on top of everyone. Such pride leads Suyuan to prove that her daughter is better than Waverly who has won fame as “Chinatown’s Littlest Chinese Chess Champion” (148). Because Suyuan strongly prides herself, she decides to prove the best daughter of hers by holding Jing-Mei’s debut in the church hall infront of all the Joy Luck Club members.

The three words that distinguish the pair of Suyuan and Jing-Mei among other pairs in __The Joy Luck Club__ are: Independence, pride, and understanding. Moreover, the three words that Suyoun used to exhibit is inherited to her daughter, Jing-Mei. There might be some overlapping characteristics within other pairs of the daughter and mother; however, the combination of these three characteristics produces the perfect bond between Jing-Mei and Suyuan. In return, such strong similarity bond gives Jing-Mei the perfect “American Translation” of her mom.