Final+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 journey of life. However, Lena is still an “American Translation” of Ying-ying, or an American replication of her Chinese mother. Both Lena and Ying-ying are born in the year of the Tiger. In china, all tiger ladies share the same “gold and black” quality. Lena, despite her American background, proves that she is an “American Translation” of Ying-ying by overcoming her inability to reveal her “tiger” nature, a shared character between Lena and Ying-ying, who also overcomes the same inability.

Above all, what does it mean to be a tiger lady? 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 to reveal their tiger nature stems from their lack of gold quality, one that takes action.

Ying-ying’s inability to become a true tiger results in a bad relationship with her husband. The existence of this conflict is ironical given that Ying-ying does nothing to prevent anything even though she is able to see bad things come before they happen. Ying-ying’s ability to foresee events 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 her 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). This quote shows that the two qualities within herself are fighting each other. Nevertheless, her passivity to display her will proves that her black character dominates her gold character. She starts to live a life arranged by fate 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). This dilemma that Ying-ying experiences in China is unfortunately handed down to her daughter Lena, who shares the similar struggle in her life in America.

As Ying-ying’s American Translation, Lena has the same dominance of black side of the tiger within herself like her mother. Many 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). Instead of taking other actions to change her fate, she follows her mother’s superstition and let it shape her lifestyle. 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). The use of the italicized word “destined” conveys another message that Lena is living by her destiny, not taking any action to change it. Overpowered by her guilt for Harold, 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. Even though Ying-ying and Lena share the same issue, they both find their way out of this dilemma.

Regardless of her initial lack of ability to change her fate, Ying-ying eventually decides to reveal her gold quality and her secret tiger claw. For years, Ying-ying waits between the trees, not communicating at all with her family. She “[keeps her] true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch [her]” (64). At this stage, her black quality dominates her gold quality. She does not get motivated to show her gold quality because she originally does not realize that her passivity is affecting Lena to be passive as well. Ying-ying explains that Lena and Ying-ying “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). Ying-ying takes a huge step toward becoming a true tiger by opening up her thoughts for Lena. Although the story ends here, the positive ending allows one to predict that Ying-ying is moving toward eliminating her conflict and becoming a true tiger lady.

Just like Ying-ying does, Lena also starts to reveal her gold quality. 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 “‘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. This indicates that she takes a step toward becoming a tiger before the enlightenment from her mother. Even though Lena is likely to ameliorate her relationship with her husband by becoming a true tiger after Ying-ying’s influence later, it is true that Lena “starts” it before Ying-ying. In this way, Lena almost simultaneously succeeds in easing her issue in her own way.

Lena may have been born in America. Her first husband may have been an American. She may not even consider herself as Chinese. Nonetheless, she has the same character handed down from her mother; they are both tigers. They are able to sit back and watch as things take place, but at times uncover their claws and slash marks of their own. Despite the cultural difference, Lena is the “American Translation” of Ying-ying.