Keunwha+Song+Final+Essay

All people are given with different starting points in life. Depending on their starting position, their goals and dreams vary. Therefore, initial status of parents and their children often differs. In America, Asian parents are known for being strict on their children’s school grade and success. It created various stereotypes such as all Asian American students get straight A’s in school. Why do immigrant parents have such humongous demands on their kids? Amy Tan, an American Asian author, explains such phenomenon in her novel the Joy Luck Club. She first shows completely unlike backgrounds of a mother and a child, she portrays how different dreams originated from each backgrounds.

The desire of success greatly differs between immigrant parent Suyuan and her child June. Suyuan, who experienced life-threatening situations in China, dreams of her daughter’s happiness and success. She wants June to stay as far away as possible from sufferings she had to go through in China. During the Japanese invasion of China, Suyuan’s life was hanging on the edge of the cliff every single day. Not to mention the low quality of life in general, she had to move to escape bombs, bullets, and fiercely approaching death. She escaped tumultuous China eventually, but in the process, she had to leave everything behind; she lost her first husband and her first two twin babies. Before she immigrated to the United States, she swore to herself, “In America I will have a daughter just like me[...] I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!” (Tan 3). Every drop of blood and tear Suyuan shed in China shaped her bold American goal: Her daughter’s total happiness.

According to hierarchy of needs, people do not seek for basic need once those are acquired. June is one of those people who did not have to worry about survival. Suyuan, as she promised to herself, tries to help June to be successful. She firmly believed in her daughter’s potential; she thought June could be a restaurant owner, government official, rich, and famous. (132) With belief Suyuan constantly told June “[...] You can be prodigy, [...] You can be best anything.” (Tan 132) since young age. However, this was June’s concern at all. In abundant environment of America, June’s regards were rather focused on her identity, not on wealth or prosperity. When her mother tried to teach her piano, June took advantage of the deaf teacher and not accepted the chance to learn, since it wasn’t her major interest. Eventually June yelled at her mother, “You want me to be someone that I’m not!” (Tan 153), clearly rejecting inheritance of her mother’s American dream.

Fortunately, though the mother and the daughter had conflicting dreams, both of their dreams are achieved at the end of the novel. Suyuan allowed her daughter to live in relatively stable environment, but she failed to help June obtain her ultimate happiness. Only after Suyuan’s death both Suyuan and June achieved their American dream. After meeting her two lost sisters in China, June thought “ [...] I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood. AFter all these years, it can finally be let go.” (Tan 331) Suyuan might have died in the process, but she really tried to support June with genuine love. With legacies her mother left behind, June finally found the roots and identity she had been looking for, and at the same time, Suyuan’s wish of daughter’s happiness was fulfilled.

The difference in American dreams of Suyuan and June are very obvious yet extremely ironic. It is natural for different people to have different goal due to their diverse backgrounds. However, it is ironic how June’s dream takes opposite path as her mother’s dream, like a fish trying to swim over the waterfall. Suyuan’s dream was to escape China and start a new, happy life in America. June’s dream was to leave America and visit China to find the root she came from. Their American dreams perfectly crossed each other because those were originated from each other.

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