Mother-daughter Relations and Clash of Cultures in Amy...

Amy Tan is an American Born Chinese, daughter of immigrants, and her family shares many features with the families depicted in her novels. Tans novels offer some glimpses of life in China while developing the themes of mother-daughter relations, cultural adaptation and women with a past. Tan’s novels share many themes and elements, but this paper will focus mainly on two episodes of the novel The Joy Luck Club: The Joy Luck Club and Waiting Between the Trees; and will make references to The Kitchens God Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses. In the first place, mother-daughter relations between Chinese mothers and ABC daughters are not easy ones in Tans novels. They are always problematic. Mothers want to bring up†¦show more content†¦This education, seen from the other side of the cultural gap, is what makes Lena see her mother as a weak person. Lena has a job, an American husband, she lives an American life, unlike her mother, who is attached to weird old disused Chinese traditions. But she herself is not happy, as her mother can see. Her husband is not as good as he might be: he exploits her, paying her a too low wage, never recognizes her contribution to their success as architects,... On the other hand, Ying- Ying marriage, although imperfect, is based on firmer grounds of respect and goodness towards each other than that of Lena. But the main problem between mothers and daughters in Amy Tans novels is the lack of communication. As will be discussed below, mothers usually have some terrible hidden secret, something that even her closest relatives ignore. In The Joy Luck Club is the fact that Suyuan Woo had been formerly married and had two lost children in China in The Kitchens God Wife, we have the same again; and, finally, in The Hundred Secret Senses, the father is the one who had a secret past life, but here also the relationship between mother and daughter are somewhat problematic. Olivia is not very close to her mother, who used to care more about finding an exotic partner than for her children. This lack of communication, nevertheless, is not exclusive to Chinese-American families. The generational gap can be detected in anyShow MoreRelatedAmy Tan Talks About The Clash Between Traditional And Contemporary Values1719 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Two Kinds,† Amy Tan talks about the clash between traditional and contemporary values. The Chinese culture wants everything to be a certain way, but Tan grow up in around American culture and she was more likely to have her own thoughts rather than be an obedient daughter. This essay illustrates the procedure of character development of the second-generation Chinese immigrant daughters who experience differences between Chinese culture and American culture, such as language, culture and generational