Discuss mother-daughter relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club was her
first published novel (in 1989) and is about mother-daughter relationships. In the
novel, the stories are sometimes biographical to Amy Tan's life (e.g., when she meets
siblings as an adult that she never knew she had, from her mother's first marriage in
China).

The book is sectioned into four parts; the stories
of the mothers and daughters are inter-mixed with each other. Each of the mothers is a
member of the Joy Luck Club, and the stories deal with each mother, with related stories
that deal with the mother and her daughter, and their relationships—showing how the
mother-daughter relationship impacts both women.

One part
is about Jing-mei , her mother, Suyuan—founder of the Joy Luck Club, and Jing-mei's
father, Canning Woo. Growing up, June and her mother have a great many disagreements.
June cannot handle being Chinese in America, and her mother doesn't seem to be able to
understand her. When her mother dies suddenly, June travels to China with her father to
visit her mother's homeland, and in doing so, discovers a great deal about her mother
and herself.

A portion focuses on An-mei, who (with her
brother) lives with her grandmother (Popo), an aunt—with "a tongue like hungry scissors
eating silk cloth" and an uncle. An-mei does not live with her mother who has "lost
face" and has been disowned by the family. When An-mei is nine, Popo dies, and An-mei
leaves with her mother to live in the home of her mother's wealthy husband (Wu Tsing)
and his other wives. An-mei learns how her mother was forced into a dishonorable
marriage with Wu Tsing when he raped her so she would be forced to marry him,
thereby—ultimately—giving him a son; because of what he did, she has had no control over
her own life. Wu Tsing fears ghosts. An-mei's mother commits suicide so that her
husband's fear of her ghost will force him to care for both of her children (An-mei and
her young son) after her death.

An-mei grows up and moves
to San Francisco, marries and has seven children. Rose is one of their children who
marries Ted. He has an affair and divorces Rose. She learns to deal
with his betrayal. Her story is connected to
An-mei's.

Another section deals with Lindo who marries
Tyan-yu—who will not sleep with her. Lindo manages to be honorably released from her
marriage; she also travels to San Francisco where she marries and has three children,
one a daughter named Waverly. Here again is a story of a mother and child who have their
differences and learn to resolve them as Waverly grows to be an adult. Their biggest
problems revolve around Waverly's fiancé, but mother and daughter are able to finally
work through the obstacles that separate them.

The final
section is about the fourth mother, Ying-ying. She comes from a wealthy family, almost
dying when she was four. She is very full of herself and grows up, marrying a vulgar man
who leaves her when she gets pregnant. Ten years later (when her first husband dies)
Ying-ying marries again, and she and her husband move to San Francisco. They have one
daughter, Lena. Ying-ying and her relationship with her daughter are affected by
Ying-ying's depression. Lena grows up to be hard, but without spirit. Ying-ying believes
this is her fault for losing the spirit of the "tiger" that once
lived in her when she was younger, and she believes that she must
fight with her daughter to release the "tiger" hidden within her,
certain that this strength will help Lena.