Cycles

Cycles take place all around us. They can take place at a microscopic level or at a larger scale. In The Joy  better lifeLuck Club by Amy Tan there are examples of numerous cycles that take place during the story. One cycle that I noticed was the fact that the mothers push their daughters. The mothers are constantly there to support and set the path for their children to succeed.

An example of how the push their daughters is in the story "The Red Candle" when Lindo Jong, one of the mothers, was forced by her own mother to marry man whom she did not love. When she was twelve her parents left the city and left her with her future husband's family. Before they left, Lindo's mother told her, "Obey your family. Do not disgrace us. Act happy when you arrive. Really you're very lucky" (Tan 54). This quote expresses the idea of how the mothers push their children in order to give them a better life. It also shows how the mother wants to keep the Chinese culture alive because it is a custom for Chinese women to marry Chinese men.

Later on in the book, in the story "Rules of the Game" Lindo Jong's daughter, Waverly Jong, learns the game of chess. Lindo sees how good Waverly is at chess and she decides to push her to become better because she claims that she is prodigy. Waverly soon became tired of this, chess was the only thing her mother stressed, "I went to school then directly home to learn new chess secrets, cleverly concealed advantages, more escape routes" (Tan 98). Lindo pushes and stresses a lot on chess because her daughter has a talent for it and she believes that she might have a future in it. This connects to the idea that the mothers push their daughters to become successful.

In conclusion, the cycle of mothers pushing their daughters is shown in The Joy Luck Club.