Family History Connections

Looking through Google Reader, I found a lot of similar family histories by my classmates that shared various connections with the one I shared about my dad’s difficult journey in his home country Yemen. Not all connections were clear at first but in some way, each one of these parts from my classmate’s family histories showed a connection.

In Vy Troung’s family history :

“My parents were raised during the Vietnam war as they were getting older they knew that to get a better life for their family they would have to move to the United States. When my parents got married and had my sister. My dad and his brothers were forced to work in mining for the
communist. They did not want to work because they were scared of getting sick or losing their family so they decided to take their family and run.”

In Vy’s family history, she tells us about the difficult journey her parents went through just to get into the Philippines and eventually, America. They were going through hard times, especially since the war had begun to devastate their country. By arriving to America, the hope of a better life for her parents and the thought of their children in mind was going to work. In Vy’s story, her family goes through extreme hardships so that she can grow up to have a good life. Though my parents didn’t go through the same rigorous journey, they had the same idea in mind of gaining opportunity and a better life in America for both them and their children.

Leaving out the love story, Max’s dad also traveled to America in search of opportunity:

“Leaving the states for the first time was a big step for him, he had never been so far away from home and family before. So he said his goodbyes and ventured to America. As he arrived he was already bewildered by the things he saw. Though quickly ignoring them on focusing on task, with the little money he had left he got a taxi and got a ride to Liz's place.”

As Max says, it was a big step moving to the United States. There is a life that you must leave behind and once in America, start a new one.

Cyclical Patterns in JLC

In The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, we see a lot of cycles throughout the book. We see cyclical patterns connecting from the beginning of the book connecting to the end of the book, connections between two different mother and daughter relationships, and also we see patterns and cycles located in the last two pages of the book connected to many areas of the book before those two last pages. Yes, this sounds confusing but just like the cycles, a lot of it is not clear at first. Here is one quote that shows a cyclical pattern in the book:

“I’m shaking, trying to hold something inside. The last time I saw them, at the funeral, I had broken down and cried big gulping sobs. They must wonder now how someone like me can take my mother’s place. A friend once told me that my mother and I were alike, that we had the same wispy hand gestures, the same girlish laugh and sideways look. When I shyly told my mother this, she seemed insulted and said, ‘You don’t even know little percent of me! How can you be me?’ And she’s right. How can i be my mother at Joy Luck?” (Pg. 27)

In the book, we see the repeated cycle in which a lot of the daughters in the book are coming just like their mothers. From the beginning, the cycle is already beginning to appear. In the beginning, Jing-mei’s mother has recently passed away. Her mother and a group of friends once lived in a war effected city in China where the people are at a place and time where they are suffering dearly. The can barely get through the day and being able to have food and water for their families. Instead of going through this misery, the mother’s decide to make the Joy Luck Club to rid of their miseries and take their minds off things such as the war. Eventually, the Joy Luck Club travels all the way to San Francisco and her mother keeps her position in the club. But after her death, her position became vacant and who was to better replace her than her daughter, Jing-mei.

What I think the special twist to these patterns are that throughout family, things are always passed on and on. Whether its personality, looks, wealth, and so on, we see a lot of cyclical patterns within our families as well.

My Family History

   Growing up in one of the poorest Arab countries in the world, life in Yemen was not easy. My parents both grew up in the same village located a little more than a hundred miles south of the capital, Sana’a. Not a lot of money flowed in and out of this area so the income level was real low. As a kid, my dad was already given huge responsibilities. He had to sleep overnight in a tent to watch over the family farm from thieves, water each and every crop almost every three or so days since the climate was real hot and dry, and watch a number of over a hundred cattle, recounting the total every night. Then one day, he got a break when his family went for a visit in the neighboring village to see his uncle and aunties. Unexpectedly, it became much more than that.
   
    The village was only about five or ten miles away from my parent’s village but for some strange reason, the climate here was very different. Every time it would shower in my parent’s village, it would pour heavily in my dad’s relatives village (I’ve noticed this myself in the many trips i have made to Yemen). Upon arrival, my dad and his family exited the car and gratefully greeted their relatives since its been a while since they have last seen each other. Though he loved his relatives dearly, my dad never liked the visits out of their village. He always thought that they were boring as a kid because of his unawareness of the area. He would end up sitting down with adults and their boring conversations ranging from politics to weather, basically catching up on one another. When everyone was settled in the living room and began to have their conversations, my dad couldn't but help to notice a new face in the room. Unlike my dad, this kid looked fancy with brand new clothes, combed hair, and even his own wristwatch. My dad was curious: who was this kid? How did his parents get so rich in such a country? My dad decided to go greet him.

    My dad got out of his seat and away from the boring conversations and approached the kid. He sat beside him and greeted him and they got into a conversation. It’s been a long time since this day occurred so my dad does not remember the name of the boy so we’ll call him Tom. My dad found out that Tom’s dad moved to the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. There, he was able to carry a decent job and also support those back home in Yemen. Tom’s dad was a good friend of my dad’s uncle back when they were kids which explains their presence here in this living room at this very moment. They decided to leave the adults and go to the local bazaar and get a bag of chips and maybe a snack. On their way out, they noticed that it was getting real dark, a sign of things to come. Both, my dad and Tom are unaware that what they have coming for them is one of the huge rainstorms that come through here often, something they are going to get blindsided by due to the fact that they are both coming from two different places.

    As they walked along the dirt paths that served as roads for vehicles, it started to drizzle. That’s when they started walking at a faster pace towards the local bazaar, which was quite a distance from the house but wasn’t too far away. They walked past the corn crops that filled the area that belonged to the people of the village, past the cattle grazing on the rich grass, and past the wells that were built to water the crops sourced by the drizzling rain. Their walk down this path eventually led them to the bazaar. There were numerous displays of corn, papayas, watermelon, peaches, guavas, bananas, apples, lemons, oranges, mangoes, grapes of all variety, dates, figs, pomegranate and it goes on and on. All are freshly picked, organic, and ripe which made it all the better. All of this could not be possible without the help of mother nature. My dad and Tom decided to each get a pomegranate since it was the cheapest fruit available and it was all they can afford at the moment. Then, all of a sudden, things went for the worse.

    Out of nowhere, an enormous discharge of lightning was released from above the tenebrous clouds above them. The hearts of my dad and Tom nearly erupted out of their chests! They have heard thunder before but never so loud. Immediately after they heard the loud thud of thunder, a heavy artillery of raindrops barraged onto the ground. The bazaar stands were put away and locked up into their stores. All of the merchants went back into their stores and locked up their belongings along with themselves to hide from the shells of water being fired from above. My dad and Tom just stood there shocked and soaked while the lightning continued to light up the sky. Luckily, an elderly man invited them into his shed. It was dark and a candle kept light within the small shed but it was okay as long as it kept them away from the rain. The elderly man offered them a sheet to wipe off the water that filled their clothes but their worries were not over yet.

They had to get back home and the rain did not look like it was going to lay off and give them a break anytime soon. As they stood at the door of the shed, they anxiously waited for the rain to stop or at least grow weaker. Instead, a big ball of lightning lit up the sky and the ground beneath it, followed by an even bigger bang of thunder than before. And the rain kept pouring with even more force. That’s when my dad made the decision to go back home through the rain considering it was not going to lay off anytime soon. So at that very moment, my dad and Tom ran as fast as they could. About ten seconds into the run, every part of their body and piece of clothing was soaked which began to slow them down but they knew there was no time to slow down and persisted to run. Finally, they were able to take a rest under a piece of metal veiling over them that was connected to a house. Again, they had a plan of resting until the rain settled down a bit. Unfortunately, the same results occurred as before as the rain began to pour even harder. The rain got so bad that it was hard seeing what was about twenty feet in front of them. My dad nearly got to the verge of tears but knew he had to stay strong if he wanted to make the journey home.

So once again they ran and ran in the direction they came from. Snot was running down out of their noses and they were ice cold but they could not give up. Not now. The journey continued and they found another veiling shed from another house. This time, they weren’t waiting for the rain to calm down for it was obvious the rain was not going to settle. Instead they took about a twenty second break and went for another run. About a minute later, the rain finally started to settle but still continued to poor. To their relief, the house was now visible in front of them. They approached with a slower pace now that the rain wasn’t as powerful. They were about forty feet away from their house when another disaster appeared. Where once lied a empty ditch about fifteen feet wide and whose length seemed to go forever, was now a raging river! The force was so strong that when my dad threw a rock into it, it was out of their view in mere seconds.

Once again, my dad was almost on the verge of tears. He never wanted to leave his village in the first place. My dad looked over to Tom and he was going through the same thing. They tried to go through by holding on to each other in one hand and advancing forward slowly. But as soon as one of them put a foot into the shallow river, about four feet deep, their foot sank about ten inches into the mud. So helplessly, they sat next to the river in the rain, speechless. They tried one more time but this time, Tom fell in! My dad instantly grabbed him and pulled him out. Tom was now crying and my dad wanted to join.

About five minutes after the rain stopped pouring, there were kids seen playing in the same river! To their amazement, the river finally settled down! So one more time, my dad and Tom tried going through the same river that almost killed them and without force, they walked steadily and made it to the other side. Finally, they were home! They ran to the house but to their surprise, none of the adults noticed they were ever gone!

Why do you think this story has survived in your family? Why has it passed on from older to younger generations? What makes it significant to your family history and culture?

I think this story has survived in my family, specifically my dad, because of how much of an adventure it was to him. At one point, he thought his friend was going to die or that he would never make it home. These fearful stories in which they at one point keep us on the verge of tears, stay in our memories to be passed on to younger generations to come. It was passed on from my dad to me mainly because he wanted to share his childhood in which he went through numerous adventures, in which this is only one of them. He also wanted to share how his childhood activities differed from mine, where the only fear we see in going to the store and back is looking both ways and avoiding getting hit by a car, not a raging river and rain that flooded the whole village. It was significant to my family history because it symbolized the hardships my parents went through as children. My dad eventually left Yemen and traveled to Dubai to work as a police officer for a couple of years before making the trip to America. His hard journey to America was to help me and my siblings avoid the difficulty he had as a child and so we can live life to the fullest, which drives my motivation to achieve the best that I can in getting a good education.

Tiger Mom vs Joy Luck Club

In The Joy Luck Club, we see many similarities and differences between the relationships of the mothers and daughters (specifically, “The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates” section) of the book and the relationship Amy Chua has with her kids in real life. Amy Chua enforces a strict set of rules she has for her children that she thinks a majority of Asian parents also share. The rules Amy Chua has as expectations for her children include: being the number one student in every subject, get A’s and nothing but A’s, not attend sleep overs or having play dates, and not being able to choose their own extra curricular activities. In some ways, the stories in The Joy Luck Club, we see Amy Tan reincorporating Amy Chua’s guidelines on how to raise Asian children in the mother and daughter relationships of one particular story called “Two Kinds”. Here is a quote from the "Tiger Mom" article by Amy Chau:

"A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it."

In the story, “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei’s mother is ashamed of her daughter, Jing-mei. Her mother has always wanted her daughter to be a prodigy. It didn’t matter what kind of prodigy she was to become, as long as she became real good at something, it was okay. Her mother became especially agitated after she had enough of the bragging that Waverly’s mother would do about her daughter being the amazing chess player she is in the whole city. But through out the story, Jing-mei’s mother believed that she would eventually sprout out of her shell and find that hidden talent within her. That’s when her mother saw a show showing an amazing kid piano player and believed Jing-mei can do the same and began to send Jing-mei to piano lessons.

I picked this particular story because one of the guidlines Amy Chau had in her article was to not let her children play any instrument besides the violin and piano. Well, in “Two Kinds”, Jing-mei is eventually forced into playing the piano (just like Amy Chau gives her children the piano and violin as the only options of instruments to play). So yes, I do think that Amy Chau’s article is endorsed by The Joy Luck Club in many ways and I predict that many stories along the way of the book will do the same.

"The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" Intro

What is Amy Tan's purpose behind this introductory piece? What thematic elements, characterization, or plot foreshadowing connect it to the stories that follow, particularly "Rules of the Game" and "The Voice from the Wall"?
  
In the introductory piece, Amy Tan incorporates a scene in which a seven year old girl is trying to ride her bike beyond the awareness of her Chinese mother by riding the bike around the corner. The mother tells her not to ride the bike around the corner because she will fall and get hurt without her knowing but the daughter doesn't believe anything will go wrong and yells back at her mother and tells her she knows nothing. In a hurry, she jumps on her bike and rides off. Before she can ever get to the corner, she falls down, just as her mother warned would happen.

I think that the thematic elements Amy Tan, the author of The Joy Luck Club, is trying to incorporate here the issues that arise between mother and daughter in America. Once in America, it gets really hard for Chinese parents to teach their Chinese customs in a whole new environment where independence is key. The daughter is symbolizing the independence that arises within her (and rely on her inner strength rather than feed off of others strength such as her mother's). The mother, who has gone through struggles and experience a life long journey of events in her lifetime, symbolizes wisdom. As the daughter goes off on her bike, she falls before ever reaching the corner showing that her mothers wisdom should not be overlooked. 


I think that this introductory piece is going to foreshadow in the following stories the plot of the many different struggles that arise between mother and daughter. As the daughter move towards independence, they rely less on the wisdom of their parents and rely on themselves, even though the mother's wisdom can be helpful. In the next story, "Rules of the Game", Lindo teaches her daughter her wisdom of "invisible strength". Her mother's wisdom influences her daughter, Waverly, to become one of the best chess players in the San Francisco community. Lindo brags about her daughter constantly which angers Waverly and causes problems between the two, which is the message that was brought out by the introduction in the beginning of this section.