“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.
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