The second half of "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan was just as interesting as the first. One thing that drew my attention was the vignette at the beginning of each section of the book. They would quickly foreshadow what the section was going to discuss. For example, one story told of a woman who hung a mirror at the foot of her bed. Supposedly a mirror at the bottom of a bed would cause all "marriage happiness" to "bounce and turn the opposite way." Then, in the pages that followed, marital problems that a couple were experiencing were discussed.
The second half of the novel was also narrated by the Joy Luck Club members and their daughters. As I predicted, in this half of the book they told of their adult experiences. These included marriage and raising families, as well as dealing with their parents and jobs. It was interesting to see how the first generation immigrants' points of views differed from those of the second generation immigrants. The mother's were all more conservative and strict than their daughters when it came to obeying the Chinese customs they had grown up with. For example, one of the daughters wanted to marry outside of her race. It took a lot of convincing and time before her mother would open up to this idea.
One very important event that took place in this half of the book was the reunion of the three sisters. It turned out that the twin girls were born in China during a war. The father went off to fight, and when he was able, he sent word to his wife about where to meet him. She had to carry both of the babies as well as some of their other possessions to this destination where she was supposed to meet up with her husband. Along the way she became very weak and tired. It was impossible for her to go on carrying the babies, so she left them along the side of the road with a not for whoever found them telling them where they could contact her. Before she received any word about her babies, she moved to America and began a new life.
I think that leaving her twin daughters along the road was a good idea. If she exhausted herself until she could no longer move, all three of them would be left to die and no one would contact her husband. However, because she left the babies, she was able to continue on and save herself. Then, once she was safe, she was able to search for her daughters. Also, the couple that found the infants were very kind and they treated the children as though they were their own. It turns out that this outcome was probably what was best for the babies.
Once Jing-Mei Woo learned that she had two sisters, she of course, wanted to meet them. Unfortunately, she was also left responsible for telling her sisters of their mother's death. She traveled to China with her father and they met the sister's at the airport. They recognized her immediately, but they thought that she was their mother and not their sister. I think that the author was trying to show that Jing-Mei not only looked like her mother, but she also carried the same sort of presence. They shared many characteristics and I think her mother's spirit lived on in Jing-Mei. From what I've learned about the Chinese culture through this book, retaining one's spirit after they've passed on would be a humongous honor.
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