Joy Luck Club Conflicts Essay Research Paper

Joy Luck Club Conflicts Essay, Research Paper

Many Misconceptions and Delusions

Conflicts play a crucial role in novels. Without conflict, novels would

be uninteresting and very dull. Conflicts are seen in many different forms,

as internal conflicts, when a character must deal with private problems, and

external conflicts, when a character must deal with problems originating from an external source, like another person or society in general. Some common conflicts seen in other novels are person versus society, as in The Scarlet Letter when Hester is forced to face her mistake of adultery due to the

obsession of the unforgiving town. An example of an internal conflict is

present within Animal Dreams, when Cody must decide where she belongs and must also deal with the pain of her lost baby. These types of conflicts and

more are visible within the novel entitled The Joy Luck Club written by Amy

Tan. Three prominent conflicts seen in The Joy Luck Club are between Waverly and Lindo, Lindo and Suyuan, and between June and Waverly.

The first prominent conflict within this novel deals with Waverly and her

mother Lindo. Waverly feels as though her mother is attempting to ruin her

life by causing her to “see black where there once was white” (Tan 186).

Lindo, Waverly believes, is attempting to influence her daughter for the

worse. She does not want to be influenced by her mother’s opinions, her

criticisms of everything that she loves, yet Waverly fears that even if she

“recognized her sneak attack, [she] was afraid that some unseen speck of

truth would fly into [her] eye, blur what [she] was seeing and transform

[it]” (Tan 181) into the thing that her mother saw, into something full

of faults, something that is not good enough for her. Waverly resents this,

yet Lindo believes that it is for Waverly’s own good. She does not want

Waverly to accept something just because it was a gift, like the fur jacket

that Rich gave Waverly. Lindo believes that she has taught Waverly to grow

up with values, with goals that everyone and everything must meet. As

Waverly shows Lindo the jacket, Lindo inspects it, finally reporting, “This

is not so good” (Tan 186). Waverly protests, “He gave me this from his

heart” (Tan 186), to which Lindo replies, “That is why I worry” (Tan

186). Lindo simply wants Waverly to strive for the best. Lindo believes

that her daughter deserves the best, and nothing should influence her for the

worse. The conflict between mother and daughter is finally resolved after

Waverly confronts her mother about the verbal abuse she has endured. Waverly realizes that her mother is only “an old woman… getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in” (Tan 204). Waverly finally tells her mother about her life, especially about Rich, and they begin to get along better. Both must sacrifice a little pride to make the

relationship work, but as they both do so, they grow closer and their

relationship becomes stronger as a result.

The second prominent conflict visible within this novel is between Lindo

and Suyuan. These two women are supposedly best friends, yet their constant bickering and competition, which their children deem as “normal”, seems to negate this fact. June, Suyuan’s daughter, seems to know the truth: “Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children” (Tan 27). Waverly also agrees with June’s observation of their mothers’ friendship, simply stated as such: “They were very close, which meant they were ceaselessly tormenting each other with boasts and secrets” (Tan 194). Lindo and Suyuan spent most of their time comparing their cooking and their children, both believing that they were superior to the other. Suyuan and Lindo both believe that their own cooking skills greatly exceed the other’s. Lindo seems to be the best cook of the two of them, considering that she “learned to cook so well that [she] could smell if the meat stuffing was too salty before [she] even tasted it” (Tan

50). Also, as Lindo states to her daughter, “[Auntie Suyuan] can only cook

looking at a recipe. My instructions are in my fingers. I know what secret

ingredients to put in just by using my nose!” (Tan 195). Thus, Lindo still

competes with Suyuan, even though the evidence proves that Lindo is the

better cook. Lindo is also able to brag about her daughter Waverly, who wins

trophies for playing chess, so many that “all day [she has] no time do

nothing but dust off her winnings” (Tan 148), adding, “You lucky you don’t

have this problem” (Tan 149) with a bit of a flourish. This infuriates

Suyuan, who believes that the only way for her own daughter June to live up

to Waverly is for Suyuan to discover some sort of hidden talent within her.

Suyuan tells June, “You can be prodigy, too… you can be best anything.

What does Auntie Lindo know. Her daughter, she is only best tricky” (Tan

141). Suyuan strives to find something within June that can compare her to

Waverly’s suc

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