Summary:
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club is a truly rich novel. The concept of "invisible strength" caught my interest in particular, so I have chosen to analyze the relationship between Lindo, her daughter Waverly and Waverly's boyfriend Rich.
The Art of Invisible Strength
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club is a truly rich novel. The concept of "invisible strength" caught my interest in particular, so I have chosen to analyze the relationship between Lindo, her daughter Waverly and Waverly's boyfriend Rich. My questions are how Lindo achieved this strength, why she did it and how it effected herself, Waverly and Rich.
It is fundamental to the analysis to investigate Lindo's past in China. It is clear that she is a much loved child. "In my case, people could see my value. I looked and smelled like a precious buncake, sweet with a good clean color"(42). In my opinion, that kind of self-worth comes from unconditional love. This helps her when she is left at twelve by her family. She must stay with the Huangs, whose son she is promised to in marriage, even though it almost kills her. " I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promise"(41). In China, at the beginning of the 20th century, there was no escape from such a promise.
Lindo is devastated by her loss, the hard work and the prison-like life with the Huang family. At sixteen her much feared wedding day comes. As she dresses, she sees her reflection in the mirror. She suddenly becomes aware of her own strength. "I would always remember my parents' wishes, but I would never forget myself "(51). This is a defining moment. She regains her lost self-worth and never loses it again. When a candle ceremony is performed to ensure a lasting marriage, she secretely blows out her husband's flame, which is a strong act of rebellion. The marriage turns out to be a disaster and Mrs Huang is very displeased with the lack of grandchildren. After a while Lindo develops an escape plan; to make the Huangs believe that the dead ancestors, who have a firm hold on the living, have doomed the marriage. She makes up stories about all kinds of ancestrial interventions. The Huangs are frightened and Lindo is set free. She has mastered the art of invisible strength.
Consequently, when we then meet Lindo's daughter Waverly, her first words are: "I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength" (80). But Waverly plays chess. She never masters the art of playing with people, the way her mother does. There is a dark side to this invisible force; Lindo cannot refrain from manipulating even her most loved ones.
In contrast to her mother Waverly is not strong, but when she reaches puberty her mother's overpowering interest in her career as a chess champion makes her rebel. At one point she screems: "Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess?"(91). This hurts Lindo at the core of her being.
The pain they feel makes the fight fierce; the weapon is ice-cold silence, used by both parties. Waverly stops playing chess and life continues without a word. But she cannot challenge her mother and decides to play again. Lindo is furious: " It is not so easy anymore!"(166). The cause of Lindo's anger is that Waverly is completely unaware of the sacrifices Lindo has had to make, in order to enable her little girl to play chess in complete freedom. Because Lindo has had to fight so hard, she cannot endure Waverly's carefree approach to life.
Waverly is severely punished: "It was as if she had erected an invisible wall and I was secretly groping each day to see how high and how wide it was"(167). Lindo does not forgive. The invisible strength is also her damnation.
Many years later, when Waverly introduces her boyfriend Rich to the family, she is still terrified. "My mother was doing it again, making me see black where I once saw white"(174).Waverly sees everything in black or white, when she could choose to see all the nuances. She suddenly sees Rich as pathetic, where she used to think he was perfect. But he is just a decent, normal man. Lindo and Waverly both appear as quite extreme, in comparison. The future marriage does not seem to have much of a chance.
Another concluison is that the promise Lindo made to herself, long ago in China, to be her own person, is what she is ultimately denying Waverly. "And I think, How can she be her own person? When did I give her up?"(253). She has taught Waverly the art of invisible strength, but she does not allow her to use it.
Lindo has fought an entire misogynic culture to gain strength and to free herself, but ends up with this unhealthy bond to her daughter. Waverly is equally bound to her mother and perceives the world in black or white, lost in a world of endless choices, forever wavering (!) between extremes, unable to love people for who they are. Rich is caught in the fire between the two, without even knowing it. The final conclusion is that mother and daughter are forever caught in a war with no winner. It may be the art of invisible strength, but it lacks wisdom.
Works cited:
Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club Cambridge University Press 2004
This is the complete article, containing 870 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
