Joy Luck Club FINISHED!

     Finally, we've finished the Joy Luck Club!
Throughout this book, Amy Tan uses a lot of "cycles" and repeats many of the things that she wants to emphasize. One thing that stood out to me was the used of jewelry.In the first chapter/last, The Joy Luck Club, the Red Candle, Two Kinds, and in Magpies, jewelry plays a role in the story.
     In the first chapter by Jing-Mei Woo, she talks about her mother's story of what had happened to her in China and why she had come to America. Jing-Mei's mother, Suyuan Woo, had had two daughters who she was forced to leave behind. In the last chapter, when Jing-Mei decides to go back to China to find her sisters, her father tells her the story of what her mother experienced. It turns out that Suyuan had left a family picture, a letter, jewelry and clothes to bundle the two babies all on the side of the road when she was fleeing form the Japanese. These were the only things that she had to offer and she gave them up in order for her children to have a slight chance of living. The jewelry was especially significant because it was the thing that her mother hoped would be enough money to allow her children to live under the care of others. The jewelry was the thing that represented Suyuan's willingness to sacrifice all she had for her children.
     In the Red Candle, again, a piece of jewelry expressed a mother's love and a mother's sacrifice. When Lindo's home was flooded, Lindo was sent to go live at her future husband's house (her arranged marriage). When her family left, they left Lindo. Her mother gave Lindo her jade and expressed her sadness to give her daughter up to another family. Her father did not let her mother show pain or sadness, but the only form of love her mother was able to show her was by giving her a jade pendent for luck and as a memento of love from her family.
     In Two Kinds, Jing Mei's mother wanted her to be a prodigy of some kind and her mother decided on her being a piano prodigy. Jing- Mei did not take her lessons seriously and when her mother pushed her to do a competition, she still felt confident she would do well. As a token of luck from her mother, Suyuan gave Jing-mei her jade. Again, the jade represented the pride an the luck from a mother.
     In the last section's first chapter, Magpies, An-mei's mother brings her back to her husband's house where she is a concubine. At their first meeting, the 2nd wife gave An-mei a pearl necklace. An-mei was overjoyed, but soon, her mother proved to her that it was in fact fake and the An-mei had been shallow to be won over by cheap means. Her mother gives her a sapphire ring and An-mei treasures it as a truth. The fake pearl necklace represents lies and deception, but the ring represented trust and truth. An-mei's mother proved that she should be trusted by An-mei because she did not want her child to be deceived by underhand means.
     All the jewelry in the Joy Luck Club represented a mother's love and caring for her daughter. This cyclical object meant a lot to the context of the stories.