The Reconnection
By: Lauren Hooks
Favorite Parable
My favorite parable was "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" because it teaches the reader a lesson that your parents know best even if you disagree. In the parable, the mother doesn't want her daughter to ride her bike around the corner because she will fall and she won't hear her crying. The daughter ignores her mother and turns the corner and of corse falls. This story taught me that you should always listen to your guardian because they know more than you. "You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me" (Tan 87).
Mother/Daughter Pairs
Even though i read only the story of Suyuan and Jing-Mei Woo, i would have liked to also read the story of Lindo and Waverly Jong. The reason this story interests me the most is because it teaches you to be your own person and to take things into your own hands. Lindo is forced into a marriage and a red candle which is lit on both sides represents their everlasting love. But Linda blows out one side so the marriage ends. This took a lot of courage and brought her to find who her true self was.
Favorite Quote
Throughout the story of Jing-Mei and her mother, Suyuan Woo, Jing-Mei thinks that she is totally different than her mom. She believes that she knows nothing about her and that they have different view points on everything. But when Jing-Mei meets and sees her long lost half sisters, she realizes that her and her mom may be more alike than she had ever imagined. "And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother"(Tan 288).
Thematic Paragraph
In the Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan presents the idea that sacrifices within your family are worth making in order to protect the ones you love. Suyuan sacrifices giving up her daughters in order to protect them from the terrors that were to come. They got to live on with another family and eventually got to meet Jing-Mei who helped them get to know they mother even though she passed away. Suyuan had a very hard decision to make deciding whether she should leave them in the middle of no where or if she should take them through the terrible journey with her. She chose to take a sacrifice to leave them to be found by another family so they could be safe. "Somebody took them away. They're safe"(Tan 39).