Understanding Mothers in The Joy Luck Club In America, it is common to take mothers for granted and reject the advice they try to give. Generally, their attempt to give advice is considered an intrusion into our lives and privacy. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan tries to convince the reader to step back and see the good intentions behind our mother's actions. In the stories told by Jing-Mei, Tan weaves flashbacks and memories of Jing-Mei's childhood experiences. , including stories she heard about her mother Suyuan's early life in China. These stories help explain why she teaches her daughter the values ​​of optimism and determination. As the reader encounters these flashbacks, Suyuan's tragic story is revealed. When war reaches her city, Suyuan loses everything she owns and, in an attempt to save her life by fleeing China, she is forced to leave her twins on the side of the road in the hope that they will have a chance. to a good life. Jing-Mei recalls that her mother "had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China...but she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better" (Tan 132). As Suyuan's past is revealed, the reader cannot help but realize her determination, optimism, and strong will as she perseveres against all odds to establish a better life in America. Suyuan tries to pass on her virtues of determination, optimism and perseverance to her American-born daughter Jing-Mei. Jing-Mei's mother watches American movie stars perform on television and believes that with hard work and practice her daughter can aspire to the same stardom. Despite her daughter's constant protests, Suyuan forces her to practice t...... middle of paper ......lub, Tan forces us readers to take a step back from our lives in order to realize all the good intentions of our mother's actions. Perhaps we can understand the reasoning behind our mother's advice and the impact it has had on our lives. Works consulted: Foster, M. Marie Booth. “Voice, Mind, Self: Mother-Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife.” Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in Twentieth-Century Literature. Ed. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Austin: U of Texas P, 1996. 207-27.Ghymn, Ester Mikyung. Images of Asian American women by Asian American writers. vol. 1. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. Huntley, E. D. Amy Tan: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood P, 1998. Tan, Amy. The Joy and Luck Club. Vintage contemporaries. New York: a division of Random House, Inc. 1993.