The Joy Luck Club

Here comes to my part. I am going to talk about the cultural diversity of marriage presented in the film and I want to elaborate this through the following three aspects: did young people have the option of picking their husband/wife,

The purpose or significance of marriage

And whether husband and wife have an equal place in the marriage.

First of all, as we all know, young people didn’t have rights to choose spouse in ancient China while it is advocated in America that people chose and married the perfect person they want and they strongly opposite parents’ excessive intervention because they believe that it is a private thing between the two which is none of parents’ business. It is represented in the film that Lindo was engaged to a boy she never met before at an age of 5. After the engagement, Lindo’s mother told her that Lindo was no longer hers, instead, she was regarded as the daughter-in-law of Ms. Huang. As a girl in a poor family, she could only obey the decision of parents and matchmaker, without resistance. When she was 15 years old, she got married. What a shock it is that her husband was only a child who liked scaring people with lizards. Over the years and Lindo walked out of this abusive relationships, she went to America and started a new life. On the contrary, her daughter, Waverly, an American born Chinese, was an independent woman believe in liberty. For the reason of that, she chose the person she wanted to love instead of being obedience to her parents. She decided to elope with her first husband for he was not accepted by her mother. Furthermore, her second husband, Rich, was snubbed since Waverly’s mother could not stand his habits like eating too much as a guest. Luckily, Waverly’s mother was moved by her persistence and finally accepted this American son-in-law and permitted her daughter to marry him.

It is believed by public that in ancient China even in these days, if a women couldn’t not bear a son to carry the family name on, she would be abandoned or badly treated by her family. It seems like women are machines for producing children. Lindo was abused because she could not be pregnant and her conservative mother-in-law was very eager to have grandchildren. She even compelled Lindo to stay in bed until pregnancy. But in America, it is commonly recognized that love is the foundation of marriage, while a marriage without love is immoral. For instance, when Rose and Ted were in relationship, Ted’s mother wanted to separate them because she thought Rose was Vietnamese. Ted was so angry about her mother that even told her he was ashamed of her. Luckily, they got married in the end. The words which impressed me most is that one day Rose’s mother said, “I was taught to desire nothing because I was raised in Chinese way, to swallow other people’s misery and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, but she still came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. All of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. But no, this cannot be. This not knowing what you’re worth, not to begin with you. My mother not know her worth until too late. Now we will see if not too late for you.