The Joy Luck Club Quotes
The life histories of four Asian women and their daughters reflect and guide each other.
Ying Ying: All around this house I see the signs. My daughter looks but she does not see. This is a house that will break into pieces. It's not too late. All my pains, my regrets, I will gather them together. My daughter will hear me calling, even though I've said no words. She will climb the stairs to find me. She will be scared because at first her eyes will see nothing. She will feel in her heart this place where she hides her fears. She will know I am waiting like a tiger in the trees, now ready to leap out and cut her spirit loose.
An-Mei: I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way. No, this cannot be, this not knowing what you're worth, this not begin with you. My mother not know her worth until too late - too late for her, but not for me. Now we will see if not too late for you, hmm?
Waverly (Age 6-9): I've decided to play chess again.
Lindo Jong: You think it is so easy. One day quit, next day play. Everything for you is this way: so smart, so easy, so fast. Not so easy anymore.
Waverly Jong: What she said, it was like a curse. This power I had, this belief in myself, I could actually feel it draining away. I could feel myself becoming ordinary. All the secrets I once saw, I couldn't see them anymore. All I could see was, were my mistakes, my weaknesses. The best part of me just disappeared. But I can't put it all on my mother. I did it to myself. I never played chess again.
Lindo Jong: You think it is so easy. One day quit, next day play. Everything for you is this way: so smart, so easy, so fast. Not so easy anymore.
Waverly Jong: What she said, it was like a curse. This power I had, this belief in myself, I could actually feel it draining away. I could feel myself becoming ordinary. All the secrets I once saw, I couldn't see them anymore. All I could see was, were my mistakes, my weaknesses. The best part of me just disappeared. But I can't put it all on my mother. I did it to myself. I never played chess again.
Waverly Jong: Mom, why don't you like Rich?
Lindo Jong: Is Rich you afraid I not like? If I don't like your Rich, I act polite, say nothing, let him have big cancer, let my daughter be a widow. I like Rich, of course I do. To allow him to marry such a daughter!
Waverly Jong: You don't know, you don't know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look, and I'm four years old again, crying myself to sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you.
Lindo Jong: Is Rich you afraid I not like? If I don't like your Rich, I act polite, say nothing, let him have big cancer, let my daughter be a widow. I like Rich, of course I do. To allow him to marry such a daughter!
Waverly Jong: You don't know, you don't know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look, and I'm four years old again, crying myself to sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you.
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: [opening naration] The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. "This bird", boasted the market vendor, "was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose. And now look, it is too beautiful to eat!" Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of lei wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey, she cooed to the swan, "In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow. She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan, a creature that became more than what was hoped for." But when she arrived in the new country the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time now, the women had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her; "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."
June (Age 9): You want me to be someone I'm not. I'll never be the kind of daughter that you want me to be.
Suyuan: Only two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow-own-mind. Only one kind of daughter could live in this house: obedient kind.
June (Age 9): Then I wish I wasn't your daughter. I wish you weren't my mom.
Suyuan: Too late to change this.
Suyuan: Only two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow-own-mind. Only one kind of daughter could live in this house: obedient kind.
June (Age 9): Then I wish I wasn't your daughter. I wish you weren't my mom.
Suyuan: Too late to change this.
An-Mei: It was an old tradition. Only the most dutiful of daughters would put her own flesh in a soup to save her mother's life. My mother did this with her whole heart even though my grandmother had disowned her. This is how a daughter honors her mother. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. This is the most important sacrifice a daughter can make for her mother.
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: I'm just sorry that you got stuck with such a loser, that I've always been so disappointing.
Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: Everything: my grades, my job, not getting married, everything you expected of me.
Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That's not wrong, to hope.
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: No? Well, it hurts, because every time you hoped for something I couldn't deliver, it hurt. It hurt me, Mommy. And no matter what you hope for, I'll never be more than what I am. And you never see that, what I really am.
Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: Everything: my grades, my job, not getting married, everything you expected of me.
Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That's not wrong, to hope.
Jing-Mei 'June' Woo: No? Well, it hurts, because every time you hoped for something I couldn't deliver, it hurt. It hurt me, Mommy. And no matter what you hope for, I'll never be more than what I am. And you never see that, what I really am.
Waverly Jong: As is the Chinese cook's custom, my mother always insults her own cooking, but only with the dishes she serves with special pride.
Lindo Jong: This dish not salty enough. No flavor. It's too bad to eat, but please.
Waverly Jong: That was our cue to eat some and proclaim it the best she'd ever made.
Lindo Jong: This dish not salty enough. No flavor. It's too bad to eat, but please.
Waverly Jong: That was our cue to eat some and proclaim it the best she'd ever made.
Huang Tai Tai: Where are my grandsons, huh? My son says he's planted enough seeds in you to fill a basket, plenty for ten thousand grandsons! It's all your fault, always running around, letting my son's seeds spill out. From now on you lie in bed all day. Lie down! Lie down! Until my grandson comes! Do you hear me? Disgusting little thing!
