2.1 Chinese culture center
Most of the conflicts mothers and daughters face lie in the misunderstanding and negligence concerning each other’s feelings and beliefs. From the above we can see that the conflicts between mothers and daughters can be regarded as that between control and anti-control. In this cause, the mothers can’t shirk their responsibilities for making these conflicts; they always take Chinese culture as a center and refuse the daughters.
2.1.1 Mothers’ Chinese culture background
Being born and growing up in China, The Joy Luck Club mothers have been strongly influenced by the idea of Chung Hisao, loyalty to the emperor and filial piety to parents and by the Confucian doctrine of three obedience and four virtues. The three obedience are to be obedient to one’s father when unmarried, to one's husband when married and to one’s son when widowed.
The four mothers in The Joy Luck Club are raised Chinese way and taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, to eat their own bitterness, they all have miserable past. Their early special experiences affect them a lot.
The first mother whose story unfolds the joy luck club’s founder: Suyuan Woo. During the Japanese invasion of China, she is forced to flee to the city of Chongqing with little more than her twin daughters, some food, and clothing. Along the way, exhaustion forces her to abandon all her possessions, and finally leaves her infant daughters on the roadside as well. She never sees the girls again.
Another mother in the club is An-mei Hsu. As a young child, An-mei Hsu grows up under the strict supervision of her domineering grandmother and endures a painful separation from her mother, who is estranged from her family after becoming a rich man’s third concubine. Her story of seeing her briefly-returned mother attempt to save the life of her dying grandmother by adding a piece of her own flesh to her soup dramatizes the ferocious bond between mothers and daughters of all cultures. The scar symbolizes the harm done to the child’s psyche before she is able to decide for herself how to relate to her absent mother. Young An-mei gets a lesson in the unbreakable bond between a mother and child. Living with her mother, An-mei witnesses her mother’s awkward and lowly position.
The four mothers all live a tragic life before they come to the United States. They all live in a feudal and war-torn China. The Second World War is still going and feudalism is still flourishing and tightly controlled people’s mind. Women’s social position is lower than of men. They do not have freedom to choose their own husbands, their own life and all should be arranged by their parents, even their brothers.
2.1.2 Rebellion of the mothers
The mothers have experienced famine, war, forced marriage, and broken family in China. They may come from a landscape of concubines, foot-binding, and female subjugation, but they nevertheless maintain a firm sense of self-worth and determination.
As a matter of fact, the mothers have the courage intelligence and strong-mind to meet the difficulties and change their fate. Suyuan does not give up hope to live in the chaotic age. She learns how to survive in the difficult situations. She believes that “to despair was to wish back for something already lost and to prolong what was already unbearable.”[3] She is the one who initiates the mahjong game. For Suyuan, to play the game is more than to enjoy entertainment. It brings her hope to live as well as good luck. It is her spiritual weapon to conquer difficulties. The tragic life of An-mei also changes this once silent and weak girl. She becomes brave and revolting after her mother committed suicide on the eve of New Year. She demonstrates her courage to crash the fake pearl necklace in front of the Second World War of Wuqing. She learns to shout her angry protest instead of keeping silent.
In the face of crisis the mothers adhere to ancient Chinese practices by which they try to manipulate fate to their advantage. Their beliefs and values are unexpectedly reinforced by the democratic social fabric and capitalist economy they encounter in their adopted country. Having emigrated from a land where women were allowed almost no personal freedom, all the mothers share the belief along with Suyuan Woo that “you could be anything you wanted to in America.”[3]
The four mothers still live in China and are immersed in Chinese culture till this stage. What they educated, what they accepted, what they experienced and what they favored are deep-rooted Chinese culture and values. It is very crucial and a spiritual supporting in their later lives in American society.
2.1.3 Mothers’ bicultural identities
As immigrants, they do not accept the culture they have to face and do not try to melt themselves into it. Instead, they hold a rather hostile attitude toward the new culture in the new country and act as the protectors of the Chinese values in the U.S., believing the Chinese culture to be better than that of America. They live in their past experience instead of facing the reality in the new situation. They are quite proud of their experiences in China and the Chinese culture. With their Chinese experience, the mothers survive successfully in the United States.
转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
共9页: 上一页 [1] [2] 3 [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页
网摘收藏:
当前位置:
载入中...
-> 在百度中搜索：
-> 在Google中搜索：