The Joy Luck Club key quotes

Question 1

I can never remember things I ____ ____ in the first place

Answer 1

didn’t understand

Jing Mei cannot understand Chinese words / identity, immigration and language - mother and daughter relationship

Question 2

These kind of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke ___ ___ ___, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese

Answer 2

two different languages

Language differences between Jing Mei and her mother / immigration and language, mother and daughter relationship

Question 3

My mother and I never really understood ___ ___

Answer 3

one another

Jing Mei and her mother using different expressions and languages leading them to misunderstand or mistranslate each other’s meanings / mother and daughter relationship, immigration and language

Question 4

My mother believed you could be ___ ___ ___ to be in America

Answer 4

anything you want

Jing-Mei’s mother Su-Yuan believing the American dream / immigration, mother and daughter relationship, fate and autonomy

Question 5

I won’t let her ___ me, I promised to myself. I won’t be what I’m ___

Answer 5

change, not

Jing-Mei looking at her own reflection / identity, fate and autonomy

Question 6

You want me to be someone that I’m not. I wish I wasn’t your ___. I wish you weren’t my ___.

Answer 6

daughter, mother

Jing-Mei was ignorant of the sacrifice and suffering of her mother and what she had gone through as a parent as a Chinese refugee. The great expectations gave Jing-Mei pressure and this caused misunderstandings between mother and daughter / mother and daughter relationship

Question 6

I guess my mother’s telling me I’m ___ ___something.’

Answer 6

Still worth

Jing-Mei receiving a pendant from her mother. Chinese mothers using action more than words to express their love “This is your life’s importance” / mother and daughter relationship

Question 6

That’s the way Chinese mothers show they love their children, not through ___ and ___ but with ___ ___ of steamed dumplings.

Answer 6

hugs, kisses, stern offerings

Jing-Mei / mother and daughter relationship, immigration, tradition

Question 7

Only her ___ and ___ are Chinese. Inside she is all ___. How could I know these two things do not mix?

Answer 7

skin, hair, American-made

Waverly / immigration, sacrifice, mother and daughter relationship

Question 8

I smile, this time with my ___ ___

Answer 8

Chinese face

Lindo is used to the ignorance of Americans towards immigrants. she uses two different faces to fit in without causing conflict / immigration and language, sacrifice, identity

Question 9

If you show one, you must always ___ the other

Answer 9

sacrifice

Lindo having identity problems with the two different faces while Waverly thinking it is good –> value and traditional differences / immigration and language, identity, mother and daughter relationship

Question 10

They knew my face was not one hundred percent ___

Answer 10

Chinese

Lindo is disconnected from America and China: she has characteristics from both places. She had to sacrifice her Chinese heritage / identity, fate, immigration

Question 11

The art of ___ strength

Answer 11

invisible

Waverly starts her story by introducing what she had learned from her mother Lindo. The invisible strength: linked to the wind - invisible yet powerful beyond belief. –> the power of foreigners who are considered ignorant / mother and daughter relationship, immigration, fate and autonomy, story telling and tradition

Question 12

Why do you have to use me to ___ ___?

Answer 12

show off

Waverly to her mother / immigration and language, mother and daughter relationship

Question 13

Strongest wind cannot be ___.

Answer 13

seen

the art of invisible strength, Lindo to Waverly / mother and daughter relationship, tradition

Question 14

She had no words for me, just sharp ___.

Answer 14

silence

Waverly talking about Lindo. parallel to the mother and daughter relationship problems from Jing-Mei’s chapter sharp silence: chinese parents not using words

Question 15

She and I make a bad ___.

Answer 15

Combination

Waverly and Lindo - due to the zodiac signs / tradition, mother and daughter relationship, fate and autonomy

Question 16

In her hands, I always became the ___. And she was the ___. Always able to find my weakest spots

Answer 16

Pawn, queen

The author uses chess as a metaphor to show that Waverly is feeling like she is being defeated by her mother (with the one thing that she thought she had a talent for) The queen and the pawn → metaphor

Question 17

my mother loved to show me off, like one of the many ___ she polished.

Answer 17

trophies

Waverly / simile

Question 18

My mother was doing it again, making me see ___ where I once saw ___.’

Answer 18

black, white

Waverly, Chess: black white, metaphor of chess. The power her mother has over her → Waverly thinks her mother can make her think the opposite to what she once saw
Desperate for her mother’s attention and love

Question 19

‘I once sacrificed my life to keep my ___ ___.’

Answer 19

parents’ promise

Lindo - Mother and daughter relationship and sacrifice

Question 20

I had no ___, now or later.

Answer 20

choice

Lindo / tradition, fate and autonomy

Question 21

“For a long time, I wanted to give you this ______” Suyuan

Answer 21

Necklace