Family in “A Circle of Children” and “The Joy Luck Club”
A family gives the feeling of security and belonging, but a crisis within the family can change it forever. A family always goes through some sort of crisis, and it forces each member to realize the painful truths. Two novels, Mary MacCracken’s A Circle of Children and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, deal with families trying to overcome a crisis. Characters in these books experience differences that cause miscommunication, sacrifices for their family, and the transition that unifies and completes their family that was once torn apart.
Differences between family members can lead to miscommunication. In Tan’s book, the barriers between Jing-mei and her mother are primarily caused by cultural differences; her mother is Chinese, while Jing-mei is more Americanized. Jing-mei always feels like her mother wants her to be someone she can not be; she feels her mother never becomes satisfied. Jing-mei does not get good grades in school, and she drops out of college. For Jing-mei, unlike her mother, does not believe she can be anything she wants to be. She believes she can only be herself. She fails to understand that her mother only hopes for the best; she never expects anything from her daughter. Additionally, Jing-mei argues with her friend Waverly at the dinner table. Jing-mei feels her mother betrays her by supporting Waverly. She becomes convinced that her mother has no faith in her, but she does not know that her mother thinks differently. “Only you picked that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everybody want best quality. You think different” (Tan 234).
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... as a weapon to hurt her mother with. After the recital, Jing-Mei [feels] disappointed (Tan 1071). She wants her mother to react and start shouting, ... herself short in the process. Jing-Mei is determined to prove to her mother, self, and family that her mother has no right to have ...
Jing-mei does not understand that her mother knows that she has the best quality heart, even though Jing-mei has not fulfilled all her mother’s hopes. Her mother believes the most important quality one could have is being a good person within.
On the other hand, in The Circle of Children, the emotionally disturbed children in Mary’s class are so different from “average” people, that normal people have trouble understanding the children’s private hells of anger, confusion, hurt, and tragic loneliness. Since the children do not know how to act properly in today’s society, the people around them often reject them. This misunderstanding causes the children to become alienated, so they are unable to communicate and express their thoughts and feelings in a correct manner. Mary believes that “every child deserves love, happiness, and a chance to try again” (MacCracken 83).
She realizes that these children need someone who will provide love, happiness, and a chance to try again. She becomes determined to bridge the differences between the children and the world around them. Also, Mary teaches her class in a very unique way. All the teachers that work with her believe that she will never achieve her goals by teaching the children the way she does. They fail to notice that Mary teaches her children to feel secured and loved. Unlike the other teachers, Mary teaches her children how to express their feelings properly and how to give and receive love. In both novels, Jing-mei and Mary experience differences that cause miscommunication and lack of understanding, but the bridging between them makes each experience worth wile.
At some point in time, one must make sacrifices for their family. Jing-mei has to go to China to meet her sisters, and she has to tell them that their mother passed away. The death of Jing-mei’s mother is very hard for Jing-mei to overcome, and she believes that telling her sisters about their mother’s death would be too complicating and depressing. Auntie Lindo, a good friend of Jing-mei’s mother, convinces her that Jing-mei has to tell her sisters about their mother since she knew her best. Even though Jing-mei feels delivering the news to her long lost sisters will be very complicated; she makes a sacrifice to fulfill her mother’s dream of finding her daughters in China. Additionally, Jing-mei replaces her mother in the Joy Luck Club after she passed away. Even though she does not want to take her mother’s place, deep within she knows how important the club is for her mother and her friends. Everyone thinks that Jing-mei is the only person suitable for her mother’s place. Jing-mei makes the sacrifice so that the family tradition will continue.
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Amy Tans heartbreaking story, Two Kinds, is a powerful example of conflicting personalities and needs that cause a struggle between parent and child. In every family, parents have, at one point, imposed their failures and expectations on their children, and in worse cases have even tried to live through their children. At times, it can be in the best interest of the child to have a parent motivate ...
In the same way, Mary makes many sacrifices to help the children that are unable to help themselves. Teaching becomes Mary’s goal in life and she develops a determination to find the individual keys to free the children from their private hells. She becomes so involved with the “family” she tries to create in her classroom, and she soon forgets about her own family at home. But the sacrifices she makes for the children all add up, and becomes able to reach her goal. Also, Mary becomes so attached to the children, she feels she will do anything to help them. When Mary and her class go out for a picnic in the forest, one of the children in her class gets lost. She risks her own life, and stays in the forest waiting for the child to be found again. By sacrificing her own life, Mary shows how much she really cares and loves the children. Both Jing-mei and Mary make sacrifices that frighten them and hard decisions, but their sacrifices portray their true love and caring of their families.
In addition, each author addresses the way each family deals with the crisis and how they transition to wholeness and bridge the differences. Jing-mei was never able to understand her mother the way her mother wants her to. Jing-mei’s father tells her that her mother never felt like she was good enough for Jing-mei. At this point, Jing-mei looks back at all the years of miscommunications and misunderstandings, and she finally sees the root of the problems in the relationship between her and her mother. Jing-mei is finally able to understand her mother and her intentions, and the bond between a mother and a daughter becomes clear to her. Also, Jing-mei never knew how her mother felt about the daughters she left behind in China. Jing-mei often asked herself: “What had she dreamt all these years about her other daughters? All the times when she got mad at me, was she really thinking about them?” (Tan 308).
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Family in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein demonstrates a myriad of roles, influencing Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Victor’s childhood establishes a connection between the reader and Victor, building his character. The monster is influenced by the various episodes with the family of cottagers The recounting of Victor’s childhood coalesce the reader to Victor, conveying his ...
Jing-mei feels like her mother loved the daughters in China more than she loved her. After meeting her sisters in China, all her mother’s hopes and intentions become clear to Jing-mei. To find her daughters was her mother’s long-cherished wish, and Jing-mei was always the essence of the others.
Mary, too, reaches completeness after the crisis within her family. The children in Mary’s class never feel like they belong to a family that loves them. After so much work towards changing the feelings and actions of the children, Mary realizes that “…our lonely, funny children who have never been part of anything, who have lived for so long behind the walls, the locked doors, of their homes finally understand. Now a stranger looks at them and thinks that they are part of a family and I do not deny it. My loveliest Christmas present to them” (209).
Mary sees that she has reached her goal that once seemed to far away. All the differences and misunderstandings that were once present were now gone, and her class transitioned into a unified and complete “family”. After a long year of teaching the emotionally disturbed children, Mary remembers her own children and family. During the year, many things have grown between Mary and her family at home. All these barriers start disappearing once Mary realizes how important her own family is to her. She starts spending more time with her children and her husband Larry, and wholeness is reached within the family again. In both novels, A Circle of Children and The Joy Luck Club, a crisis appears present in the families in some way. But the way each family deals with it and how they transition to completeness again makes the family unique and the members bond together more strongly than ever.
A family is greatly important to everyone in our society today. It gives the feeling of belonging and security, but a family does not always show perfection. A Circle of Children and The Joy Luck Club both deal with a crisis within a family. Each family goes through some sort of crisis, and the members are forced to realize the agonizing truths. The authors of both novels address the bridging of differences between family members, and how each family transitions from a crisis to completeness. The transition to wholeness and unity brings each member closer together, and the family that was once torn apart is now whole again. Being in a family often involves going through dilemmas and finding solutions to the problems that exist. Families that go through a crisis do so in their own special ways, and the members achieve a bond that is stronger than ever before.
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Child Abuse: Crisis in America In America, child abuse is growing at epidemic proportions and has increased at the rate of 114. 3% from 1. 4 million cases in 1986 to 3 million cases in 1997 (Califano). Although society is aware of this tragic problem, little has been done to remedy the situation. In fact, American males spend more money on cosmetic improvements such as hairpieces, make-up, and ...
