e "learned to cook so well that [she] could smell if the meat stuffing was too salty before [she] even tasted it" (Tan 50). Also, as Lindo states to her daughter, "[Auntie Suyuan] can only cook looking at a recipe. My instructions are in my fingers. I know what secret ingredients to put in just by using my nose!" (Tan 195). Thus, Lindo still competes with Suyuan, even though the evidence proves that Lindo is the better cook. Lindo is also able to brag about her daughter Waverly, who wins trophies for playing chess, so many that "all day [she has] no time do nothing but dust off her winnings" (Tan 148), adding, "You lucky you don't have this problem" (Tan 149) with a bit of a flourish. This infuriates Suyuan, who believes that the only way for her own daughter June to live up to Waverly is for Suyuan to discover some sort of hidden talent within her. Suyuan tells June, "You can be prodigy, too... you can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky" (Tan 141). Suyuan strives to find something within June that can compare her to Waverly's success, yet by pushing June to succeed, Suyuan actually causes her to want to fail, to not achieve as much as she could because she has been pushed against her will. The conflict between Lindo and Suyuan is never resolved. They continue to compete and argue throughout their lives. Most likely, this competition gave them pleasure, something that they must dwell on and think of ways to overcome. This competition between the two mothers also carries over to the daughters, thus causing a new conflict to arise between them as well. The third important conflict within The Joy Luck Club deals with the competition between June and Waverly. Their conflict begins at birth, considering that they are only one month apart. Their mothers started the competition by comparing which baby was the smartest, strongest, prettiest, and so on. They compare "the cr...
