takes on her mother’s spirit as she sits down at the East in the Joy Luck Club. You can also see this when she arrives in China to greet her sisters, with the swan feather at hand. Another symbol in the Joy Luck Club happens between Ying- Ying and Lena. It starts out by telling the story of Ying- Ying's past in China and how she recognizes the indirect way that her mother instilled in her a fear of unforeseen and disastrous consequences of her actions. The balance sheet on the refrigerator is the sign that makes it possible for Ying-Ying to redeem herself to her daughter. To show her daughter what a marriage is suppose to be made out of. The economic metaphor illustrates how poor her marriage is in the balance that really matters. Like the table that Harold built, the marriage is showy without being functional. Ying-Ying demonstrates to her daughter that surface balance is useless and that Lena’s conception of herself and Harold being equal is flawed. When the table falls it illustrates the breaking of the marriage, and the freeing of the spirit of the mother. This spirit gives Lena the strength to decide what she wants out of the marriage. You find out in the movie that she had left Harold and is going out with a young Chinese man that respects and loves Lena and her mother Ying-Ying. The way that Lindo grew up in China reflects the way that she is in America. Lindo was sold to a matchmaker when she was in China, she was told by her mother how to act or how to be an obedient wife in her new family. Lindo realized that this is not the kind of life that she wanted and she gets a rail ticket to Shanghai. Waverly on the other hand was grew up in America where the American customs have influenced her way of thinking. Waverly wanted to please her mother and she even married a Chinese Man. But still this didn’t please her. When Waverly divorced him she thought that her mother blamed her. Waverly was scared to introduce her ...
