Week 13 Analysis: Close Reading of Joy Luck Club, 2nd Section

"'I remember a boy who lost his hand in a firecracker accident,'" she said. "'I saw the shreds of this boy's arm, his tears, and then I heard his mother's claim that he would grow back another hand, better  than the last. This mother said she would pay back an ancestral debt ten times over. She would use a water treatment to soothe the wrath of Chu Jung, the three-eyed god of fire. And true enough, the next week this boy was riding a bicycle, both hands steering a straight course past my astonished eyes!'"(Tan, 128).

"And then my mother became very quiet. She spoke again in a thoughtful, respectful manner (Tan, 128). "'An ancestor of ours once stole water from a sacred well. Now the water is trying to steal back. We must sweeten the temper of the Coiling Dragon who lives in the sea. And then we must make him loosen his coils from Bing by giving him another treasure he can hide'" (Tan, 129).

"My mother poured out tea sweetened with sugar into the teacup, and threw it into the sea. And then she opened her fist. In her palm was a ring of watery blue sapphire, a gift from her mother, who had died many years before. This ring, she told me, drew coveting stares from women and made them inattentive to the children they guarded so jealously. This would make the Coiling Dragon forgetful of Bing. She threw the ring into the water" (Tan, 129).

I found this part very interesting. This is in the section of one of the daughters, "Rose Hsu Jordan". This is what happens after Rose's younger brother, "Bing" falls into the sea during a family trip. Rose was in charge of watching him, but she was not careful. She manipulated him, and he eventually fell into the sea. When he fell Rose did not say anything right away. She stayed silent and it wasn't until her sisters returned that the parents find out that Bing was missing.

I find it interesting that Rose's mom believed in this sort of Chinese superstition to bring her son back safe and alive. While I was reading what she did, like throwing her sapphire ring into the ocean to resurrect her son, I was hoping that her wish would be granted, but unfortunately it wasn't.



 Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Penguin Books, 2014, pp. 1-288.