喜福会英语读后感

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喜福会英语读后感

喜福会英语读后感

The first time I saw the title of the film, the Joy Luck Club, I

thought that it would be a film filed with joy, luck and

happiness. However, out of my expectation, in the film, I saw

many unpleasant things;conflicts, hardship, disappointment,

sorrow, hurt, torture etc. Of course there were some moving

parts, and fortunately, it was a happy ending. Anyway, I

enjoyed it very much. It made me have a penetrating thinking.

The Joy Luck Club tells about the conflicts between

Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised

daughters and their struggling to understand each other. The

film shows us these topics: the misunderstanding of love

between the mothers and the daughters, the clash between

the generations and cultures, and the struggle for the women

to fight for equity. Now I am going to show you my

understanding of them, emphasizing on the first topic.

In many cases, we and those we love are easy to hurt each

other because of the misunderstanding of love, the conflicts in

generations and culture background, or unconsciousness. 2

Take Jingmei and her mother Suyuan as an example.

When Suyuan demands the little Jingmei to play piano,

Jingmei shouts to her mother, “You can’t make me!”

Even Jingmei cried that she wish she isn’t

Suyuan’s daughter and Suyuan isn’t her mother,

and that she wishes she were the dead like the babies Suyuan

abandoned in China. The sad expression on Suyuan’s

face indicates that she is hurt deeply by her daughter’s

innocent words.

This reminds me of my similar experience. Once I hurt my

mother as Jingmei did. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but

those wounding words just slip out of my mouth

unconsciously. Often, we hate that why our parents

don’t know my feelings, why they like to make us be

something and totally unaware that what their children are.

While the parents don’t know why all their sacrifices to

the children can’t be paid off, even incite hatred.

Actually, this is the generation gap that causes the

misunderstanding. We don’t know the hardship our

parents underwent before. They can’t understand what

we are thinking. So misunderstandings appear.

Maybe as a child, Jingmei cannot comprehend what her 3

remarks mean to Suyuan, and just want to show her grudge.

But another main reason is the different backgrounds of

Suyuan and Jingmei bare. Chinese parents always like to put

all their hopes on the next generation for they are the

generation full with hardship and pain. All they do just want

the children to be better, but they ignore that whether their

children can accept or not, not along a child born in America,

influenced by the American’s individual freedom and

knowing little about Chinese culture. The generation gap and

culture conflict cause the misunderstanding of the mother and

the daughter.

The other example is Waverly and her mother Lindo.

Waverly tries her best to please Lindo in everything. Whether

her mother approves or not becomes the master of all her

choice. Even Waverly marries a Chinese man because Lindo

likes Chinese, while she doesn’t love. Waverly

doesn’t understand why Lindo disapprove or criticize

whatever she has done. On the other side, Lindo thinks that

her daughter is ashamed of her, which is her continual internal

injury after Waverly’s winning that chess contest, when

Waverly shouted to Lindo if Lindo wanted to show off, won the

chest by herself. Every time, Lindo’s disagreement with 4

or indifference to Waverly directly results from the thought

that Waverly feels it shameful to be her daughter. Both of

them deeply love each other, but in the meantime, they hostile

and hurt one another. This is the way them get along with

each other. Fortunately, they clear up their misunderstandings

and discover themselves by communicating.

I am deeply moved by this scene:

Waverly Jong says to Lindo, sobbing,, “You don't know,

you don't know the power you have over me. One word from

you, one look, and I'm four years old again, crying myself to

sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you.” And

after a short period of silence, Lindo smiles to Waverly with

tears in her eyes, “Now, you make me happy.” Then they

laugh heartily, teary-eyed with happiness.

Seeing the old Lindo bursts out laughing, like a child, and

Waverly laughs joyfully, I sincerely feel delighted for them.

Love needs communicating, understanding, and tolerance,

which is what I learn from them.

Along with above mentioned, the struggle for the women

to fight for equity is also brought to the surface. For instance,