Feathers From a Thousand Li Away
The Joy Luck Club was founded by Suyuan Woo, who passed away two months ago. Now Suyuan's husband, Canning wishes for Jing-mei to take her mother's place in the Joy Luck Club. When Suyuan was alive, she told June (Jing-mei's American name) the story of how she founded the Joy Luck Club and her journey through China. Her mother had twin daughters and she wished to find them because she had to leave them behind during the war. Now that she has died, June's aunts from the Joy Luck Club have provided her with the money to go find her sisters.
Her mother said in her story, "'Can you imagine how it is, to want to be neither inside or outside, to want to be nowhere and disappear?'" (22)
This quote makes me think if this is how people who are depressed feel, or if the feeling is what causes the depression. If someone does not want to be inside or outside, where do they go? There is no in between and its not possible to disappear. How does someone survive this feeling? I think this quote refers to people of today just as much as it refers to people of the past. Feelings throughout history have not changed, just the events that cause them.
"'I dreamed about Kweilin before I ever saw it,' my mother began, speaking Chinese. 'I dreamed of jagged peaks lining a curving river, with magic moss greening the banks. At the tops of those peaks were white mists.'" (21)
Jing-mei's mother, Suyuan, had always pictured the land of Kweilin before she ever went there. Her dreams were her fantasy. She knew of the place named Kweilin, but she had not seen the place with her own eyes to know the true beauty of the place. The beauty of Kweilin was her fantasy, as well as many other people of China because they dreamed of the same place.
No comments:
Post a Comment