Appreciation of Chapters by Analyzing Characters: Ying-ying St. Clair

Part 1: The Moon Lady

# Memories of childhood

A. Lesson

Ying-ying remembered how she fell off the boat and got rescued where later she found the moon lady. She wants to make a wish as it only appears once in a great while. However,she discovers something else when she sees the moon lady.

"the secret wish fell from my lips, the moon lady looked at me and became a man" [pg 82]

Ying-ying discovers that things aren't always what they appear to be. She learns the truth and in some ways, she became a different person. 

B. Present time

She found out that if she keep her true nature hidden, nobody will know what she had done She realises how appearance versus reality, thus she hides herself in the past [pg 67]. Ying-ying blamed herself that her daughter had turn out this way, always hiding behind the shadow

".. as I see my daughter and the foolishness of her life" [pg 68]

She is determined to tell Lena that her marriage is not what it appears to be and wants her to repair it before it is too late.

C, Irony / Paradox

"But now that I am old, moving every year closer to the end of my life, I also feel closer to the beginning" [pg 83]. When she was little, she felt fear, loneliness and wonder as she fell off the boat and met the moon lady. Ying-ying recalled how everything that happened that day, has happened many times in her life as she felt the same innocence, trust, restlessness, fear, loneliness and wonder.

read chapter summary here: http://www.shmoop.com/joy-luck-club/part-1-chapter-4-summary.html

Part 4: Waiting Between the Trees

The gap between mother and daughter

Ying-ying felt that she and her daughter never really know each other, "when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since" [pg 242]. Her silent and weak spirit had made Lena drifted away from her. She knows when Lena looks at her, Lena will only see a small old lady for she see things with her outside eyes. 

Ying-ying allowed herself to wait between the trees and let things happen 'as they should'. She lost her sense of autonomous will.

She finally realises that this isn't the way to be when her daughter's marriage is falling apart. She is determined to open up her past and tell Lena of her deeds and shame

"My daughter does not know that I was married to this man so long ago, 

twenty years before she was even born" [pg 246]

She is trying to give her daughter the strength to stand up for what she believes in; tells Lena not to lose hope.

Cultural Barrier

Lena "said in her proud American way", introducing the guest bedroom to her mother. It is the tiniest room in the house and in Chinese ways of thinking, the guest bedroom is the best bedroom. Ying-ying realised that Lena is ignorant of her own oriental heritage, for "her wisdom is like a bottomless pond" [pg 242]

The Gap between Clifford and Ying-ying (husband and wife)

Their gap is more of upbringing and cultural differences. Ying-ying having been brought up in a wealthy family in Wushi, is proud but passive. Clifford always brought her gifts, "as if he were a rich man treating a poor country girl to things we had never seen in China". Ying-ying treated these as mere worthless trinkets.

There is also language barrier between them even after they are married. (Refer to Lena's 'The Voice From The Wall')

Their distance is so great thta Ying-ying thinks Clifford have to die to know the things she have been hiding all these years. "Now he is a ghost. He and I can now live equally" [pg 252]. Her marriage to Clifford is based on her belief of her own destiny, of how she allows thigns to happen - like her daughter. She has never really loved Clifford as much as she had loved her previous husband. 

read chapter summary here: http://www.shmoop.com/joy-luck-club/part-4-chapter-2-summary.html