QuickWrite: Joy Luck (Stories)

                                                         QuickWrite: Joy Luck (Stories)

                The first story started happy and ended exactly the same tone: happy and cheery. Although she did tell a part in the story that could have shifted the tone dramatically--how the people’s (neighbors and friends) feelings towards them celebrating when there was a war between their people were spiteful and mean spirited, the tone could have completely gone into something much more depressing. However it was not.
                The second story that was told by her mother, was a more sadder story. Completely different from that of the first story. The things that struck the daughter (even after realizing that the story was changed completely), was that there were still some of the same materials or objects from the story before. For example, the mother told of the mahjong table in the first story, where things were happy, then in the second story, where things were a bit more depressing and gloomy, the mahjong table was left behind due to the fact that the mother did not have the strength to carry it with her to safety. The mother also had two babies, who also, did not carry along with her in her search for safety-- Chinese and Japanese war took place at this point. The two babies also stayed along with the mahjong table. Since the stories were true, as the daughter finds out, I think that the message the mother was trying to subliminally send her daughter through them was that strength and courage run throughout the family. Independence is something that grows within their family is also another thing I think she was trying to send to her daughter through telling these stories.
                 So all in all, I think that she was trying to give hope to her daughter that although there are some bad moments in life there are always chances for good moments as well. Never losing sight of what could be good in the future in those times of bad situations I think was one of the main pictures. Overall, I think that since the mother’s stories always seemed to switch and change up, different messages and morals were supposed to be encouragement for her daugher--to see the strength within her own family.