the joy luck club by amy tan
...memory: “the juices of this man’s firstborn son poured from me” The devotion that Ying-Ying has for her second husband comes from deeper within. “Mistah Saint Clair” (250) makes his way to her heart and reaches the most pure spot left on her wounded heart. She gives him the appreciation he wants to receive, and builds his confidence accepting his ways of showing his love: “But because I knew this man would someday be my husband, I put these worthless trinkets carefully into a box, wrapping each with tissue. I knew that someday he would ask to see them again.” (250). Ying-Ying protects her beloved future husband’s feelings and helps his confidence build up making him feel as her rescuer, a feeling that is transmitted to her daughter also: “My mother never talked about her life in China, but my father said he saved her from a terrible life there, some tragedy she could not speak about.” (104 The Voice from the Wall) She takes the step of marrying “Mistah Saint Clair” with fear, giving up her “chi, the spirit that caused me so much pain” (250), but comes to devote her self to this man unconditionally: “How could I not love this man?” (250). The love she has for him is questionable when she reveals a feeling that comes as a surprise: “it was the love of a ghost. Arms that encircled but did not touch. A bowl full of rice but without my appetite to eat it. No hunger. No fullness.” However she never stops to devote her self to him, respecting the promise she made when they got married: “Till death do us apart!” Lena’s feelings of love and devotion for her husband are much easier to be recognized. From the first time she introduces Harold, she makes sure his feelings are protected and never wants to hurt him. She has so much love for him that she blames her self for anything negative that happens to Harold: “I hated myself for being mean-spirited, for thinking Harold deserved this torment.” (150 Rice Husband) Standing beside her men when the hard times come in his life is part of her infinite devotion: “So I gave him pep talks in the evening when he was discouraged.” (158) Love is all she wants from him but every time she gets feedback for her commitment to him, the love grows bigger: “I adored his looking at me like that.” She expresses her devotion every time she has a chance, weather with words or actions: “when I got into the car, I still had the glow of that feeling and I touched his hand and said, Harold I love you.” (160) Her love for him is expressed unconditionally. She does not care what she gets in return, and always wants to give more to express her loyalty: “I started to think, It’s just not enough.”(160) Lena knows every detail about Harold, and she always makes sure her actions won’t bring him discomfort: “I start to cry, which I know Harold hates. It always makes him uncomfortable, angry. He thinks it’s manipulative.” (164) Like in every couple differences of beliefs and points of view can be a problem, unfairness occurs as result of these differences but Lena doesn’t stop to devote herself to her husband. The fights “over something as stupid as fleas” (150) does not stop her from loving and staying with her husband. She looks for a solution to solve the problem and always sets her love for Harold above everything else. She accepts anything from him and doesn’t question if it’s less than she disserves appreciating that she is still in his life to give her devotion to him: “So within a year, Harold and I quit Harned Kelly & Davis and he started Livotny & Associates, and I went to work there as a project coordinator.” Even if she doesn’t receive the appreciation wanted for her devotion to him, she continues to be there and support him without questioning his disloyalty to her: “I love my work when I don’t think about it too much. And when I do think about it, how much I get paid, how hard I work, how fair Harold is to everybody except me, I get upset.”(160); and that is all, nothing comes out of the mouth of the devoted wife even if she recalls that: “I remember, it was my idea.” (159). Confronted with the unfairness received from her husband, she reflects on the problem and comes to the conclusion that love is what kept them together and love is the one that will solve it: “for some reason, seeing all these little domestic signs of familiarity, our daily ritual, made me swoon inside. But it was as if I were seeing Harold for the first time we made love, this feeling of surrendering everything to him, with abandon, without caring what I got in return.” Devoted to her husband she is the one that makes the step to the understanding. Just like her mother felt about her father, Lena feels lucky to have this husband to be devoted too. Her love and respect for Harold can be derived easily from the way she always puts him in front of her: “Harold and I” that, “Harold and I” this and so on. She proudly announces “I didn’t get Arnold. I got Haro...