Scar
"This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in your bones".
-Page 48
The speaker of this chapter is "Auntie" An-mei. Throughout this chapter she recalls being a young girl back in China. Her father died when she was young and her mother left her and her younger brother. They were forced to stay at their Auntie and Uncle's family house along with their grandmother Popo. It was an unhappy home where she was told over and over again to resent her mother for leaving them. The disgrace she brought to their family was never to be forgiven from Popo or Auntie. When Popo was on her death bed An-mei's mother returned. She cut off a piece of her own flesh to put in a soup to feed Popo. This is when An-mei came to realize that a mother-daughter connection is not skin deep, but rather is to the very core of their beings.
I think that the story An-mei told was meant to reveal that honoring your parents should not stop just because they brought dishonor to your family. It is your duty to respect your parents even if it appears that they do not have the same respect for you. This section of the novel reminds me of the Commandment Honor your Mother and Father. I find it interesting that although she did not know about the Ten Commandments, An-mei still had felt the love and respect for her mother even when others thought she did not deserve it. This story starts to tie in the reasoning of why the women of The Joy Luck Club were surprised that their daughters my not carry on their memory when they pass away.
The literary term I came across was an ANALOGY. An-mei's grandmother was comparing her daughter to a ghost even though she was still alive. She used this comparison because both her daughter and ghosts were forbidden to talk about."When I was a young girl in China, my grandmother told me my mother was a ghost"(42).
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