The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, presents us with daughters who are striving to find their true identity and become individuals despite the control of their strong mothers. Throughout the novel mothers and daughters struggle to bridge the gap in their relationship. The following comment by Nancy Willard: "Amy Tan's special accomplishment in this novel is not her ability to show us how mothers and daughters hurt each other, but how they love and ultimately forgive each other is true as it relates to the Jongs, the St. Clairs, and the Woos.
             The comment by Nancy Willard relates to the Jong family. Even as a child Waverly and hr mother have had communication problems. First of all, one huge break in their relationship happened when Waverly became a national chess champion. Whenever they went shopping, Lindo would brag about her daughter being a child prodigy. She would take credit for Waverly's success and Waverly hated being shown off like that. Then one day Waverly finally burst and said, "I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking. Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess?"(99) After Waverly said this she ran away. Lindo became very angry with Waverly and wouldn't speak to her. Waverly tried to get back at her by refusing to play chess, which made matters worse. After Waverly wanted to play chess again, her mother finally let her after she became ill. However, Waverly's mother never again outwardly took pride in her daughters chess playing, and a huge gap had already developed in their relationship. Waverly said,"it was as though she had erected an invisible wall and I was secretly groping each day to see how high and how wide it was." (112) After this incident, Waverly tried to win back her mothers approval and saw her as an enemy who continually tried to ruin her life. For insta...