In ‘And I Stand Here Ironing’, the mother is the narrator, without any given name during the whole work. In it we can see a working class mother that reflect about how being poor has affected the relationship with her daughter, Emily. It is especially pronounced and remarked the lack of attention that she paid on her and how that made her the person she is in that moment. She basically talks about her during the whole work, and that shows concern, but as said above, is a late concern, a concern full of repentance.
She is oppressed by personal and environmental circumstances, he laments the decisions taken as a mother. She frankly reveals the dark side of parenting and anxiety is analyzed, lack of control, and hopelessness that often infiltrate the homes of low-income and lower middle class. Through her interior and personal monologue, which gives an honest view of motherhood that is normally absent from the picture of self-denial, patience “ideal mother” that is expected by society for women.
At the same time, there is a passive tone, almost resigned, far from her thinking, a sad acceptance that she feels about events far from her control or too far into the past to be changed change. As indicated at the beginning of the story, the ability to analyze a situation, pause and determine the best action or option was something she never had when she was young. The narrator is weighed down with household chores, and the constant demands of a large family is opposed to a life of careful consideration. Her extended meditation on the state of her daughter is framed by labor, the domestic law of ironing clothes family.
As the narrator presents the dress of Emily and considers her private response to a teacher or counselor who called concerned about a definite problem, she knows that she will not respond to the request of the person for face to face meeting. The plate serves as a backdrop for her calculations of her life as a mother, but does not indicate any imminent action. This lack of initiative and their belief that passive Emily somehow find the right way to expose defects narrator subtly as a tutor and an inability to fulfill the ideal of what should be a sacrifice, loving father.
Although the narrator accepts responsibility for her role in the development of Emily unhappiness, while absolving herself of full responsibility, blaming environmental and social conditions that are indifferent to the needs of a single mother. She is unable to recognize entirely the young dark and tentative adult Emily has become, because by doing so would force the mother to accept her adult way of life has fallen short of expectations. On the other hand, in ‘Two Kinds’, the narrator this time is the daughter, so the role of the mother is not told in first person but in third.
Suyuan Woo is a strong-willed woman who refuses to focus on their difficulties. Instead, she struggles to create happiness and success in which he is deficient. It is with this mentality that is based the original Joy Luck Club waiting for the Japanese invasion of China in Kweilin. His sense of willpower can sometimes cause problems, such as Suyuan believes his daughter Jing-mei can be a prodigy if only Woos can locate and nurture their talents well enough. This leads to a deep resentment Jing-mei.
However, it is also under Suyuan will finally located her twin daughters lost long ago in China. Only his death keeps you from them. Suyuan shares many characteristics with fellow mothers in the Joy Luck Club: fierce love for her daughter, often expressed as a criticism; great distress in her desire to shake their Chinese identity in favor of an American one; and fears that she may be alienated from his daughter, either because of their own actions or due to their differing ages and cultural educations.
