The Joy Luck Club Quickwrite

Shuyuan Woo changes her story about Kweilin various times. On one note, she ends the story talking about how the Joy Luck Club came to be and what they were all about. She spoke of how the women formed the club in times where they were struggling. The Joy Luck Club was a place where she got support from 3 other women and they felt close like a family. They would play games of mahjong and Shuyuan Woo was the main one who always won.

Another version to the ending of the story was when Shuyuan Woo abandoned her babies. June Woo, her daughter was complaining that she wanted a radio and Shuyuan Woo got angry. She finally told her the truth to her story at that point. When in Kweilin, an officer arrived at Shuyuan's home and had told her to run away before the Japanese came to take over Kweilin. After 4 days of running away, Shuyuan Woo's hands were bleeding from carrying two bags that held her belongings. After a while, she just dropped the bags that contained the food and clothing. Then, her story ends with her telling her daughter June that she left her two babies that she carried in her arms because she was tired. She told June that it was not her so that she had nothing to worry about.

I think that Shuyuan ended the story with different changes and hid the truth from her daughter to protect her in some way. I assumed that she did not want her daughter to know that she was capable of doing that in the past: abandon her kids.

She only told June the real side of the story when she was somewhat angry at her. June wanted a transistor radio and Shuyuan told her, "Why do you think you are missing something you never had," (25), referring to the fact that she had her babies and had to give them up. Shuyuan Woo made a tough decision in leaving her children. The message that she is trying to pass on to her daughter is that she is lucky that she was not one of those babies that she had to leave behind. June does not realize how much good of a life she has. She is blessed, she lives in America unlike the two babies without their mother.