The Joy Luck Club

Rose Hsu Jordan: Half and Half

Directions: As you read through the chapter, annotate the text for germane themes, craft, and
global issues. Then, answer each of the following questions in at least 3-4 concise sentences,
making sure to include a proper citation for ALL quotes.

PLEASE DO NOT RESEARCH THESE ONLINE!

CHALLENGE YOUR INTELLECT AND DO THE WORK YOURSELF!

1. Examine three different passages where Tan foreshadows the tragic outcome of the chapter,
providing a direct quote for each and at least two sentences explaining the foreshadow.

A. “And when I say that it is certainly true, that our marriage is over, I know what else she
will say: ‘Then you must save it.’And even though I know it’s hopeless--there’s
absolutely nothing left to save--I’m afraid if I tell her that, she’ll still persuade me to try”
(123) → The process of saving or salvaging appears as a stronghold for Rose’s mother
from even the start of the chapter, with Rose even mentioning that her mother would
plead her daughter to preserve her marriage with whatever it takes, so already, there is a
stress on the topic of reserving the livelihood associated with Rose’s mother and that
there is a significant scenario linked with it as well. With the tragedy being the death of
Rose’s youngest brother and seeing as how she delineated every effort to saving her
brother’s life belonging to her mother’s will and strength, that is where the primary
connection is made where Rose’s mother feels responsible for her son’s death and that
event traumatizes her as she makes every effort to salvage the sentience of any sort, going
back to Rose’s earlier assumption where she mentions her mother would put all her
strength into saving her marriage with Ted.

B. “When something that violent hits you, you can’t help but lose your balance and fall. And
after you pick yourself up, you realize you can’t trust anybody to save you--not your
husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and
falling all over again?” (128) → First off, in literal wording, Rose mentions falling and
losing balance, which is what legitimately happens to Bing when he loses balance and
falls off the boat into the ocean. Secondly, she accounts the word, save, again and aligns
the word with both her mother and God, which alludes to her mother’s guilt and its
association within a grave situation where life and death are determined.

C. “I was about to get up and chase them, but my mother nodded toward my four brothers
and reminded me: ‘Dangsying tamende shentti,’ which means ‘Take care of them,’ or
literally, ‘Watch out for their bodies,’” (130) → When a caretaker of any sort, whether a
parent or babysitter, commands that a child be taken care of, it often means to keep the
child entertained and occupied for the time being; yet, Rose’s mother specifically
demands Rose to watch their bodies, alluding a great deal of value on their lives rather
than their enjoyment at the beach. Seeing as how a human being cannot live without a
 physical body of some sort and that under no circumstance other than a life-endangering
mission would a person voice that aloud to another individual signifies that someone’s
life, particularly the brothers, is going to be risked in some manner.

2. Thoroughly discuss the motif of balance within the chapter, using at least two direct quotes in
support of your analysis. Keep in mind that a motif directly supports a theme...

“But later, after my mother lost her faith in God, that leatherette Bible wound up wedged under a
too-short table leg, a way for her to correct the imbalances of life” (122).

“When we arrived at the beach, she walked immediately down the dirt path and over to the end
of the reed ledge, where I had seen Bing disappear. She held in her hand the white Bible. And
looking out over the water, she called to God, her small voice carried up by the gulls to heaven.
It began with ‘Dear God’ and ended with ‘Amen,’ and in between she spoke in Chinese” (136).

Particularly to An-Mei, Rose’s mother, she mentions many times during the chapter of fate and
faith, initially introducing it as independent factors with one associating with God and one with
one’s personal inner being. With the Bible, she usually mispronounces faith as fate, so Rose
automatically assumes she must consider only one of the two, and that being faith, because of the
obvious alignment with her mother’s bible; but, as the chapter progresses, fate and faith have
taken on different meanings rather than bring separate and one definition overpowering the other.
If anything, Rose learns that the two are one of the same, similar to yin and yang, where one
must live with the other intact and are dependent on one another rather than competing with one
another. Again, it is shown with An-Mei reciting Dear God and Amen and both English and
Chinese dialects, so there is that equal contrast where one exists with the other within the same
environment rather than contrary to one another.

3. Discuss the meaning behind the chapter title Half and Half. Use a direct quote to support your
answer and be sure to thoroughly explain your ideas, as it is the main theme!

“I saw we were standing in the hollow of a cove. It was like a giant bowl, cracked in half, the
other half washed out to sea” (129).

Tan shapes the recurring motif of halves to exemplify that even if a mother and daughter are
detached from each other through cultural differences, what they believe to be setbacks are what
connect them in spirit and are the psychological links bonding them together as family. When
Rose visits the hollow cove at the beach where Bing’s death occurred with her family, she
depicts it as a “giant bowl” that is “cracked in half” and with one of the halves soaring out to sea,
emphasizing some sort of lost protection with the broken imagery and further disconnection
between the halves, as one departs into the sea while the other remains perfectly still on the sand
(129). Yet, as the original portrayal still stands, they are parts of one another and even if they are
physically apart, they are still connected through origin and mind from how their beginnings do
not change, despite the fact that they are far from perfect. Similar to Rose and her mother, while
their origin stories with Rose’s upbringing in America and her mother’s in China, they are still
connected through blood and character from how Rose derives her own traits from her mother
and her mother begins to take on personas derived from her daughter as well. They personify the
broken halves of one another, alluding their capabilities to come back together as a whole, which
would represent their abilities to fully understand one another and their choices they cannot
comprehend at the moment, and their current state of division with how they wish to perceive
one another and their opposing habits that compliment the other.