Who are you?

What I loved about The Joy Luck Club is the backgrounds of all the characters which is central to their stories. It got me thinking about how much a person's past can alter their future. I think we often forget to not pass judgement on people we do not know, and afterwards we feel shocked when our mental expectations of them are shattered. I loved how even though all of June's aunties shared the common background of China, each had a different struggle to shape who they ultimately became and how they raised their children. One of the biggest examples is the story of June's mother, Suyuan. When she was fleeing China, she was forced to jettison her two twin daughters. She left them by a tree with all of her valuable belongings in the hope that someone will pick them up and care for them. When she came to the U.S., she married again and had June. Suyuan believed that she passed down all of her sorrow and hope for her lost daughters to June, which is why June grew up with so much pressure on her shoulders. Yet, Suyuan never told June her story, or anything about her daughters in China, when she was alive. When June finally heard everything from her father, she realized why her mother was the way she was. This goes to prove how everyone has a unique past or upbringing that defines them and makes them who they are and who they become. This aspect of The Joy Luck Club intrigued me the most.