Mother-Daughter Relationships in The Joy Luck ClubIn The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan explores mother-daughter relationships and, on a lower level, the relationships between friends, lovers, and even enemies. The mother-daughter relationships are most likely different aspects of Tan's relationship with her mother, and perhaps some parts are entirely a figment of her imagination. In this book, she presents the contrasting views and stories of both sides, giving the reader - and ultimately the characters - an understanding of the mindsets of both mother and daughter and why each is the way they are. The book is organized into four sections, two dedicated to mothers and two dedicated to daughters, with the exception of June. The first section, logically, is about the mothers' childhoods in China, the period of time during which their personalities were shaped, giving the reader a better sense of their "true" selves, as later in the book the daughters see their mothers in a different and unflattering light. Tan does this so that the reader can see the stories behind both sides and so as not to judge either side unfairly. This section, titled Feathers From a Thousand Li Away, is aptly named, describing the legacy of mothers in China, a legacy they wished to give to their daughters, as the short story at the beginning indicates. For many years, mothers have not told their daughters their stories until they were sure their rebellious offspring would listen, and by now it is almost too late for them to understand the legacy their mothers left behind, long ago when he left China. The second and third sections cover the lives of the daughters, and the vignettes in each section trace the growth and development of their personalities. Through the eyes of the daughters we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories as they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties of growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems of assimilation into modern society. Chinese-American daughters do their best to become “Americanized,” simultaneously abandoning their heritage while their mothers watch in dismay. Social pressures to become like everyone else and not be different are what motivate daughters to resent their nationality. This was a bigger problem for Chinese-American daughters growing up in the 1950s, when being from an "ethnic" background was not well accepted"..