Foshay 1

Billy Foshay

Mrs. Oehrlein

Honors English I

4 June 2009

The Joy Luck Club Commentary

“After dinner, I put clean towels…Chunwang chihan” (Tan 163).

This passage provides information on the troubles of Lena St. Clair and Harold’s

marriage through a metaphor; comparing their relationship to a flimsy table Harold made

as a student. Through the questioning of Ying-ying, Lena’s mother, the reader interprets

that the table is a symbol of Lena and Harold’s marriage. Tan uses imagery, connotative

diction, metaphors, and symbolism to point out the instability of the marriage. Through

the symbolism, Lena subliminally realizes that the marriage she is in is unhealthy.

After dinner when Lena places towels in the guest room, Tan immediately points

out “the room has Harold’s minimalist look to it”. A minimalist is a person who favors a

moderate approach. The comment hints the reader in on just how conservative Harold is.

He is not only conservative with their marriage, but also the way he designs his house.

Tan’s description of the guest room connotates a plan boring area with phrases like “plain

white sheets” and “nothing on the slanted gray walls”. The description leaves the reader

with a feeling of shallowness which can be parralled to Lena and Harold’s relationship.

Tan chooses to point out the “odd looking…end table” for a reason in the passage.

Throughout the rest of the section the end table Harold made in his student days serves as

a metaphor to the marriage. The first portrayal of the table explains that it is made of out

of “a slab of unevenly cut marble” with “thin crisscrosses”. The uneven cut represents the

Foshay 2

slanted foundation Harold has created the relationship off of. Through Harold’s system,

the two do not act like a couple, but instead like two individuals. The lack of support for

Lena by Harold can be described as the “thin-crisscrosses” of the table. Tan mentions the

“black lacquer wood…legs” which stands for the false image of Lena and Harold’s

relationship. Lacquer is a protective coating to protect the wood underneath. The lacquer

represents the false image that Lena and Harold look like a “polished” couple. Instead,

the wood underneath is unstable, just the same as the marriage.

The “cylindrical black vase” Tan mentions represents Lena’s part of the problem

in the relationship. The vase wobbles on the uneven foundation that Harold has made for

Lena. Even though Lena knows the relationship is unstable and will eventually fail, she

does nothing about it, just as if she does not move the vase it will eventually fall. Lena

even mentions the problem to her mother saying “’Careful it’s not too sturdy”’, and yet

she is passive, letting everything play out, when she knows something is wrong.

Lena wonders why “[Harold] is so proud of [the table]”. Tan depicts in his writing

that Harold is content with having something to call his own, even when it is carelessly

done. Harold puts little effort into fixing his relationship, and only cares that he has the

marriage to Lena. Through Lena, the reader also discovers that Lena feels the table

“doesn’t bear any traits of fluidity that are so important to Harold”. This reveals that

Harold gives false hopes to Lena about his values in their relationship. Although the

money sharing strategy seems like something that would keep money from getting in the

way of their love, instead it causes problems which represent the false hopes of fluidity in

the table. Lastly, Ying-ying speaks out at the end of the passage and says “Chunwang

chihan” which in Chinese means, keeping that table is foolish. Ying-ying realizes the

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relation between the marriage and the table, and points out to Lena that if it isn’t doing

it’s job then get rid of it. This can be applied to Lena and Harold’s marriage in that

Harold is not supporting Lena in the relationship, and therefore Lena should get rid of

Harold, and “buy a new table”.

Tan brings up some key issues with Lena’s marriage in the passage, through the

use of literary devices such as imagery, connotative diction, metaphors, and symbolism,

that puts the problems of the marriage into perspective for the reader. The issues show the

reader that if something is wrong, then you must take action and fix it, or else the

problem will only get worse.