The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and now look!--it is too beautiful to eat.
Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: "In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan--a creature that became more than what was hoped for."
But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.
Now the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow. For a long time now the woman had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions." And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English.
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The opening duck-swan vignette introduces an important transformation theme. Also, conflict between American and Chinese values is stressed.
An old woman late in life recalls buying an unusual "swan" in Shanghai.
The swan was really a duck, but it stretched its neck (in a desire to be less common, more elegant?) and eventually looked like a swan. Of if you believe in magic, then the duck did change into a goose.
As the woman was moving to America, she daydreamed about raising a daughter in a new land known for freedom, hoping her daughter would be valued for herself (a possibility in the U.S.) instead of valued as a reflection of her husband.
The daughter would be like this swan, "a creature that became more than what was hoped for." Most parents have big dreams for their kids, hoping their offspring will rise in life, enjoying a status higher than what the kids were born into, avoiding pain that the parents knew.
Sadly, immigration officials immediately confiscated the swan. That's realistic. The woman is a dreamer if she thought she could carry a bird into another country. One may not bring in birds or plants or food from other countries since new diseases can be introduced to the adopted country.
Disappointment sets in for other reasons, too--the official forms are confusing.
The woman kept one swan feather as a symbol of hopes for her daughter having a great life. She will give the feather to her daughter when the girl reaches an age of understanding. Meanwhile, the mother learns English.
Tan’s novel plays with the American Dream--the belief that America is a place of opportunity. If one works hard, one can rise above the station into which one was born. Riches and respect are available to hard workers.
But the daughter becomes Americanized, rejecting the parts of Chinese culture that the mother values, perhaps even the Chinese cultural value of listening to and obeying mothers.
The two family members fail to communicate well. The novel’s four daughters never suffer the same way the mothers suffered in China when the latter were young, so the daughters cannot really know the mothers well. The mothers lack the skill in English needed to convey exactly what happened in their tragic pasts--another reason the four Americanized daughters cannot understand the mothers well.
This novel is about the emotional upheaval that comes after people's hopes go unfulfilled, expectations unsatisfied. The word “hope” is crucial to the novel.
What is conveyed in the opening vignette is said often in the novel but in new ways. Ideas expressed or topics explored are “themes” of a book. Amy Tan returns to a handful of themes.
This duck-swan vignette gives a taste of what is to follow. The novel’s four sections begin with vignettes set in italics.
The novel’s four sections contain four separate stories (16 chapters--two chapters per female character). The stories parallel one another in clever ways.
This “swan” feather is a symbol of the mother’s hopes. Tan uses symbolism often. A symbol is usually a person, place, or object that stands for, or represents, something beyond itself. A symbol has a realistic function but also a second meaning. Each day we see symbols--American flags, a crucifix, a piece of jewelry--though we don’t always stop to think about the symbols.
Amy Tan reads The Joy Luck Club "Feathers from a Thousand Li Away" novel's opening vignette SYMBOL
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