The Joy Luck Club

Waverly sometimes sees her mother as her opponent. How this does affects their relationship?

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Each daughter's life is spent in battle with her mothers' actions (or in Ying-ying's case, the lack thereof), and each is both her mother's destructor and her savior. Waverly sees herself as a pawn to Lindo's queen, weaker and younger, in that she can win only by outsmarting her. In this way, Waverly sees herself as Lindo's destructor; she must vanquish her mother in order to focus on her own desires. Yet, even when Waverly thinks she has vanquished Lindo by shaming her in public, she has not. Like the daughter in the prologue, she hurts herself by ignoring her mother's advice. Waverly sees only that Lindo wants to control her, not that she needs her to relive her own childhood as she wishes it was by having Waverly live out the American dream.