Ying-Ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady; The Joy Luck Club- Amy Tan; fable

     The next chapter in The Joy Luck Club is a personal experience told by Ying-Ying. She tells a story of one of her memories as a child. Ying tells the reader of her first experience at the Moon Festival. Everyone is allowed to tell the Moon Lady one wish of theirs. Ying is excited to tell her wish. On the boat, Ying falls off the edge and is picked up by some fishermen. They cannot find her boat so they take her back to shore. They decided that her family would come looking for her and it was in Ying's best interest to wait on the shore until she was found. On the shore Ying watches the Moon Festival Play. She hears the fable about the Moon Lady and her husband who lives on the sun. The Moon Lady tells her story of how she stole the peach of everlasting life from her husband. Then he cursed her and she wanders lost on the moon forever searching for her own selfish desires. The Moon Lady ends the tale with this insightful message, " 'For woman is yin,' she cried sadly, 'the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds.' " This suggests the reason for a woman's obedience to her husband, ending the fable with a moral.

      Ying used this tale to ask the Moon Lady for her wish, which was to be found by her family. With her daughter, Ying never let her true-self be shown and now she wishes she had shown herself because her daughter does not notice her. Ying now wants to be found more than ever.

Here is a version of the Chinese story of the Moon Festival.

This one is like the one Amy Tan uses in The Joy Luck Club.