The Joy Luck Club Multiple Choice 13-15

How did Lena St. Clair unknowingly insulted her mother by giving her the guest bedroom in her home?

• a. The room was too big for one small, older lady.
• b. The room faced south and frightened her mother.
• c. The room had sloping ceilings and felt like a coffin.

What did Lena do when she was born?

• a. She cried right away.
• b. She made her mother feel sick.
• c. She squirmed around so that the nurse had to hold onto her.
• d. She sprang from her mother like a slippery fish.

When Ying-ying was a young girl in Wushi, she was lihai? What did that mean?

• a. It meant that she was wicked.
• b. It meant that she was wild and stubborn.
• c. It meant that she loved to read.
• d. It meant that her parents were uneducated.

When did Ying-ying begin to know things before they happened?

• a. the night her aunt got married when Ying-ying was sixteen
• b. when she was around thirty
• c. when she got pregnant with her daughter
• d. when her husband beat her up

What sign happened to convince Ying-ying that she would marry the man who was a guest at her house?

• a. A large wind blew in from the north and the flower on the table nearby split from its stem and fell at her feet.
• b. She had a dream that contained every detail of the marriage.
• c. He winked at her and she just knew what would follow.
• d. She had always expected a tall, thin man would propose to her and the guest at her house was tall and thin.

Why did Ying-ying’s husband leave her?

• a. He left her because she was boring to him.
• b. He left her to live with an opera singer.
• c. She got sick and he didn’t want to live with a sick woman.
• d. She got pregnant and he didn’t want any children.

What was the difference between what Lena saw in her mother and what her mother really was?

• a. Lena saw a Chinese woman, but her mother really was an American.
• b. Lena saw a dumb woman, but her mother really was smart.
• c. Lena saw a short person, but her mother was a tall person in her heart.
• d. Lena saw a small old lady, but Ying-ying really was a tiger lady.

Why, according to Ying-ying, was the tiger gold and black?

• a. because the gold side leapt with its fierce heart while the black side stood still with cunning and patience
• b. because the gold side was evil while the black side was good
• c. because it would be silly to have a blue and pink tiger
• d. because the gold was beautiful and complements the black

Why did Ying-ying choose to end the life of her first child?

• a. because she was afraid she will die giving birth
• b. because she had no money to support the child
• c. because the child was going to be sickly
• d. because she hated her husband, the child’s father

What did Ying-ying do for ten years at the country home of her cousin’s family?

• a. She waited for a husband to come along.
• b. She waited between the trees.
• c. She worked as a maid.
• d. She learned to perform many wifely chores.