The Valley Of Amazement By Amy Tan

499 Words2 Pages
Valley of Amazement is yet another interesting story by Amy Tan, involving the relationship between a mother and daughter connected by rebellion, betrayal and the painting called “ The Valley of Amazement”. The story revolves around a 7-year-old girl, Violet who lived with a mother, Lulu Minturn in a first class courtesan house in Shanghai. Violet believed she American and considered herself better than the courtesans and servants and it came as a shock to her to learn that her father was in fact, Chinese. When her mother leaves her and goes to US, in search of her lost son, Violet was sold into the life of a courtesan. Violets father, Lu Shing, was a Chinese painter who was staying with Lulu’s family, while studying in San Francisco. When…show more content…
Although Lulu was a clever businesswoman, she was betrayed by an American, who in order to save himself from gambling debts, sold Velvet, now14, to the rival Hall of Tranquility while she waited for her daughter on the ship bound for San Francisco. Violet felt abandoned by her mother and while she was being groomed as a courtesan, she resists until she met an older courtesan, Magic Gourd, who shows her foolishness on clinging to American pride. Taught her how to survive and secure her future, to be cunning and practical and avoid love and suicide. Violet goes through her own trials of losses and betrayals, of being vulnerable to the point when her own flawed judgment, her daughter Flora is taken away from her and she herself lands in a remote village called Moon Pond. Lulu and Violet, though mother and daughter, are similar in many ways. Violet, as a young courtesan, undertakes Chinese identity and her early clients are Chinese. She then later marries an American and just like Lu Shing’s family did not accept her mother, her American husband’s family did also not accept Violet. At an older age, she leaves Shanghai to settle in a valley that lay in the shadows of five impassable mountains, while her mother, in San Francisco, reflects on the hasty decision she took which led to
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