44 pages • 1 hour read
Amy TanThe Valley of Amazement
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Search for Ideal Love
Both narrators of The Valley of Amazement are obsessed with receiving ideal love. Initially, both target their own mothers as the source of that love and are devastated when the results fall far short of their expectations. Lulu feels herself to be exceptional, so her mother’s criticism wounds her. She constantly feels her aspirations diminished by both parents and sees their influence as a threat to her own hopes for a brilliant future for herself.
Similarly, Violet feels her mother’s attention withdrawn from her. When Lulu must break plans for Violet’s eighth birthday, the girl smashes all the presents her mother bought for her. She interprets Lulu’s behavior in the most cynical light and feel her mother cares more about her business clients than she does about her daughter. When Lulu unknowingly abandons her, Violet is initially convinced that her mother meant to leave her behind for the sake of her son in America.
Because of these early emotional disappointments, both Lulu and Violet gravitate to lovers whom they believe can meet all their emotional needs. Lulu initially projects her fantasies onto Lu Shing. She sees him as possessing the wisdom of the Orient. He is an ideal who can rescue her from the mediocrity of her life at home and will shower her with endless attention. She allows her attraction toward him to cloud her judgment with disastrous consequences. Years later, she makes the same mistake with Fairweather when she chooses to believe his declarations of undying love. This affair ends even more disastrously. Just as believing in Lu Shing’s love cost Lulu her son, believing in Fairweather’s promises costs Lulu Violet.
Violet makes precisely the same mistake as her mother. She becomes infatuated with Loyalty, and his interest in other women hurts her. She provokes frequent arguments that alienate him despite his affection for her. Even more disastrous is her liaison with Perpetual. Lured by the false hope of security and the undying affection of a man she can barely tolerate, she marries him. This lapse of judgment nearly costs Violet her life. Fortunately, by the end of the story, both women achieve a more realistic understanding of love and a willingness to accept what others are willing to give.
Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
The pages of the novel are replete with examples of sexual exploitation. Children roaming the streets are forced into the sex trade. Magic Gourd’s story of her first master’s abuse results in a painful abortion. Lu Shing’s family exploits Lulu’s affair with their eldest boy by stealing her firstborn son to continue their own bloodline. A jealous lover breaks Golden Dove’s jaw, disfiguring her to such a degree that she is no longer appealing to her other courtesan clients.
Fairweather uses his sexual charms to win Lulu’s complete trust. He then violates that trust by giving her property to the Green Gang and selling her daughter to a courtesan house. He also sneaks around behind her back to sleep with one of her employees. The most blatant example of male sexual exploitation is committed by Perpetual. He lies to Violet by reciting plagiarized poetry and marries her under false pretenses. He then steals her jewelry. When she proves resistant to his sexual advances, he beats her nearly to death. His reprehensible behavior isn’t limited to Violet. He’s lured another courtesan and two concubines to his home in the same way and mistreated all of them.
While sexual exploitation is frequently committed by men against women, it is worth noting that the book contains many examples of women doing the manipulating. Courtesan houses in Shanghai are generally owned by women. These women hire and fire employees based on their looks and marketability to a certain clientele. At one point, Lulu rescues a street girl only to put her to work in her own house. Violet observes, “She bought the girl because Fairweather had made fun of her conscience” (162).
The chapter devoted to rules of the boudoir is filled with examples of courtesan tricks to attract wealthy patrons as well as ways to squeeze more gifts out of them. Loyalty comments ruefully on Violet’s adeptness in this regard. Violet initially targets Perpetual because she believes she can use sex to manipulate more poetry out of him to use in her party act. She later agrees to marry him for much the same reason. She is perfectly willing to trade sex for a higher social rank and financial security.
East Meets West
Across the Pacific Ocean, Shanghai is almost directly west of San Francisco. This provides a natural avenue for the exchange of oriental and occidental culture. The novel wrestles with the issue of racial acceptance. At various turns, residents of each country view their counterparts as attractive business allies or as evil infiltrators. Violet is the personification of the uneasy mix of East and West. She is the product of a sexual relationship between an Asian and a Westerner. Initially, she is proud to enjoy the privileges accorded to foreigners in Shanghai. As she grows older and notices that her eyes look distinctly Asian, the realization that she can no longer pass for white alarms her.
As political relations sour between East and West, Violet dyes her hair and transforms herself into a Chinese national, claiming that her green eyes were inherited from a northern Chinese ancestor. Later, as Eurasian looks become an accepted trend, she is happy to capitalize on her mixed-race background and identifies herself as Eurasian to make herself more appealing to the house’s clientele.
Lulu initially perceives Lu Shing as wise and mysterious because he comes from the Far East. Her initial attraction is based on this difference in their backgrounds. However, she chooses to ignore the ingrained family loyalty that Lu Shing exhibits when it conflicts with her need to be accepted by his family.
Even the courtesan houses of Shanghai initially resist welcoming Westerners within their walls. A foreigner can only be admitted as the guest of a Chinese host. As commercial interests change during the early part of the 20th century, this rule breaks down. Chinese insularity becomes impractical in the face of commercial temptations.
Loyalty is eager to cultivate western business relationships later in his career and uses Violet’s ambiguous looks to his advantage. Sometimes she masquerades as a Western secretary who can’t speak Chinese to eavesdrop on conversations. This act works equally well in reverse when he needs an Asian secretary who appears as if she couldn’t speak English.
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By Amy Tan
