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The Joy Luck Club Part 2, Prologue Summary

  • This is a dialogue between a mother and a young daughter.
  • The mother knows that if the daughter rides her bike around the corner, she will fall.
  • The girl refuses to believe her mother.
  • The mother knows her daughter will fall because of a book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, which details twenty-six horrible fates for children.
  • The girl wants to see the book, but the mom says it’s written in Chinese so she won’t understand it.
  • The daughter demands to know these twenty-six fates.
  • When her mother doesn’t answer, the girl rides her bike away in anger, shouting "You don’t know anything," and falling before she even rounds the corner.
  • Score one for mom.