Four Directions- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: frame device

In this chapter, Waverly Jong is the narrator. Waverly Jong is trying to tell her mother she is getting married again, but her mother is avoiding any conversation about it. Waverly Jong uses frame device to explain the events that lead to this and her mother's attitude. She tells stories such as her previous marriage to Marvin, her mother's annoying ways of getting under her skin, and Waverly's plan to be invited to her mother's house for dinner with Rich. Waverly says, "My mother knows how to hit a nerve. And the pain I feel is worse than any other kind of misery" (Tan 170). Waverly's mother knew exactly how to get under her skin. I believe many mothers and daughters have this problem these days. The mother and daughter know exactly enough about each other to manipulate them into thinking or doing something else.