Popo Character Analysis in The Joy Luck Club

Popo is An-mei’s maternal grandmother, who raises her from ages four to nine. She warns An-mei to never speak of An-mei’s mother, and tells her frightening bedtime stories that scare her into obedience. When An-mei turns nine, Popo becomes deathly ill and An-mei’s mother returns home to care for her, even going so far as to slice off some of her arm in an effort to make a healing brew. Unfortunately, the attempts to nurse Popo back to health aren’t enough, and Popo dies without ever reconciling with An-mei’s mother.

Popo Quotes in The Joy Luck Club

The The Joy Luck Club quotes below are all either spoken by Popo or refer to Popo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Mother-Daughter Relationships Theme Icon

).

My mother took her flesh and put it in the soup. She cooked magic in the ancient tradition to try to cure her mother this one last time. She opened Popo’s mouth, already too tight from trying to keep her spirit in. She fed her this soup, but that night Popo flew away with her illness. Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.

Related Characters: An-mei Hsu (speaker), Popo, An-mei’s mother

Page Number and Citation: 48

Explanation and Analysis: