The Joy Luck Club: The Red Candle Summary & Analysis

Lindo opens the chapter by saying she “sacrificed [her] life to keep [her] parents’ promise,” but that to her daughter Waverly, “promises mean nothing.” She then thinks about her granddaughter Shoshana, to whom she occasionally gives gold jewelry as gifts. Though Shoshana promises to never forget her grandmother’s generosity, Lindo worries that Shoshana will eventually forget about their Chinese heritage.

Lindo expands on her previously sacrifice, describing her arranged marriage in China when she was two years old and her betrothed, Tyan-yu, was one. Tyan-yu comes from a wealthy family, and is spoiled by his overbearing mother, Huang Taitai. The matchmaker says Lindo is fated to be Tyan-yu’s wife because of their compatible Chinese zodiac characters; Lindo is an Earth Horse, signaling a strong and hardworking nature, which pleases Huang Taitai.

After the initial arrangement, Lindo’s mother refers to Lindo as Huang Taitai’s daughter instead of her own, and treats her coldly “as if [she] belonged to someone else.” Lindo notes that the treatment wasn’t out of spite, but Lindo’s mother’s way of reducing their emotional connection, so the eventual separation would be easier on Lindo.

When Lindo is twelve, her family’s farm is destroyed by floods, and her parents decide that, rather than move far away with them, she’s old enough to go to Huang Taitai’s. Before leaving, Lindo’s mother gives Lindo her precious jade necklace for good luck. Once in Huang Taitai’s home, Lindo is treated like a lowly servant, waiting on Tyan-yu and living in the kitchen.

Over the next four years, Lindo becomes such a good servant that Huang Taitai jokingly complains that she can’t make a mess without Lindo immediately cleaning it up. Lindo gradually loses her own opinions and dreams, brainwashed by Huang Taitai to believe that Tyan-yu is her god to serve, “whose opinion was worth much more than [her] own life.”

By Lindo’s sixteenth birthday, Huang Taitai is anxious for a grandson, and plans a lavish wedding for Tyan-yu and Lindo. However, Japanese troops invade adjacent provinces during the wedding week and no guests come, which is a bad marital omen. Another bad omen is a huge thunderstorm on their wedding day. At first, Lindo cries at her great misfortune, but the storm’s strong wind reminds her that she is just as strong, and Lindo promises herself to “always remember [her] parents’ wishes, but… never forget [herself]” again.

On her wedding night, Lindo sees her red marriage candle on display. According to tradition, a candle is decorated with her name on one end and Tyan-yu’s name on the other, and the two ends are simultaneously burned. If the candle stays lit through the night and neither end goes out, then the marriage can never be broken.

Huang Taitai had ordered a servant to watch over the candle all night, but the servant gets scared by thunder and leaves her post. In that moment, Lindo rushes over without hesitation and blows Tyan-yu’s candle end out. The next morning however, Huang Taitai proudly shows the burnt candle, and Lindo realizes the servant artificially relit it because she was afraid she’d get in trouble for not watching the candle.

After the wedding, Lindo falls into a comfortable, platonic relationship with Tyan-yu, caring for him like a sister and sleeping on his sofa at his request. Months later, Huang Taitai gets angry that Lindo is still not pregnant, and Tyan-yu falsely blames Lindo’s unwillingness to sleep with him.

Huang Taitai, with her old-fashioned thinking, straps Lindo to her bed to increase her chance at pregnancy, as well as strips her of gold jewelry to make her deficient in the zodiac element of metal, and thus more vulnerable to a baby. Feeling freer without the weight of jewelry, Lindo concocts a plan to escape the Huang household.

Not long after, in a frenzied performance, Lindo tells an elaborate story to Huang Taitai, saying that Tyan-yu’s ancestors came to her in a dream, and told her that the marriage candle had gone out on their wedding night, foretelling Tyan-yu’s death if he remained in the marriage. Then, Lindo says the ancestors secretly planted Tyan-yu’s heir in one of Huang Taitai’s servant girls (whom Lindo previously observed was pregnant out of wedlock). The servant girl, elated to not give birth shamefully, backs up Lindo’s story and becomes Tyan-yu’s reverent wife. Lindo’s marriage contract is severed and Huang Taitai buys her a ticket to America, not realizing that it was Lindo’s ingenuity that ended the marriage.