Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club begins with June and her family mourning the loss of her mother, Suyuan, who has recently died from a brain aneurysm. June’s father, Canning, tells her that Suyuan died with a terrible thought in her mind. He explains that her new idea must have been a bad one, because it kept growing bigger and finally burst in her head. When it happened, Suyuan had been complaining to Canning about their tenants. She wanted to drive them out of the house by making up a story about needing the apartment for family members who were coming from China to live in America. Suddenly, she was overcome with pain in her head and collapsed.

Canning tells June that her mother “was killed by her own thoughts.” His statement may be interpreted in a couple of ways. Perhaps he meant that Suyuan’s plan to lie to the tenants was such a terrible thought that it overtook her brain. Or, more likely, he meant that Suyuan’s lifelong struggle with having lost her children finally caught up to wreak havoc on her health. She had searched all of her life to find those lost daughters, and after finally locating them, she had reached out to them. Unfortunately, she died before she could share her finding with Canning and reunite with her children.