Longinus argues that “real sublimity contains much food for reflection, is difficult or rather impossible to resist, and makes a strong and ineffaceable impression on the memory” (138). The movie clip from “The Joy Luck Club” presented above does all of those things with a certain emotional quality that exudes inspiration. Every time I see this section of the movie, I leave from it with a particular aura of hope that I did not have before. The characters June, and her mother exhibit sublime qualities while identifying the true meaning of being a sublime person: having a “best quality heart.”
The clip depicts two childhood friends, and their families seated around a dinner table; where most family spats begin. Waverly begins to attack June in order to set herself apart as the successful person. She claims that June’s copy for the law firm was of poor quality, and that “it just won’t work” in a sophisticated firm like hers. If Longinus were analyzing Waverly’s behavior, he would most likely decide that her actions backfired. He claims that “nothing is truly great which it is great to despise; wealth, honour, reputation, absolute power” (138). In this way, June takes her rightful place as the sublime character, who simply defends her copy and says it only needs to be “fine tuned.” Longinus would consider June to be truly great for she is the person “who could have these advantages if [she] chose, but disdains them out of magnanimity” (138). June represents the unpolished, grammatically imperfect work that has the inspired emotion that surpasses Waverly’s simple political correctness.
June’s mother is initially seen betraying June, when she claims that Waverly has style that June doesn’t have; people “must be born this way.” Longinus would argue that June’s mother has a natural reaction to the situation. Longinus says that, “it is a natural inclination that leads us to admire not the little streams, however pellucid and however useful” (151). However, June’s mother’s reaction when having a direct conversation with her daughter elevates this movie clip to something moving, and awe-inspiring.
June lets out her feelings about the argument at dinner very slowly at first, and then with an explosion of emotional pain directed towards her mother’s lack of praise and approval of her accomplishments. Her pain stems over a lifetime worth of disapproval and shredded hopes, and finally June is able to express these feelings to her mother. Longinus says, “There is nothing so productive of grandeur as noble emotion in the right place. It inspires and possesses our words with a kind of madness and divine spirit” (139). Waverly’s antics hurt June, but the fact that her own mother didn’t stand up for her and instead indirectly claimed that Waverly is innately superior spurred on a new wave of madness and an ability to set free the feelings she had locked away for so long, bringing the clip to its emotional climax.
In the clip, June concludes that no matter what her mother hopes for her, she won’t ever be more than what she truly is. Finally her mother is able to understand what she means, and can enlighten June with a new understanding of what being of the “best quality” means. In this exchange of thoughts and emotions, both June and her mother see that despite June’s imperfect exterior by societal standards, she is willing to take things like the “worst quality crab,” ultimately giving her the “best quality heart.” June’s mother ends the conversation with a brilliant arc, stating that June is the one with “style that no one can teach.”
Longinus would declare this clip as something that “penetrates not only the ears, but the very soul. It arouses all kinds of conceptions of words and thoughts and objects and melody” (152). This clip redefines success, and allows us to ponder whether each one of us takes the best quality for ourselves, or becomes the one with the best quality heart. This section from "The Joy Luck Club" is the best quality of sublimity: it provides food for thought, it’s irresistible, and memorable.
Works Cited
Longinus, Cassius. "On Sublimity." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjpgeCKL2ng
