June cooks a dish her father likes after her mother's death to comfort him. It also shows relationships, like the competition in cooking among the mothers. Food also reveals character. Food also affirms life, as the Joy Luck meals at Kweilin. An-mei almost dies after boiling soup spills on her neck.
Clothing expresses cultural identity and clashes as well as hides identity.
As an old lady, she dresses strangely and wears colors which clash. In a photograph taken when Ying-ying arrives in this country, she is wearing a Chinese dress with a Western jacket which is too big. Dreams allow us to move between the conscious level and the unconscious level, to express hidden feelings. June dreams of telling her sisters of her mother's death and being rejected. Wind and directions.