The theme of heritage ties in with this duality. Waverly is unmistakably Lindo's daughter. In addition to appearance, they share many personality traits. Both are strong, focused women. The tie between them is undeniable. Recall how frightened Waverly was when she felt that it was time to tell her mother that she was going to marry again. She was unwilling to marry without her mother's approval. Lindo named her daughter "Waverly" after the street where they lived so that when the child grew up, she could "take a piece" of her mother with her.
This section is rich in humor and irony. It is ironic that for so many years Waverly denied her heritage. Now she is willing to embrace her culture because it is fashionable — but it is too late: Waverly knows only the most juvenile Chinese words and would never be mistaken for a Chinese person in her mother's birth country. An-mei's comments to Lindo are also ironically funny. "Did you ever think you would be so powerful that you could determine some one else's fortune?" she asks. This is ironic because the women cannot read — much less understand — the absurd fortunes that they stuff into cookies. Their fractured translations are as funny as the originals and make about as much sense to the two women raised on genuine aphorisms and wisdom. The entire situation in the fortune cookie factory is humorous, reminiscent of the famous I Love Lucy episode with Lucy and Ethel working on the chocolate assembly line. As with Lindo and An-mei, Lucy and Ethel work furiously to keep up with the output and are reduced to eating anything they cannot process. Recall how Lindo alludes to An-mei's round shape; she strongly suspects that An-mei eats the rejected cookies. Lindo's comment about subtracting some blessings for her broken nose is also humorous.
Note Tan's use of flashbacks. Like many of the other sections in the book, this one is constructed of a number of different flashbacks. This allows Tan to show how the past impinges on the present, how one's heritage flows through one's life like a river. Look through the sections to locate where the flashbacks begin and end. Find the "trigger words" that Tan uses to link the past to the present. Sometimes she leads directly into the section: "I am seeing myself and my mother, back in China, when I was a young girl." Other times, she uses memories and specific images.
