Unlike Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Hsu is no racist — she is just wary of the foreigner. Cut off from their heritages, Rose and Ted do not unite to create something new, something upon which to build. The Joy Luck Club explores the importance of understanding one's heritage as a way of affirming identity. Without her heritage, Rose is like a ghost. Lacking substance, she can but twist in the wind of her husband's decisions and demands.
When Ted abruptly withdraws his support, she is left without balance. "You can't have it both ways, none of the responsibility, none of the blame," Ted screams at Rose. Like Mrs. St. Clair in the previous section, Rose is thrown "off balance." She has nothing to trust — not her husband, not her mother, not even God. There is nothing to prevent her from losing her balance again. "Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life," she says, "it still would have knocked the wind out of me." Rose is like the wind; she has no substance.
In contrast, Mrs. Hsu is firmly grounded. Initially, she was supported by her faith. She attended the First Chinese Baptist church every Sunday — until Bing died and she lost her faith. After Bing's death, her Bible becomes a physical, rather than spiritual, prop — a wedge to shore up a rickety table. Ironically, the Bible is still fulfilling its original purpose — "correcting the imbalances of life." On the surface, it seems that Mrs. Hsu is just being practical; after all, why waste a perfectly good Bible? But even twenty years later, the cover is still "clean white," showing that she hasn't wholly discounted the power of religion to buttress her life. This condition is affirmed when Rose opens the Bible and sees that her mother has entered Bing's name in "erasable pencil." This entry is proof that when she made the entry, she didn't believe that Bing was really dead. She was still hoping that he might return through the power of faith. Even now, she has not reentered his name in ink.
