What is The Opposite of Fate? For Amy Tan, the opposite of fate is “choice, chance, luck, faith, forgiveness, forgetting, freedom of expression, the pursuit of happiness, the balm of love, a sturdy attitude, a strong will, a bevy of good-luck charms, adherence to rituals, appeasement through prayer, trolling for miracles, a plea to others to throw a lifeline, … the generous provision of that by strangers and loved ones”, and, above all, “hope” (p. 3). The opposite of fate is also a recurrent issue in Tan’s fictional texts: from the beginning of The Joy Luck Club (1989), in the swan-feather mother’s opening vignette about a swan, “a creature that became more than what was hoped for<

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