What is the power of storytelling in The Joy Luck Club?

Storytelling ends up becoming the source of power for the
women in Tan's work and those who end up reading Tan's work.  The way in which the
mothers end up empowering their daughters is through the power of story.  Tan's style is
one where she believes that the expansion of one's moral and ethical imagination is how
change can happen.  Rather than provide a feminist critique of patriarchy in China and
America, Tan is able to accomplish the same goal through the power of story.  For
example, when the mothers tell their own narratives to the daughters, there is a common
link that is forged because the scope of the daughters' imagination is widened when they
realize that what they are enduring is what their mothers endured.  In this, there is
empowerment.  While the daughters are wondering why they are unhappy or why their is
sorrow in their lives, examples of consciousness where there should only be happiness
and contentment, the power of story is what allows these gaps to be filled.  When the
daughters hear of their mothers' experiences in China as young women, it helps to bridge
the gap between narratives and also helps to fully explain the suffering in their own
life.  In this, the power of storytelling is to help reflect and transform.  The same
experience happens to the reader when reading both daughters' and mothers' narratives. 
The same condition of wondering what one shall do and where one shall go is evident in
the power of storytelling, revealing narratives where the scope of moral and ethical
imagination of the reader is widened in understanding their own reality and their own
being more.  Through Tan's work, storytelling is both affective and reflective, causing
the ability to spark progressive change in one's life.