44 pages • 1 hour read
Amy TanThe Valley of Amazement
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Heaven Mountain”
After three months of living in Perpetual’s house, Violet and Magic Gourd are desperate to find a way to escape. Their situation is difficult because Perpetual has hidden Violet’s jewelry, and the women fear that if they run away, they’ll be immediately captured. Violet tries to remain on good terms with Perpetual even though his behavior toward her becomes increasingly abusive. He starts beating her routinely and then apologizing afterward. Magic Gourd observes, “Cruel men are addicted to the other person’s fear. Once they taste it, they have to feed it” (641).
Perpetual disappears for weeks at a time, presumably to manage his business concerns. Violet suspects that he goes to the peak of the mountain, which is said to be haunted. A Buddhist shrine at the top may be the place where Perpetual hides his stolen wealth.
His second wife, Pomelo, befriends Violet and Magic Gourd. She tells them of two concubines who tried to escape before. One of them drowned in the river. The other, whose name is Charm, found one of Perpetual’s poems that contained coded directions to reach the top of the mountain. She escaped but promised to write to Pomelo if she ever found refuge. Pomelo tells Violet and Magic Gourd that she has finally received word from the escaped concubine. Charm writes:
Use the directions below to climb Heaven Mountain. At the top, you will see the valley and a dome of rock shaped like Buddha’s Hand. Look down from the ridge and you will see the town of Mountain View. Go to the House of Charm and I will welcome you (652).
The three women now have a map to guide them. Pomelo wants Violet and Magic Gourd to leave her behind because her feet have been bound and walking is difficult. The other two refuse and resolve to bring her along even if they must carry her.
One night, they start a fire in the house and make it appear that all three have died in the blaze. Then they begin a slow and painful ascent to the top of the mountain. Pomelo’s feet are bleeding, and she can barely go on when they spy Perpetual climbing the path behind them. When he sees Pomelo on a ledge above, he threatens to kill all three. Pomelo kicks rocks down the cliff, starting a small avalanche that kills Perpetual.
The women bury him and continue their ascent. In the shrine at the top of the mountain, they discover Perpetual’s hidden stash of loot, which includes all their stolen jewelry and several gold bars. They are now rich enough to support themselves. When they reach the crest, they see the town of Mountain View in the valley below them. As they begin their descent, Violet says, “Together, we took our first steps and began our new life” (672).
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Valley of Amazement”
The narrative now shifts to Violet’s mother in 1897 San Francisco. Lulu was born Lucretia, a name she despised, so she began to call herself Lucia. She feels herself misunderstood by her family at an early age and vows to defend what she calls her Pure Self-Being at all costs.
Lulu comes from a family of free-thinking intellectuals. Her father is an art professor, and her mother is an entomologist. Lulu’s father holds an interest in Asian art, especially erotic lithographs, and engages in numerous love affairs. At the age of 16, Lulu grows curious about sex and uses one of her father’s books as a sex manual with a variety of college students whom she seduces.
One night, a visiting art student arrives at the Minturn home. Lulu meets Lu Shing for the first time and sees his painting, The Valley of Amazement. She’s instantly captivated by both the artist and his work. Of the painting, she says, “I see in it immortality, neither beginning nor end. It seems to be saying all moments are immortal and will never disappear, nor will peace in the valley, or the strength of mountains, or the openness of the sky” (695-96).
Lu Shing is pleased with her assessment of his work. He aspired to capture only a single moment of immortality, yet Lulu sees the painting encompassing all moments of immortality. Intrigued by the artist, Lulu wrangles an invitation for him to stay at the Minturn home and to accompany the family on a birdwatching expedition. She sees him as her soulmate. Lu Shing hints that he recognizes something unique in their relationship when he tells her, “Lucia, Lu Shing. So similar. You Americans call it coincidence. We Chinese call it fate” (703).
Chapters 11-12 Analysis
The motif of counterfeit art continues and expands in this segment. Like his fake poetry, Perpetual’s illustrious family and rich home are fakes, too. His family was disgraced by the emperor years earlier, and his home has fallen into disrepair because he lacks the funds to repair it. Perpetual doesn’t merely lie about his poems and his home but also swindles Violet out of her jewelry and money. He has done the same to his other courtesan wife, Pomelo. Even his temperament is counterfeit. Violet can’t believe that her violent, abusive husband is the same shy suitor she entertained in Shanghai.
Perpetual continues to write bad poetry, but even this is counterfeit. As Charm discovered, one of his poems is a disguised set of directions to guide him to the shrine at the top of the mountain. This is where he’s hidden all the valuables he’s taken from his wives. The counterfeit poem proves to be the salvation of Violet, Magic Gourd, and Pomelo when they use it to guide them to freedom.
In Chapter 12, the narrative shifts abruptly to Lulu’s point of view decades earlier, but the theme of counterfeit art remains. Lulu is 16 at the time and living with her parents in 1897 San Francisco. Because Lulu’s father is an art professor, Lu Shing comes to visit, and this is the first time Lulu sets eyes on the sham artist and his favorite counterfeit painting. Like her daughter decades later, Lulu is captivated by a false work of art because it seems to resonate with her inner being.
When she praises Lu Shing for the sensitive artistry of the composition, he doesn’t contradict her. Instead, he takes credit for the painting as if it were original. His disavowal of any particular talent is the only true statement he utters, and even this is interpreted as the modest self-deprecation of a great artist.
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By Amy Tan
