n one respect, Lindo’s story diverges from An-mei’s and Ying-ying’s. In a manner that resembles Suyuan’s willful creation of her own happiness through the Joy Luck Club, Lindo took her fate into her own hands when she saw that the price of keeping her promise to her mother, and to tradition, had become too high. Lindo explains that before her wedding, she made a second promise, a promise to herself: “I would always remember my parents’ wishes, but I would never forget myself.” This promise maintained and even affirmed Lindo’s respect for the force of promises, but it also shows that Lindo refused to sacrifice her own identity to that force. The trick she plays on Taitai in order to extricate herself from the marriage demonstrates the power of language and imagination in directing one’s own life. At the same time, however, it was an understanding of tradition that enabled Lindo to assert her own power. By playing on Taitai’s cultural superstitions and reverence for her ancestors, Lindo escaped a situation of misery without suffering punishment. For, as An-mei’s mother’s story demonstrates, the rigidity of cultural expectation often penalizes a woman for breaking the bonds of marital sacrifice, punishing her attempt at independence with total ostracism.