The Joy Luck Club Essay

The Joy Luck Club is the first novel by Amy Tan, published in 1989. The Joy Luck Club is about a group of Chinese women that share family stories while they play Mahjong. When the founder of the club, Suyuan Woo, died, her daughter June replaced her place in the meetings. In her first meeting, she finds out that her lost twin sisters were alive in China. Before the death of Suyuan, the other members of the club located the address of June’s half-sisters. After that, they send June to tell her half-sisters about her mother’s life. In our lives there are events, and situations that mark our existence and somehow determine our life. In this novel, it shows how four mothers and their daughters were impacted by their tradition and beliefs. In the traditional Asian family, parents define the law and the children are expected to follow their requests and demands; respect for one’s parents and elders is critically important. Traditions are very important because they allow us to remember the beliefs that marked a whole culture.

Many women find that their mothers have the greatest influence on their lives and the way their strengths and weaknesses come together. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the lives of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters are followed through vignettes about their upbringings and interactions. One of the mothers, An-Mei Hsu, grows up away from her mother who has become the 4th wife of a rich man; An-Mei is forced to live with her grandmother once her mother is banned from the house, but eventually reunites and goes to live in the man’s house with her mother. Her daughter, Rose, has married an American man, Ted, but their marriage begins to end as he files for divorce; Rose becomes depressed and unsure what to do, despite

Traditions, heritage and culture are three of the most important aspects of Chinese culture. Passed down from mother to daughter, these traditions are expected to carry on for years to come. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, daughters Waverly, Lena, Rose and June thoughts about their culture are congested by Americanization while on their quests towards self-actualization. Each daughter struggles to find balance between Chinese heritage and American values through marriage and professional careers.

Waverly Jong is very different from her mother, Lindo, but Waverly shares some similarities with her mother. Both women know how to be tricky towards their situations. When married to Tyan-yu in China, Lindo devised a plan to exit the marriage without dishonoring her family. Lindo said, “It was really quite simple. I made the Huangs think it was their idea to get rid of me, that they would be the ones to say the contract was valid.” (Tan, “Joy Luck Club” 63). Lindo later stated, “They didn’t blame me so much. Huang Taitai got her grandson. I got my clothes, a rail ticket to Peking, and enough money to go to America.” (Tan, “Joy Luck Club” 66). Lindo Jong uses her deceitfulness to get herself out of the marriage, while Waverly Jong uses her deceitfulness to trick her opponents in chess. When going against one of her opponents, she described it as the challenger disappearing, “the color ran out of the room, and I saw only my white pieces and his black ones waiting on the other sides. A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear.…”Check,” I said, as the wind roared with laughter.” (Tan, “Joy Luck Club, 96 and 97). When reading these examples, both mother and daughter show a correlation with this craftiness in certain situations. Although, Lindo and Waverly have their differences. Lindo Jong has a very strong sense of self during situations. Before Lindo’s marriage, she was questioning who she was. She then gains control over herself and tells

The movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, has the protagonist named George Bailey. In this story line, God is talking to one of his angels and He tells this angel that his job is to prevent this man from killing himself and to save him. God then goes and shows this angel part of George’s life that was very significant. In the end, we see George Bailey at present time and we see that he is at one of his lowest points ever.

“Here is how I came to love my mother.  How I saw her my own true nature.  What was beneath my skin.  Inside my bones.” (Tan 40)

The 1950’s were called the “Happy Days” for multiple reasons. We were finished with a huge war, and our economy was booming. Social, political and economic policies were popping up everywhere. Many things define why the 1950’s were the “Happy Days” in the U.S. Whether it was the end of the Korean War for the U.S. or the economic boom that helped define what we call the “American Dream” the 1950’s were great times for America.

Culture defines humanity. Culture makes humans different than any other living organism ever known. Culture is what makes humans unique, and yet culture is easily the most misunderstood characteristic of individuals. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan develops the theme of incomplete cultural understanding leads to an inability to communicate one’s true intentions through juxtaposition and conflict between mothers and daughters and their cultures.

In the novel The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, there are several stories that intertwine into one novel. Each of the stories takes place China where the roles and the actions of woman are vastly different compared to American tradition. In the different stories, they all are about different mothers and daughters. Throughout the book, the reader can see the development in each relationship between mother and daughter with their conflicting backgrounds from China to America.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan follows multiple Chinese-American women who struggle with their self-identity and creating a balance between American and Chinese culture. Because of their immigration and many hardships in life, many of the women feel like they cannot truly tell who they are anymore, and throughout the novel these women are portrayed as ghosts. Ghosts are used to symbolize these women because they share many parallels including being only a remnant of who they once were, or who they could be. Ying-ying St. Clair is one of the women, who has a daughter named Lena St. Clair, she has had a troubled past in China, which has made her lose her fighting spirit, and her spirit in general. Ying-ying is fully aware of her loss of spirit and is embarrassed because she considers ghosts to be shameful and weak, and wants to save her daughter, Lena, from her fate.

I noticed that Waverly likes to use her mother’s beliefs against her. An example is when Waverly wanted to compete in the chess tournament. Her mother tells her “ the strongest wind cannot be seen ”, which means that Waverly's action will be better than her words. Waverly knew that her mother may not let her compete in the tournament if she asked directly. So instead, she said that she would bring shame to her family if she entered. By using Waverly's mother's beliefs against her she was allowed to compete.

History, Culture and Identity of Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

In both pieces of literature; "Barrio Boy," by Ernesto Galarza and "The Joy Luck Club," by Amy Tan; the authors portray families and their struggle with language barriers, even within their own families, adapting to the customs and routines of the North American society, and how the younger family members succeeded in school, work, and relationships.

For the duration of your life you will run into some miscommunication with somebody, whether its a relative, a companion, or even an irregular individual. On occasion individuals would say something to somebody, and they would either take it truly or simply misconstrue it. Both individuals would begin contending which would prompt a colossal difference. In Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club, miscommunication assumes a colossal part. Mother, Lindo, and her little girl, Waverly, misjudge one another and a scorn feel for one another starts.

Throughout The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan inserts various conflicts betweens mothers and daughters. Most of these relationships, already very fragile, become distanced through heritage, history and expectations. These differences cause reoccurring clashes between two specific mother-daughter bonds. The first relationship exists between Waverly Jong and her mother, Lindo. Lindo tries to instill Chinese qualities in her daughter while Waverly refuses to recognize her heritage and concentrates on American culture. The second bond is that of Jing-Mei Woo and her mother, Suyuan. In the beginning of the book Jing-Mei speaks of confusion in her recently deceased mother's actions. The language and cultural barrier presented between Jing-Mei and Suyuan