Character Analysis: The Joy Luck Club

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.

No one is the same everyone is a different person and while people may have similarities they are still different people with different ideas and thoughts and outlooks on life even mothers and daughters. Such as the daughters and mothers in the book, The Joy Luck Club.

The Joy Luck Club is Amy Tan's first novel. It consists of four sections with sixteen short stories. One of the main issues of the novel is the relationship between Chinese mothers and their Chinese – American daughters. ‘‘Your mother is in your bones.’’ (Tan 1998, 30) There is a cultural chasm between them because of the difference in the way they were brought up and different influences of the environment.

There is a common theme of hope throughout the stories of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Even in the face of immeasurable danger and strife, the mothers and daughters in the book find themselves faithful in the future by looking to the past, which is only helped by the format of Tan’s writing. This is shown specifically in the stories of Suyuan and Jing-Mei Woo, Lena and Ying-Ying St. Clair, and Lindo and Waverly Jong. The vignette structure of The Joy Luck Club allows the stories to build on one another in a way that effortlessly displays both the happy and dark times in each mother’s life, which lets their experiences act as sources of background and guidance to their daughters in times when they need it most.

The author’s style of writing is straightforward and to the point and the novel is unique because it is written through the different perspectives of the four main characters. The switching of perspectives throughout the book is what made the book so hard to put down. I could see, compare and contrast how the characters themselves feel about the situation. As this goes on, the reader can comprehend the characters’ personalities better and their view on the other characters. If this story was written from just one point of view, one wouldn’t be able to figure out each character’s thoughts and perception of people around them.

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.

She liked the idea of the story but the sentence structure and the vocabulary used made it hard for her to follow sometimes. I found myself stopping to explain what was going on or what a word meant often. This made the process of reading the book unpleasant. If I had been reading this book by myself I would have been able to read it in a couple hours tops but with reading it to her the process ended up stretching out over the course of weeks. She lost interest towards the end and didn’t even want to finish it with me. Granted she is a little younger than the recommended age range but with me reading it to her it shouldn’t have been as difficult for her to understand as it was. I worry that students reading this on their own will not be able to comprehend what is happening and wade through the vocabulary. I know that many of the vocabulary words could be skipped and a student could still comprehend the story but many of the vocabulary words that are more advanced are the words that give the story its fullness and richness. Without understanding those words the characters lose a great deal of their quirk and spunk. It is because of these issues that I don’t think I would recommend this book to students very often. Despite the fact it is only 148 pages I worry that it won’t be a good experience for them. I do think that there are times that this book could be good but not for the average

What is interesting about this book is Emily Carroll actually wrote six shorter stories within it. One thing I didn’t like about this book is the stories didn’t go together. The characters names were weird, and they were all scary but they didn’t have the same setting or anything. When reading the book I enjoyed the illustrations because they

The book, The Joy Luck Club, talks about the bonds mother and daughters share, and how they try to improve their relationships with each other. Waverly Jong, constantly worries

I think that this work is a very well put together book. Even though In the earlier questions I make it sound like a ten on ten this book is not. I rate this book a 9/10 for the soul reason that it was on a very directed path and you could the events that were going to happen before they did by just reading the book. Even the twist that the author put in were not that book which made some of the book predictable and who really wants a book in which they know everything that is going to happen.

For the most part, the novel was very enjoyable. One aspect of it that I loved was that the storyline was extremely intense, which always compelled me to find out what would happen next. For example,

I enjoyed her writing style over all. I enjoyed every other character in the book but there was never enough time away from Jules Jacobson. I love the plot. I really wish I could go on so I can see what happens with the characters but even when I skipped to the end of the book, Jules was still behaving in a way that I just couldn’t stand.

I read Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. This book is about a young orphan child, with a never-ending imagination, named Anne. Anne has been taken in and out of orphanages all her life. Until, one day Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Miss Marilla Cuthbert, are interested in having a young boy to live with them. They called the orphanage and told them to send the child on the train. He goes to the train station to pick the child up, but to his surprise he found Anne. Anne tells Matthew how she imagines living there would be like. She was so set on staying that Matthew just couldn't leave her at the train station. He takes her to his house, and while on the journey, Anne is enjoying every moment of the beautiful flowered valleys.

How is your quilt made? Much like a quilt, your life is comprised of family, friends, and your community as whole. Each with it’s’ own distinctive “ patch” woven together by common threads”. The history of your heritage, culture, beliefs and environment all come together and shape whom you are. “Our environment, the world in which we live can work, is a mirror of our attitude and expectations” (Nightingale). Without question, our families, friends, and environments play essential roles in our development, the way we see the world, how we see ourselves in it, and how we interact with others.

I loved how detailed it was just from the drawings on the pages to the way everything was explained. One thing I loved about this book was when I was reading it I could picture what I was reading, which made it an easy read. I really liked how I was never confused because everything was explained in such great detail. I loved everything about this book and I wouldn’t change a single thing except maybe the author could consider making a sequel about her journey to find Olly. From this book I learned that you can’t let anything hold you back from doing what you want, because if you can dream it you can achieve