Culture In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

I think to myself what if I had a fight with my mother? What if, the fight, I was in trouble? What would I do? After the chapter “ Rules of the Game ”, I think that I have a good idea on what Waverly will do next.

“A true relationship is two imperfect people refusing to give up on each other” - Unknown. Relationships are never perfect, there are always a few bumps down the road. This goes for any relationship between boyfriend, girlfriend, brother, sister, husband, wife, etc. Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club brings to light the imperfections of family dynamics. This imperfect relationship focuses on the struggles between mothers and daughters. The broken relationships invite readers to question their own relationships, but also see how they relate to the relationships of The Joy Luck Club. Tan uses animate and inanimate objects to express the love and hate in one’s relationship, even if it’s through wobbly furniture, a jade pendant, or a

The “Joy Luck Club,” by Amy Tan, is a collection of short stories about the relationships between Chinese born mothers and their American born daughters. The story called “Four Directions” is about a woman named Waverly Jong. The story is about Waverly trying to tell her mother that she is getting married to a American man named Richard. Waverly was a chess champion as while she was a young girl and she remembers the strategy that she used in her matches, and in her life, as she tries to tell her mother about a marriage to an American man. Waverly’s mother was raised in China under Chinese traditions. Waverly’s mother wants Waverly to marry a Chinese man and dos not want Waverly to marry an American man.

The American voice is the capability to renovate and challenge stereotypes of America through copious amounts of literature. The American voice is incredibly unparalleled because of the tremendous sacrifices, tragedies, and challenges authors have endured and conquered. The events that are formative to the American voice are the differences and uniqueness between America and other foreign countries. The people that formulate the American voice are American writers that express their thoughts, feelings, and decisions through poems, short stories, and novels. The American voice was formed by the diversity of people and the struggles they overcame; therefore, hope and loss are common themes throughout the creation of the

Many times plot development is thought of as a key detail in keeping a story organized, while others would say that plot structure tends to add too much order to a piece of work and hinder the reader from exploring true creativity. A great example of these two contrasting ideas is illustrated in Amy Tan’s well-known novel “The Joy Luck Club”. Although some could argue that there is no definite plot structure portrayed at all within the book, this is not true. A slight plot lies within each individual short story. While there might not be an overall rising and falling action connected throughout the novel, an exposition, climax, and resolution are clearly illustrated in each story.

This response deals with the children of immigrants. The Joy Luck Club mothers shared the same desire for their daughters which was to live the American dream and be successful. The mothers wanted their daughters to be Chinese but the girls were just too Americanised. When Waverly was worried that she might not be let back into the country following her trip to China, her mother Lindo scoffed that only her skin and hair were Chinese, inside she is all American-made. I have decided to look at an article on present day first generation North Americans of Asian descent to see if the experiences of these children of immigrants are reflected in the Joy Luck Club.

In Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club talks about the many mother-daughter relationships between the people in the story, relationships between spouses, their friends, and even their enemies. These relationships ,in the largest probability,are different aspects of the relationship that Amy Tan had with her mother, and other parts are just things that she made up. Therefore, Amy Tan believes that the effects of cultures and tradition between a family can cause burdens and can cause the whole family to fall apart.

Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club” is a novel written in various short stories between four immigrant Chinese mothers and their four Chinese-American born daughters. The mother’s represent their heritage, tradition, culture, and native tongue. Their daughters; however embody America and its culture, along with language. Each mother and daughter share the emotional feeling of cultural separation between themselves and their relationship with each other. With their cross-cultural relationship, the daughters are at a stance with their mother, her upbringing, and wisdom. Through the mother’s stories, Amy Tan convey’s cross-cultural relationships amongst the mothers’ and daughters through symbolism and anecdotes. By facing disadvantages each mother learns to become strong through their own struggle and have become protective of their daughters from pain that they had endured in China. Although, with the daughters being brought up in a cross-cultural environment, primarily American culture, they ironically mistake their mother 's’ guidance and love as judgement. They feel pressured and criticized by their mothers and correlate it as an inability to understand the American Culture.

The Joy Luck Club In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, six separate stories of women are told. Suyuan, the founder of the Joy Luck Club, is June’s mother. Her and her daughter's story exemplifies the relationships between all six of the other mothers and daughters. Suyuan’s story tells one of tragedy and redemption, as after giving birth to two healthy twin girls, she is forced to leave her daughters behind on a long journey to Chungking once she is alerted that the Japanese were to invade the city she had lived in prior to this. When her mother tells her this, she alludes to the loss of her firstborn daughters by saying “By the time I arrived in Chungking I had lost everything except for three fancy silk dresses which I wore one on top

In order to demonstrate the communication barrier that is created at the fault of immigration, Tan showcases different sets of values between the mothers and their daughters through incomprehensible interactions. An example is when An-Mei and Rose were discussing about the latter’s failing marriage. Rose was telling her mother that, “‘there is no hope. There’s no reason to keep trying’”( Tan 139). Yet, An-Mei retaliates that, “‘this is not hope. Not reason. This is [Rose’s] fate. This is [her] life, what [she] must do’”(Tan 139). This interaction shows the different mindset they have on this situation. Rose thinks the marriage is a lost cause and that there is nothing she can do about it. In contrast, An-Mei thinks this is something she must face and control to manifest her own destiny. An-Mei’s mentality is based upon her own

Different races, ages, and cultures determine the way people interrupt concepts. In The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, shows the cultures an interpretations of the mothers and daughters. Asian mothers and Asian-American daughters understand and see themes and concepts in distinct ways.

Throughout adolescentes parents envision their child growing into a different person than expected; Traditions and culture slowly dissolve throughout generations. In the book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the author reveals the change in culture from parent to child, and how their children see the world. Is the crumbling of minority culture a inevitable outcome when families move to The United States of America, or is the American society dismissive of the rich and colorful heritage of minorities? The xenophobic society in The United States of America shapes its citizens into identical people with matching beliefs.

How many English’s do you speak? Do you notice when speaking to strangers or at work that you actually speak differently than you would to your close family members? Meet Amy Tan, she is known for her book called The Joy Luck Club (1989). Tan has also been featured in several other magazines and she has authored Children’s books as well.

The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, has many stories within the actual book that describe the relationships between the four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. The mothers and daughters hold weekly parties where they play games and enjoy each others company. “And each week, we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our joy. And that's how we came to call our little parties Joy Luck.”(pg.25) However, Jing-mei “June” Woo, the main character, replaced her mother’s seat after her untimely death. All of the characters have truly captivating stories, but June specifically tells many stories eventually leading up to realizing that she is Chinese and that she should embrace it despite being American-born. This novel is truly mesmerizing

“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)