How Does Waverly Jong Show Identity In 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.

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.

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.

 In the Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, focuses on mother-daughter relationships. She examines the lives of four women who emigrated from China, and the lives of four of their American-born daughters. The mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying St. Clair had all experienced some life-changing horror before coming to America, and this has forever tainted their perspective on how they want their children raised. The four daughters: Waverly, Lena, Rose, and Jing-Mei are all Americans. Even though they absorb some of the traditions of Chinese culture they are raised in America and American ideals and values.  This inability to communicate and the clash

Communication between generations has always been an issue and with that, a misunderstanding of the past and culture comes along. In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, she shows the stories of four Chinese mothers and their American born daughters. Throughout the novel, the characters encounter both external and internal conflicts in order to contrast the different relationships held by the mothers and daughters with their past and where they came from. The mother-daughter pair of Lindo and Waverly Jong shows the gap between the generations very clearly. Everything is different, from language to name to marriage.

The novel, The Joy Luck Club describes the life of four mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair and their four daughters: Jing-mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All four of these families fled China in the 1940s and tried to retain and maintain their culture and heritage. All of the four daughters are very Americanized and the mothers try to show and teach each of their daughters a little about the chinese culture. All these mothers hope to give their daughter strength, respect for herself, and to create a strong bond and relationship between themselves. Tan gives us something to relate to by telling us the story of Chinese women and their daughters. The all may

In her 1989 novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan hones into the narratives of four Chinese American immigrant families living in San Francisco. The novel is structured into four distinct, anecdotal sections: two dedicated to mothers and two dedicated to daughters. Tan’s approach to structure allows the interlocking stories between mother and daughter to place emphasis on the issue of sexism. The purpose of Tan’s novel is to highlight that, even though American and Chinese societies drastically differ, there still remains a recurring theme of chauvinism. Erica Jong says, “Sexism kind of predisposes us to see men's work as more important than women's, and it is a problem, I guess, as writers, we have to change.” Through her purpose, Tan is

Waverly is struggling with her cultural identity during her coming of age as a Chinese

“I threw away my foolish innocence to protect myself. And then I taught my daughter to shed her innocence so she would not be hurt as well.” (Tan 213). The Joy Luck club is a book containing sixteen stories told by four mother-daughter pairs, as well as four anecdotes about no particular character. The mothers are all Chinese Immigrants. Each mother's story details their experiences in China, while the daughters talk about life in America. The exception to this is with the Woo family, where the mother, Suyuan, has passed away, and the daughter, June, tells her stories for her. In ‘The Joy Luck Club’, Amy Tan uses the stories of the mothers to illustrate the similarities and differences in the ways the mothers and daughters think about

    Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is a novel that deals with many controversial issues. These issues unfold in her stories about four Chinese mothers and their American raised daughters. The novel begins with the mothers talking about their own childhood’s and the relationship that they had with their mothers. Then it focuses on the daughters and how they were raised, then to the daughters current lives, and finally back to the mothers who finish their stories. Tan uses these mother-daughter relationships to describe conflicts of history, culture, and identity and how each of these themes are intertwined with one another through the mothers and

June May is a 36-year-old woman of Chinese decent. She grew up in San Francisco, California and has never known what it is to be Chinese. She has denied any sympathy to the culture and it has a lot to do with the relationship she had with her now gone mother. Her mother believed that “Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese.” She also told June May, “Someday you will see, it’s in your blood waiting to be let go.” June May simply did not understand what her mother meant when she said, “I saw myself transforming like a werewolf, a mutant tag of DNA suddenly triggered, replicating itself insidiously into a syndrome, a cluster of telltale Chinese behaviors, all those things my mother did to embarrass me-haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter.” This shows that June May’s perception on what it is to be Chinese is greatly isolated to the things she saw her mother do. She has never been submerged in the Chinese culture and does not understand how she could become Chinese. More importantly, she does not understand the true desire of her mother’s heart in reuniting

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan tells the story of four Chinese mothers and their American daughters. Throughout the book, Tan talks about the mothers and the life they had in china, the relationship between their mothers, and why they moved to America. She also writes about the daughters who were born and raised in America and their relationship with their mothers. In addition, she talks about the cultural differences between the Chinese mothers and the Chinese-American daughters. Joy Luck Club is one of the best books in showing examples of the differences in Chinese and American culture. Three examples of this that are shown in the book are collectivism versus individualism, humility against self-promotion, and internalizing emotion compared to expressing emotion.

It is commonly said that actions speak louder than words. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, this old adage is spun in a new light, as words often fail to connect divergent generations and cultures. This is best shown in the relationship between Waverly and Lindo Jong, in which years of misunderstanding and talk are broken only by shared experiences. Throughout these vignettes, dialogue, or lack thereof, highlights how words alone rarely can break down cultural barriers, and how shared experiences, instead, are key to forming lasting bonds and deepening respect.

Relationships are based off understanding of one another. In the Joy Luck Club, the mothers and daughters have opposing viewpoints against each other. Lindo Jong (mother) and Waverly Jong (daughter) are one of the pairs in the story that have conflict. Waverly keeps comparing herself to her mother of how they are polar opposites. Waverly debates in her mind about value of her mother and herself.

The Joy Luck Club is a perfect example in which cultural diversity and language difference come to life through the author’s stellar writing style and voice throughout the text; Communication, especially between mother