Movie Essays - Comparing the Novel and Film Version of Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan’s short story “A Pair of Tickets,” has June May crossing an ocean to visit her family that she has never met, where she connects with her Chinese heritage in a way she was never able to before. On her trip, she discovers the depth and importance of her culture through her family members. The main character, June May, is a woman of Chinese heritage, from San Francisco, California. Growing up in the United States, in a very American environment, June May feels as though she never truly understood what it meant to be Chinese. As she soon learns, however, June May realizes that through her own family she can connect with the heritage that bonds them all together.

Amy Tan is an author who uses the theme of Chinese-American life, focusing mainly on mother-daughter relationships, where the mother is an immigrant from China and the daughter is a thoroughly Americanized --yellow on the surface and white underneath. In her book, the mother tries to convey their rich history and legacy to her daughter, who is almost completely ignorant of their heritage, while the daughter attempts to understand her hopelessly old- fashioned mother, who now seems to harbor a secret wisdom, who, in the end, is right about everything all along. At the opening of the story "A Pair of Tickets" Jandale Woo and her father are on a train, the are destined for China. Their first stop will be Guangzhou, China where he father will

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.

Amy Tan and Alice Walker use their writing to explore generational and cultural differences in their cultures, with focus on mothers and their daughters in relation to identity. In Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday use”, the characterization of mothers and daughters symbolizes the generational differences within their respective cultures. Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” tells the story of a young Chinese American student who travels to China for the first time to meet her half-sisters. The main character, June May (Jing-Mei), narrates the story from first person view, and this enables readers to learn about her characterization. She was born and raised in America and had always projected an American identity, even making

Tan shows that she is embarrassed in her family for their lacking of proper American manners. Although at the time she felt ashamed, the words spoken by her mother, “Inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame” became better understood later in life. In Amy Tan's work, the strong use of description of both the event that are occurring and Amy’s feelings about them, draws the reader in and makes them feel as if they are part of the action. Tan's Chinese-American culture and life stories are imprinted in her writing which gives the reader an opportunity to gain knowledge about the way of life in her family, friends, and even the Chinese culture. Tan's main purpose of writing is to inform and educate people about growing up as a minority in the American society.

The Joy Luck Club (1989), introduced the cultural values of China and America which was highly successful. It remained nine months on the Times Bestseller and was re-created into a movie which released in 1993 with the same name. Although there are not much influential differences, the visual/audio effects in movies, structures and languages, including the tones and pronunciations made some changes on the individual’s preference.

Amy Tan’s A Pair Of Tickets is a story concerning family and roots. June May, like the author herself, was a Chinese born in USA and grew up with an American background culture, whereas her mother grew up in China and then immigrated to America. Looking at the repeated words, we discussed that one there are many words such as mother, sister, father and Aiyi. Most of the characters in this story belong to one family, June May’s family. It suggests to us that the tale is about relations and where we stand in our family. Even Aiyi brings practically her whole family to see her brother and niece. This is also one of the stronger traits of the Chinese cultures where there are many family occasions.

Chang-Rae Lee uses this experience to create works that help others understand what it feels like to struggle to know your identity through imagery and, symbolism. Coming to America was a change Mr.Lee thought was tough getting used to but, at the end he received a B.A. in English wrote successful books about Asian Americans. Every book is different but all corollate to finding ones identity and where they fit in in

A new generation of Chinese-American writers has educated both the public and academia about the varying perspectives of Chinese-Americans. Shirley Geok-lin Lim in “Assaying the Gold: Or, Contesting the Ground of Asian American Literature” acknowledges that Chinese-American writers are extent in overthrowing American literary hegemony. Lawrence Mead reports a grave concern about immigration threatens to turn the United States into a mainly Latin-American and Chinese-American country in his article “Immigration: The Cultural Dimension.” Indeed, a Latin-American writer named Cristina Henriquez presents a vivid picture about the daily life of the Latin-American immigrants in her novel “The Book of Unknown Americans.” I agree with Shirley Geok-lin

Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, tells the story about the conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers, and their American-raised daughters. This novel is taken place from the 1910’s to the 1980’s in San Francisco, and different locations in China, such as: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. The protagonists of this book are the mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, Ying-ying St. Clair, and their daughters: Jing-mei “June” Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Suyuan Woo founded the Joy Luck Club in China as a way for women to come together and celebrate life during the Japanese attacks. This club acts a safe haven for the women who immigrated to America to start new lives, and escape their suppressive pasts. Club

First generation Chinese-American who grew up in the Chinese immigrant community of San Francisco. The novel is her exploration of her cultural and familial inheritance.

Amy Tan is an American writer, which bases most of her stories in the relationship between mother and daughter, and the Chinese-American experience. Tan is the author of the story “A pair of tickets,” which is a short story about a woman who takes a journey to China to inform her sisters about their mother’s death. The night before she was going to meet her sisters, her father shares with her the story about her mother’s previous life, making her realized how much she had never know about her mother. The next day she finally meets her sisters and understands that her blood is what makes her Chinese. Tan shows the main character Jing-Mei Woo struggling for her identity and through the use of setting, the discovering about heritage and symbolism, Amy Tan shows how the protagonist of the story comes to the realization of her identity as a Chinese woman.

In the movie, the clashing views and the stories of both sides are present for each mother-daughter pair. The movie depicts the difficulties of growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The process of enculturation

The differences between the novel and movie version of Amy Tan’s famous work, The Joy Luck Club, are subtle. Nevertheless, the ways that the movie used to express the story did allow The Joy Luck Club to relate more to the audiences’ life. The level of success of both the novel and movie, however, still mainly depends on personal preference.

Firstly, this thesis analyzes family ethic values in the novel reflected by Amy Tan who is a Chinese American writer living in America. Amy Tan, born in the United States, is the second generation of Chinese immigrants. She receives an American education, growing up in the environment of American culture. While her parents are native Chinese with a good education,