Summary Of Amy Tan's 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.

Throughout the film memory is used to show the contrast in traditional Chinese culture and American culture. During a scene Ying-Ying comments on her disastrous marriage and sacrifice of her child. Through Ying-Ying’s memory Tan is able the cultural differences in America and China. Ying-Ying explains how her husband grew from a loving and passionate husband to an inconsiderate cheater and abuser, “He took everything from me, so I took what I could from him” (Tan). Knowing that her husband’s prize was their son, she drowned their child and sacrificed her baby’s life for her revenge. In both America and China there are sour marriages, cheating husbands, and cases of domestic abuse but in Ying-Ying’s story the emphasis in cultural contrast derives from the importance of a son in Chinese culture. Ying-Ying (representing the Chinese culture) is able to find retribution through the death of her child because of this status of worth placed on males while in America Ying-Ying is able to escape this gender compliance because in America they do not weigh sons as such a necessity over daughters. Ying-Ying as a young woman felt that through the death of her child she is able to survive. This idea of

"But even if I had known I was getting such a bad husband, I had no choice, now or later. That was how backward families in the country were. We were always the last to give up stupid old- fashioned customs" (24). Amy Tan, the writer of The Joy Luck Club, incorporates many Chinese customs and traditions along with personal experiences into her writing. Because times change and new generations are produced and brought into the world, conflicts tend to arise between parents and their children. From issues on self-worth to having trouble embracing the Chinese culture, Tan creates a storyline incorporating three mother/daughter pairs who truly encompass these challenges. Upon analyzing

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.

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.

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.

“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)

All of the woman who migrated from China all have a curtain pride for their own mothers and cultures cultures respectively. Major acts of pride go into what these woman do while raising their daughters, as they want to push their daughters for success. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. . . .” The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes. . . . And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant. . . . They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese . . . who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.” The other mothers are flabbergasted that June does not know that much about her mother. The mothers also have their own pride in their daughters, and all the daughters have been together, so this phrase from June scares the other mothers of what their own daughters might think about them. In Chinese tradition, respecting your mother is very important, due to June being raised in America, she does not realise what she has just proclaimed as bad until the other mothers react to it.

She then says “ Your mother loves you child. Remember that. Always.” (Chapter 6, Fair Exchange, page 67). The situation was dangerous indeed and through Mai’s bond with Phuong and as a mother, protected Phuong from her would-be kidnappers. The use of emotive language in this scene show that Mai truly loved her daughter. One of the many similes that the writer used was: “The world slides away like a memory and is gone.” (Chapter 13, Before the Death of Innocence, page 139). The use of

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

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.

While The Joy Luck Club is not an autobiography, the author, Amy Tan's culture influences The Joy Luck Club because the book is very similar to her own life experiences, while basing some characters off of her mother and also including her Chinese heritage in the text.

But the main problem between mothers and daughters in Amy Tan's novels is the lack of communication. As will be discussed below, mothers usually have some terrible hidden secret, something that even her closest relatives ignore. In "The Joy Luck Club" is the fact that Suyuan Woo had been formerly married and had two lost children in China in The Kitchen's God Wife, we have the same again; and, finally, in The Hundred Secret Senses, the father is the one who had a secret past life, but here also the relationship between mother and daughter are somewhat problematic. Olivia is not very close to her mother, who used to care more about finding an exotic partner than for her children.

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

This passage is adapted from Wayson Choy’s ‘The Jade Peony’ and portrays the fear of a young boy who has recently lost his mother. The reader is able to infer the situation from the passage despite it not being clearly mentioned. The reader infers that the passage is about a juvenile boy who sits beside his dying mother and is then taken care of by family friends, predominantly the Chins.