The Joy Luck Club Vignette's The Red Candle

In addition, the author helps the reader understand the selfishness of the mother when the reader finds out she have stole the Persian Carpet “several months before” (230) the divorce and puts the blame on Ilya, the poor blind man. Furthermore, the visit of the children is supposed to signal a fresh start for the family. The mother even emphasizes she wants the girls to come “live with [them]” (229). Yet again, even if they meet in order to reunite, characterized by a situational irony, they see themselves separated because of her mother selfish decisions.

a story that reflects the subordination of woman in marriage. By the time of the early

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.

the reader to interpret what may have happened to the mother, and how it affects the relationship

The book The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan, who is very famous in writing about mother-daughter relationships. There are four pairs of mothers and daughters whose stories are told in The Joy Luck Club. All of the mothers were born in China and came to America because of some kind of problem, but their daughters were born in the United States. Due to the fact that the daughters were born in the United States, they are extremely Americanized. Consequently, they do not value the Chinese heritage which their mothers valued dearly. As the daughters are growing up, this conflict between them increases. Suyuan Woo and her daughter, June or Jing-mei, two characters from the book, had major conflicts over the Chinese belief system of

Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English.  And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!  She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for.”  (Tan 1)  The culture in China the mothers of Joy Luck dealt with was unlike anything their daughters could ever imagine or appreciate. Between the mothers Lindo, Suyuan, An-mei and Ying-ying, the Chinese culture forced them into being married by a matchmaker, giving up babies, witness desperate attempts to save loved ones, and having an abortion.  In many ways the Chinese culture scared each woman, although they were proud of their heritage, their daughters deserved better.  These four mothers had very high hopes for the better lives that they wanted to give their daughters by raising them in America.  They didn’t like or want to have their daughters looked down upon, just because they were Chinese women.  From each of their own experiences, they learned that they wanted to improve the lives of their following generation.

To begin with, The Joy Luck Club centers its content around the lives of eight women of Chinese heritage each with their own stories to tell; yet, all striving to satisfy their aspirations in America. A concisive cross is common between the mothers’ hopes compared to those of the American born daughters. Immigrating to America for various reasons, the four mothers all had one goal in mind, to not only construct themselves a better life, but also ensure the finest future for their daughters. For the mothers in the Joy Luck Club, the American dream was to instill Chinese history, heritage, and habit in their daughters while providing American opportunities of growth, gratification, and gallantry. Carrying heavy pasts, the four original American Joy Luck Club members arrived in The United States to start anew, “America was where

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan, employs various rhetorical devices at numerous points in the story to achieve a specific purpose, whether the aim is to expand a character’s development, to further the evolution of the plot, or to suggest a certain theme to the reader. In particular, one of the most common rhetorical devices exploited by Tan throughout the story is perhaps the anecdote, which forces the reader to analyze the hidden significance of it as its contents are much longer and more elaborate than other rhetorical devices which typically consist of a mere sentence or two. Each anecdote in the book carries substantial importance and yet, it seems that the fact that there are so many of them in the novel does not undermine each one’s individual magnificence. The most poignant anecdote in the book may in fact be the story of An-Mei’s mother of how she lost herself and became a concubine-against her will-to a notorious mogul named Wu Tsing. An-Mei’s mother ultimately chooses to commit suicide in hopes that it will save her two children from the neglect and wrath of her husband, who initially cares very little about An-Mei and her family but is convinced by Chinese myth to improve their standards of living, “Seeing her this last time, I threw myself on her body. And she opened her eyes slowly… I shut her eyes with my fingers and told her with my heart: I can see the truth too… Because we both knew this: that on the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores… He (Wu Tsing) promised her visiting ghost that he would raise

The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards

him, therefore, she lives with her sister and his husband as a result. This shows the mother’s priorities

In the story “Two Kinds”, author Amy Tan, who is a Chinese-American, describes the conflicts in the relationship of a mother and daughter living in California. The protagonist in this story Jing-mei Woo’s mother is born and raised in China, and immigrates to the United States to escape from the Chinese Civil War. For many years she maintained complete Chinese traditional values, and has been abided by it deliberately. This kind of traditional Chinese culture has also affected her daughter profoundly. However, Jing-mei is born and raised in the United States. Despite she has a Chinese mother; she is unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Chinese

In this story from Iran, two sisters are treated by opposite extremes by their mother. Adji Khanom is tall and thin with large lips and considered unattractive, her young sister Mahrokh is fair and petite and known as a beauty. Since childhood, Abji was hit and humiliated in front of strangers by their mother, for the shame of being born an ugly duckling, undermining herself esteem. Her parents once arranged a marriage to the carpenters apprentice Kalb Hosayn, but he did not want to marry her. Convinced that her reward will be in the next life, she devotes her life to prayer. When Mahrokh is to be married, Abji does all she can to slander her, even saying she is two months pregnant. Her jealous reaches its zenith on Mahrokh and Abbas wedding

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.

In the movie, the Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, we see many examples of the challenges of intercultural translations. The movie portrays cultural conflict between Chinese culture and the American culture as portrayed by the lives of four mothers and their daughters. The mothers were born and raised in China, adopting the high-content Chinese culture, while their daughters, born and raised in America, adopted the low-context American

In the chapter, “Lindo Jong: The Red Candle”, Lindo Jong is just two years old when she is betrothed to a wealthy family’s son, Tyan-yu. In Lindo’s city she did not have the option to choose who she married “In other cities already, a man could choose his own wife, with his parents’ permission of course. But we were cut off from this type of new thought” (Tan, 51). When the heavy rains, flood came in it destroyed their home, wrecked the land and family’s wheat that they had planted, Lindo now twelve years old is then told by her father since they don’t have insurance that they would all have to move to Wushi to the south in Shanghai but, since Lindo is now twelve years old she is old enough and would be the only one staying to move in with her future husband’s family. Lindo then faces off a series of issues, she overcomes them by not saying a thing “But I was determined to honor my parents’ words, so Huang Taitai could never accuse my mother of losing face” (Tan, 55) she becomes aware that her soon to be husband is very arrogant, unloyal, spoiled, and careless. The wedding is then taken place on the fifthteenth day of the eighth moon, in the morning at the celebration it began to rain. The Red Candle in the novel is an object that is being used to “symbolize” whether or not the marriage would be successful and happy or