The Joy Luck Club Literary Analysis

The Joy Luck Club Literary Analysis
In a series of sixteen chapters that spans generations and continents, Amy Tan explores one of the
main themes of the novel, The Joy Luck Club, which consists of the complex relationship between
the first–generation Chinese–American daughters and their mothers that are able to stand resilient
despite cultural tensions and generational differences. Such conflict among the characters arises
from language barriers between the Chinese mothers and the Americanized daughters. The loss of a
sense of Chinese heritage and the daughters' assimilation into American culture kindles
misunderstanding amid the characters in the novel. In the midst of barriers and conflicts the women
face throughout their lives, the women in The Joy Luck Club form their sense of identity by
breaking through cultural, language and emotional barriers that hinder them from exploring,
connecting and developing. Amy Tan's use of literary and rhetorical devices evokes emotions ...
Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In 1985, she wrote the story Rules of the Game which thus led to the creation of The Joy Luck Club.
The novel explored the distinct relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese–American
daughters. Moreover, Amy Tan wrote The Joy Luck Club to try to understand her own relationship
with her mother. Tan's Chinese parents wanted her to embody both an American and Chinese
mentality however, she found this duality particularly difficult to submerge into as an adolescent.
While the generational differences were like those experienced in other families, the dual
distinctions added another element to the complexity. Furthermore, "Tan wrote The Joy Luck Club
not only to sort out her cultural heritage but to learn how she and her mother could get along better"
("Plot" 1). The well acclaimed novel received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was
translated into 25 languages. She later on wrote The Kitchen's God's Wife, The Bonesetters
Daughter, and The Valley of
... Get more on HelpWriting.net ...

Comparison Of The BookThe Joy Luck Club And The Joy Luck Club
Jim Butcher once said: "When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without
flinching – – they are your family." No matter what, family will always help; the same can be said
for friends who are family. In the article, "The Friendships That Hold Us Safely in Their Keep" by
Sara Lukinson and the novel "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan, many similarities and differences
can be found pertaining to family. In many circumstances, friends become your family especially if
they have stayed by your side. This can be said for both the novel and the article because they
characterize friends as family. In the book, Amy wrote, "Auntie, Uncle," I say, repeatedly, nodding
to each person there. I have always called these old family friends Auntie and Uncle." (Tan 15).
Jing–Mei Woo describes her family's friends using the titles of Aunt and Uncle; normally reserved
for your parent's siblings. Throughout her article, Lukinson explains how her friends helped her
cope with her sister's death. Towards the end of the article she says, "My friends, I am lucky to say,
held on tightly even on the days I wanted to let go. When I could find no place for myself, they did."
(Lukinson 2017). Although she does not directly say her friends are like her family, Sara's friends do
things that a family would; keeping her grounded in reality and reassuring her whenever there is
doubt. At some point of a person's life, they experience death; whether it is the death of a loved one
or a stranger

The Joy Luck Club Meaning
Introduction: The title of the book is The Joy Luck Club, which Amy Tan wrote. The two main
places that the story takes place in are China and San Francisco. However, there are several different
years in which the story takes place. Some include 1918, 1923, and multiple undisclosed years. The
story is told in first person with viewpoints from many different characters.
Body:
The title of the book relates to the story because the Joy Luck Club is the name of the gathering of
Chinese–Americans that Suyuan Woo started. As a child, Ying–Ying was a restless rebel who
yearned for freedom; however, when she becomes an adult she becomes passive. She lets her
American husband make all the decisions. Lindo Jong is a bitter strong–willed woman who fears she
has assimilated too much. By her mother, An–Mei was taught to conceal her pain, and even though
... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
From this book, we can learn that we can control our destiny. One important quote is, "And I am
sitting at my mother's place at the mah jong table, on the East, where things begin," (Tan 41). It is
important because it shows that Jing–Mei is ready to meet her half–sisters. Another one is, "[The
candle] fluttered a little [...] but still both ends burned strong. [I...] blew out my husband's end of the
candle," (Tan 60). This is important because it shows that Lindo Jong wants to change her destiny.
Another important quote is, "'In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody
will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch,'" (Tan 17). This is important
because it shows that the woman wanted to change the destiny of her and her daughter. Overall, in
the book, I enjoyed learning about Chinese culture with the mah jong and the candle being burned to
see if a marriage will last. However, I could not fully understand the stories because I was not
familiar with things like mah jong and the elements inside

The Joy Luck Club Characterization
Characterization is a widely–used literary tool in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Specifically, each
mother and daughter is a round character that undergoes change throughout the novel.
Characterization is important in the novel because it directly supports the central theme of the
mother–daughter relationship, which was relevant in Tan's life. Tan grew up with an immigrant
mother, and Tan expresses the difficulties in communication and culture in the stories in her book.
All mothers in the book are immigrants to America, and all daughters grew up living the American
lifestyle, creating conflict between the mothers and daughters due to miscommunication.
Characterization of the mothers and daughters in Amy Tan's The Joy Club creates and ... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
June wants to learn more about her mother and her culture with the added pressure of meeting
Suyuan's lost daughters in China. She starts to embrace the Chinese culture and is excited to eat a
traditional Chinese meal, even though she does not get the chance (page 278). She also asks her
father more about Suyuan's time in China and the meaning of her name (page 280). When June
finally meets her sisters, they murmur, "'Mama, Mama'" (page 287). June finally feels a connection
with her mother and with her Chinese background. Therefore, June's character developed because of
her mother's passing. An–mei and Rose have similar character development in that Rose's character
development aided her relationship with An–mei. In "Scar" and "Magpies," An–mei reveals how she
was taught to desire nothing and swallow her tears. Because of her experience with a deceptive,
multi–wife household and her mother's suicide, An–mei taught Rose the opposite of this Chinese
way. However, An–mei realizes that Rose came out the same way regardless of her teachings (page
215). An–mei tells Rose that Rose was born without wood and would bend to listen to other people
if she was not careful (page 191). Rose grows up believing everything her mother says and is prone
to nightmares led by Mr. Chou. In Rose's failed marriage, she does not make any decisions and just
lets things happen. Rose finally takes a look at

The Joy Luck Club Summary
The literary criticism, "Language as Barrier and Bridge in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club" is written
by Mohamed Samir, who is from Faculty of Philosophy department at the University of Vaasa. He
enforces the point that despite that the mother's have strong roots from China, their daughters
through being raised in America, on the other hand, are disconnected. Hence, the daughters are yet
to discover their racial identity, but through an honest effort made by their mothers they are guided
towards uncovering it. He argues that despite linguistic barriers and challenges in cultural translation
which are thought of the be as the barriers, it is possible to pass on one's heritage to the ongoing
generations through the means of storytelling, ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
To exemplify, Jing Mei states "These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke
two different languages, which we did. I talked to her in English, she answered back in Chinese"
(23). The author maintains the point that Jing Mei's sense of picking up Chinese words here and
there is very weak. She cannot comprehend and absorb information related to her mother tongue that
is spoken and heard in her daily life. Furthermore, when Waverly has a conversation with her mom
about always bragging about her, the mother responds, "So shame be with mother? Embarrass you
be my daughter?." The author asserts that the mother's prepositions, subjects, and articles are not
used in their speaking, making their English sound incomplete. However, English is their second
language, so it is justifiable. Relating to this, many words in Chinese have no translation in English.
This makes the mother's seem uneducated as if what they are saying is useless to acknowledge,
causing their daughters to regard them with stupidity in a dominant American society. Nevertheless,
they do carry knowledge and wisdom which is underestimated by their daughters.
The daughters face challenges in cultural translation leading to cultural differences. To exemplify,
after Jing Mei's mother dies, she realizes that she does not even know the significance of the jade
pendant, which

Analysis Of The Joy Luck Club
There are several themes in the book, "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan. I am going to talk about a
couple of them. The first one I would like to talk about is immigration. Immigration in the book is
from the perspective of a Chinese family coming to America to look for a better life. Their old life in
Kweilin was going really bad, "But the worst were the northern peasants who emptied their noses
into their hands and pushed people around and gave everybody their dirty diseases." They, like the
family in the article, were trying to leave a place that was dangerous to find better living conditions.
Another reason they came for a better life is because they would be able to make more money over
in America. With options such as better jobs and the stock market, "The Joy Luck uncles begin to
talk about stocks they are interested in buying." I am able to relate to this because my mother is
from Mexico. The reason she came to America is her dad had gotten a better job offer in Pharr,
Texas. This way life can be easier living. It would be easier to pay for land, water, and food. As a
result of being able to earn more money, through better jobs or the stock market, the Joy Luck is
able to buy much more food and much better food than what was originally available. "There are
piles of food on the table, served buffet style, just like at the Kweilin feasts." This is relatable to me
because I love food and we very easily take food for granted. Even though I did not immigrate into
America, I

The Joy Luck Club
Research Question:
How and why does Amy Tan use storytelling to portray thematic elements in her book,The Joy Luck
Club?
Introduction:
The Joy Luck Club is a novel known as the novel of stories within stories. This is because of how it
is structured,Amy Tan writes about sixteen different interwoven stories about Chinese immigrant
mothers and their relationships with their American born daughters. Amy Tan creates four different
sections each of which contain four different narratives. In the first section the mother's recall their
own relationships with their mothers back in china. The next section the daughters relate their
recollections of their childhood relationship to with their mothers. The third section of stories narrate
the ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
"It's not showoff." She said the two soups were almost the same, chabudwo. Or maybe she said
butong, not the same thing at all. It was one of those Chinese expressions that means the better half
of mixed intentions. I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place. (I.1.6). Here
we can see that Jing–mei does not fully comprehend the Chinese culture. She doesn't understand
what her mother is saying and therefore missing the the intended message her mother was giving
her. In this quote code switching is used Tan uses this to establish the character of the mother to the
audience and again emphasizes the linguistic barrier. This concept of a barrier is an extremely
important part of why the mothers and daughters seem to always misunderstand each other. The
mothers are all immigrants from china and therefore speak broken english. Whereas the daughters
were born in the US and speak the language fairly well. [Quote] These barriers also exist between
the mothers and their daughters husbands and boyfriends which creates a strained relationship with
the in–laws. One of the main conflicts is formed from this theme in the first section of the book
Jing–me says that "In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the
truths and hopes they have brought to america. They see daughters who grow impatint when their
mothers talk chinese, who think they're stupid when they explain things in fractured english. They
see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American–born
minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren
born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation." . This one but long quote
explains the main conflict of the book is that the mothers are afraid of being misunderstood and
forgotten due to in no small part ethnic and linguistic

1. What motivated Jing–mei's mother to create the Joy Luck Club in China and again in America?
Suyuan Woo originally created the Joy Luck Club in Kweilin, China during the time when the
Japanese were bombing Chinese cities. The Joy Luck Club was a club where a group of four women
could enjoy themselves in the middle of a sorrowful time by playing mahjong with each other. They
would host a party every week and make dyansyin food, which was supposed to bring luck. They
would bet their money and play mahjong and the winner took all of the money. The purpose of the
club was to distract the women from the threat of the Japanese, who could strike the city at any
given time. Suyuan explains that "to despair was to wish back for something already lost," (Tan 24)
so they would put their attention towards enjoying their time together. She started the Joy Luck Club
in America to ensure that her heritage was continued. It was a time when she and her friends could
meet and talk about their heritage and Chinese culture. This was very important for Suyuan Woo,
and even more important that she is able to show her daughter her heritage.
2. At the end of "The Moon Lady" Ying Ying St. Clair states, "I never believed my family found the
same girl." What did she mean? Ying Ying was a curious child, and that was especially shown in this
chapter. She quite possibly made the most important discovery of her life on the day that she met the
Moon Lady. She lived a sheltered life before that

Joy Luck Club Psychology
I decided to write about the movie "Joy Luck Club" because it dealt with the aspects of Asian
culture through the lives of women. We have two groups of women that the movie revolves around.
The first group of women are the mothers that migrated from the Asian countries, and the second
group are the daughters of those mothers who were raised in America. Throughout the entire movie
both group of women share their struggles and share their secrets. In the movie the stories that the
women tell relate more towards the struggle that women suffer nowadays. Such struggles include
marriage, heartbreak, family problems and many more. The issues discussed by the mothers are also
similar to the issues that the daughters face. The stories shared by the ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
I definitely saw the differences between both cultures although the issues faced in Asia by the
mothers were very similar to the daughter's problems despite cultural differences.
There are many things that the movie showed that go along the concepts I have learned in my
cultural psychology class. The movie shows how the Asian mothers interact with their American
daughters. There is a cultural difference in the way the mothers were raised in Asia as compared to
the way in which their own daughters were raised. The movie Joy Luck Club shows the Asian
family values that are shared among their household. These values include discipline, obedience,
respect, and honor. These are values that Asian families practice as shown in the movie. One
example of obedience was when one of the daughters didn't want to practice playing the piano, but
she still practiced. In class we discussed the archetypes and how there could be feminine cultures
and masculine cultures. From what I observed from the movie, the plot represents a masculine
culture. In the movie women are portrayed to being the obedient housewives as men are more
powerful than them. An attribute from a masculine culture also includes competition, which was
also displayed in the movie. One way in

Joy Luck Club Culture
The relationship between a mother and her daughter is the strongest bond in the world; it sets the
example for more relationships. In The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, the mothers are the parents of
their Chinese–American daughters, the daughters lives are shaped by their understanding of the
Chinese culture and their relationships with their mothers and families. The mothers feel neglected
by their daughters and their daughters are embarrassed to be seen with their mothers. The mothers
are brought up learning about Chinese culture and its values and beliefs but the daughters don't
understand the reasons behind the religious ways and drift apart from their mothers. The different
life lessons and sacrifices that the mothers share with their daughters ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Throughout The Joy Luck Club, the mothers share their sacrifices to inform their daughters of the
hardships they faced in China and how their sacrifices can benefit their daughters into becoming
stronger woman. A daughter thinks of her "...mother's long cherished wish. Me, the younger sister
who was supposed to be the essence of the others. I feed myself with the old grief, wondering how
disappointed my mother must have been." (Tan– –130)The daughter grieves about her mother's
sacrifice about leaving her two other children in China and the daughter starts to appreciate her
mother more and starts to love her. The actions taken by the mothers are all the result of their
strength and their ability to think ahead in situations where hope is lost. A mother tells her daughter
that "The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only
way to remember what is in your bones." (51). The mother's spirit is in the bones which provides the
strength. The mother tells her daughter to remember that strength is what motivates you to try harder
without strength you are weak and afraid. The mothers lose hope and their innocence while living in
China due to the Chinese customs and the actions taken by their male spouses. The mothers would
have to listen, obey and devote the rest of their life to their husbands. A daughter, An–mei

Joy Luck Club Relationships
Children, as they grow up and become adults, tend to become more appreciative and grateful of their
parents. In The Joy Luck Club, the attitudes and mindsets of the four daughters regarding their
mothers' change as the girls mature and come to realize that their mothers aren't so different from
them after all.
In The Joy Luck Club, we explore the various mother–daughter relationships portrayed between the
characters. We also focus on personal relationships between friends, lovers, as well as nemeses. 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 ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
In each relationship, incidents in the mother's past profoundly affects how she identifies with and
relates to her daughter. The major theme in The Joy Luck Club focuses primarily on the nature of
the mother–daughter relationships, these relationships are complex because of the age difference,
but also by greatly distinctive upbringings. All of the daughters have grown up accepting many
different American ideals. The emphasis on individuality and being who you truly are rather than
others dictating what you should be. They feel that their mothers are old–fashion and that they come
from an old world that doesn't exist anymore because their mindset is different from their own. They
rebel against the Chinese tradition of pleasing their parents and listening to their elders above all
else. The mothers are shocked at their daughters' impertinence. They have this fear that their
daughters' aspiration to achieve the 'American Dream' will hinder them from learning about or just
simply understanding their Chinese

The Joy Luck Club
Joy Luck Club deals a lot with differences between the Chinese and the American Cultures. This has
to do with problems that each family has to deal with. Every family has a chinese mother and a
Chinese/American daughter. The names of the families are the Woo's Hsu's Jong's and St.Clair's.
June and Suyuan are part of the Woo family and are on different terms because June thinks that
Suyuan does not show affection but Chinese mothers show affection through good food. June's
mother is hard on her because she has high expectations and faith in her.
An–Mei and Rose are part of the Hsu family. When an–mei was young, she did not know her
mother until she comes home to see a sick Popo. An–mei then goes to live with her mother which is
a concubine.

Whether it is wholesome or tough love, the bond of a mother and daughter can never be broken.
"The Joy Luck Club" is the epitome of this notion. The anthology contains a series of sixteen
vignettes, four of which belonging to one of each of the four members of The Joy Luck Club. These
vignettes cover the perspectives of mothers who immigrated to America from China, along with the
flip side point of view, taken over by each of their daughters. In the anthology, Tan reflects on her
past life and incorporates it into the book, exploring cultural, relationship, and internal conflicts.
The first chapter of "The Joy Luck Club" is named after one mother, Suyuan Woo. The reader is
introduced to Jing–Mei, her daughter, struggling to replace her mother in her spot at the mahjong
table, as she died two months prior. In 1949, Suyuan Woo and her husband, Canning, left for
America in effort for a better life–– two years before the birth of Jing–Mei. There, she joined a
Chinese baptist church where she met the other core members of The (rendition of) Joy Luck Club:
the Hsus, the Jongs, and the St. Clairs. Suyuan and Jing–Mei Woo, despite how well they get along,
run into many conflicts, mostly regarding their differences in culture. Suyuan grew up in China,
where she had gone through several complications and dire situations, which as a result forced her
to succumb to extreme sacrifices–– one of which being the abandonment of her own twins. On the
other hand, Jing–Mei was born in America,

The Joy Luck Club
Cultural differences often cause divides between people. Within social groups people tend to
gravitate towards those that share similar traits; so when, within a family unit, there are cultural
differences the relationships gain a distance that eventually hinders the intimacy that is usually seen
in families. The mother–daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club exemplify the distance that
can be caused by these cultural divides. Amy Tan uses families built of Chinese immigrants and first
generation Chinese–American children to display the cultural disparities between China and
America and the effects such disparity has on the individuals within those families. Each mother–
daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club exemplifies a characteristic ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
The St. Claire family is used to give a differentiating cultural make up of an immigrant Chinese /
Chinese American family as only one parent is a Chinese immigrant while the other is American.
This allows for Amy Tan to present cultural rifts and complications within communication. Lena St.
Claire is used to represent the complications of language brokering as it appears in cross–cultural
scenarios. The experience of language brokering is common among immigrant families as "children
often ... acquire fluency in English at a faster rate than their parents, [and] are expected to broker for
their parents by translating for them" ultimately leading the child to be in a position of power in the
parent–child relationship (Chao 271). The power position that is held by the child can "lead to
brokers [, the child,] having diminished respect for and [diminished] identification with parents as
authority figures and role models" which then can lead to rifts within the parent–child relationship
(Chao 275). Amy Tan's character Lena is put in the language brokering position as her father does
not speak any form of Chinese. This ultimately puts Lena in a place of power, giving her leeway to
modify her mother's statements when she is translating (Tan 112). This power in the relationship
leads to Lena seeing her mother as "crazy" and ultimately losing, not all but some, respect for her
mother (Tan

While watching the movie, The Joy Luck Club, I learned three elements of Chinese culture. Culture
is the main theme of The Joy Luck Club, as the protagonists, four Chinese mothers, lives along with
their American daughters plays out in front of us. Throughout the film the mothers and daughters
have conflict because they different views on culture. The mothers want to teach their daughters
Chinese culture but fail since the American culture has already got to them. The first important
cultural element in Chinese culture that I learned is the importance of obedience. The second is the
idea of fate, and lastly the importance of marriage. The first cultural element, obedience, is what the
protagonists based their views on. The mothers, who have more Chinese background, want their
Americanized daughters to follow suit with doing as they are told. The daughters are constantly told
to obey their elders because the elders know better. It causes problems because American values are
not centered through obedience. Obedience is very important to Chinese culture because, "The
family in China was not only a social unit, but it represented a whole codified ideology that
pervaded the state and the society for thousands ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
From what career you should have to who you should be with. In, The Joy Luck Club, the year, the
hour, and minute determine your destiny and personality as well. The protagonist based their lives
on fortune telling because some of the fortunes rang true for them. There are people in China whose
professions are based on destiny and fate. They are called matchmakers. For example, one of the
stories in the film involves a village matchmaker coming to one of the mother's home when she was
just two years old. One of the mothers has the same zodiac sign as her daughter, and she claims that
their conflicts stem from when the nature of two

Joy Luck Club Essay
The movie is composed in contemporary San Francisco. An American–born Chinese woman is
invited to get together the Joy Luck Club, a weekly group composing of the best three friends of her
mother, who has recently died. June always considered her perfectionist mother was disappointed
with her.. Now she recognizes that she has two half–sisters still living in China. A visit to them
would give to her a chance to pass on her mother's legacy of hope. There is Lindo who used cunning
to free herself from an arranged marriage. She has a few success valid her American–born daughter
Waverly that she likes her. There is Ying Ying whose serious movement of revenge against her
philandering husband plunges her into a series of extreme depressions. As a

Stereotypes In The Joy Luck Club
Brendan McCauley
ENG3U
May 6, 2015
The Joy Luck Club Cultural stereotypes are very common these days; masses are often labeled
before they are even given a chance. More specifically, Chinese people fall victim to these
stereotypes quite often and are judged unreasonably because of this. Chinese kids are often used by
their parents to show off to their friends and family, every Chinese person is skilled in some kind of
musical extracurricular, and they all speak broken English is just some of the many stereotypes in
The Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan exploits these familiar cultural stereotypes in her representations of
conflict in order to reveal the intricacies of Chinese–American family relationships and their
contrast with Eastern societies. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
"'Only two kinds of daughters. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only
one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!'" (142), essentially all of the mothers
in The Joy Luck Club speak like this. Amy Tan could have easily just made all of them speak fluent
English, but instead, she chose to take the easy way out and made them all sound like they just
moved to America. Amy Tan also chose to make the mothers sound angry all the time, when ever
they would speak, every sentence would end with an exclamation point and the words they used
were very aggressive. Not every Chinese person is like this and The Joy Luck Club doesn't help at

Assimilation In The Joy Luck Club
All mothers and daughters have conflict. While, "the daughter may look like the mother, or even
identify with her... the two are still worlds apart from each other" (Xu). Immigration and
assimilation compounds this problem, putting more distance in an already complicated relationship.
Each has a different perspective because of their experiences. Language and cultural barriers
separate individuals from the communities they are leaving and the communities they are joining. In
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the author utilizes heart wrenching stories, linguistic barriers, and
the symbolism of the "American Dream" to comment on the distancing properties of cultural
assimilation to the immigration system in America.
The immigration motif begins ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The language barrier exemplifies the idea of a disconnect between their two cultures, and the
American Dream is proved to be a harsher reality than imagined. For millions of immigrants, the
United States promises a fresh start, away from the troubles of their cultural home. But for many,
assimilation proves difficult, isolating many from both their communities, leaving them in a world
separate from the one they left, but not fully in the one they hope to join.
Works Cited
Henrickson, Shu–Huei. "An overview of The Joy Luck Club." Literature Resource Center, Gale,
2018. Literature Resource Center, Accessed 1 May 2018.
Michael, Magali Cornier. "Choosing Hope and Remaking Kinship: Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club."
Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 257, Gale, 2008. Literature
Resource Center,. Accessed 1 May 2018. Originally published in New Visions of Community in
Contemporary American Fiction: Tan, Kingsolver, Castillo, Morrison, University of Iowa Press,
2006, pp. 39–71.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989.
Xu, Ben. "Memory and the ethnic self: reading Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club.' (Special Issue:
Varieties of Ethnic Criticism)." MELUS, vol. 19, no. 1, 1994, p. 3+. Literature Resource Center,
Accessed 1 May

Joy Luck Club Meaning
The song "Keep Me in Your Heart", as sung by Warren Zevon, would add so much to the scene in
"The Joy Luck Club" (Amy Tan 1), as it matches perfectly with the depressing, morbid mood the
scene is trying to portray, and also because it sheds some light into the motive of Suyuan's actions
through its poetic and thoughtful lyrics. This song was picked first because I believe it would
perfectly introduce the reader/audience to the book and allow them to connect with more than just
the text. Firstly, the song portrays emotions of longing and broken–heartedness through its sad and
slow tempo and its depressingly perfect lyrics. The lyrics "Keep me in your heart for a while//If I
leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less" (Warren Zevon 1) just show exactly how emotional
this song is, as the singer here clearly feels longing for someone, just as Suyuan feels longing for her
lost home and, most importantly, the babies she lost. Just the ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Although the song speaks of the singer's significant other, the poetic lyrics are still universal. Along
the path, Suyuan made sacrifices, but the most significant of them was leaving her two babies
(revealed by " 'Your father is not my first husband. You are not those babies.' "[Amy Tan 3]) behind
in hopes that they would survive. The lyrics "Sometimes when you're doin' simple things around the
house//Maybe you'll think of me and smile" (Warren Zevon 2) can definitely be applied to the
emotions Suyuan is going through, as she feels horrible for leaving behind her babies, but she sure
hopes and has the longing that "Maybe [they'll] think of me and smile" (Warren Zevon 3). The lyrics
"Keep me in your heart for a while" (Warren Zevon 3) also complement how Suyuan feels loss for
her daughters but only hopes that they won't ever forget about their true mother (no matter how
small they

Lindo In The Joy Luck Club
In the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, a mother died from cerebral aneurysm and June was asked to
replaced her mother in The Joy Luck Club's meetings after she passed away. The Joy Luck Club was
a club who was started by Suyuan Woo, where four families she met in church went to share there
stories about them while playing a game called Mahjong . The connections they had, had to deal
more about hope than luck or joy . Each story they told was a symbol of fulfillment for all of them .
Before Suyuan Woo died , she had located her lost daughters in China. The three other women on
the Joy Luck Club forces Jane to travel to China to see their sisters and tell them about their
mother's life. In The Joy Luck Club , Lindo has nothing in common with her

The Joy Luck Club
The novel The Joy Luck Club does not have one character that is a lot more important than the
others, but the character that shares the most stories is Jing–mei Woo. Jing–mei's stories open and
close the book, and she has a story in each of the four sections of the novel. Jing–mei's mother has
passed away and she is struggling because she feels as if she never really got to know her. Suyuan
(Jing–mei's mother) desperately wanted Jing–mei to be a genius at something and had very high
expectations, which Jing–mei felt she could never live up to, so she didn't try. Instead, Jing–mei
aimed to fail so her mother would lower her expectations. This behavior led to a gap in Jing–mei's
relationship with her mother, they were very different and couldn't

A culture's beliefs, traditions, and family structure can heavily influence the lives of its followers. In
The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, the resilient Chinese cultures of its characters impact their
lives in many ways, sometimes causing hardships. This book includes the intertwined stories of four
mothers who are Chinese immigrants to San Francisco, and their American–born daughters. Tan
writes about the relationships between the mothers and daughters and highlights the cultural
differences between Americans and Chinese. Each chapter travels deeper into the secrets and past of
these four women's families. As seen in The Joy Luck Club, the Chinese value of ancestors, family
structure, and cultural beliefs impact the lives of the characters. ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
The cultural beliefs impacted the characters of this book is when Lena recalled her mother telling
her that if a spouse didn't eat their food, the other spouse would develop pock marks on their face. In
the book it states, "If my mother had been in the room, she would have told me these poor people
were victims of future husbands and wives who had failed to eat platefuls of food" (153). When
Lena heard this warning as a little girl, she also thought that she would have to marry a
neighborhood boy named Arnold, who she loathed. She proceeded into leaving her rice uneaten, so
that Arnold would develop more marks. A couple years later, she wasn't eating and suffered with
anorexia. The consequence on a little tale that her mother told her eventually took over her life and
altered the way she treated her body. Another belief of the Chinese is that one should not stress so
much, to go with the flow and not try to control everything that isn't going right. In Lena St. Clair's
chapter, she mentions her worry that one day, her husband, Harold, will wake up and not want to be
with her anymore. In her chapter, she says, "'Or that maybe it was because when you're Chinese
you're supposed to accept everything, flow with the Tao and not make waves...'" (156). Lena was
living in constant fear that the man she loved would leave her, so she didn't want to speak up for
herself when something felt wrong in their relationship. Lena struggled between the Chinese beliefs
to "not make waves" and accept the situation and speaking up for herself and feel in control of the
relationship. Finally, the practice of the Chinese zodiac impacted Ying–Ying St. Claire's life in The
Joy Luck Club. The Chinese zodiac consists of 12 animals depending on the year one was born. The
animals represent different personalities and spirits. When Ying–Ying tells her story of how she met
her husband, she finishes by explaining that her

Joy Luck Club
Feminism is a topic that comes up strongly throughout the movie of The Joy Luck Club. Feminism
is extremely important in this film and shows its face quite frequently whether it be between family
or relationships. The life of the women characters is the most vital part of the story, meaning, the
feminism aspect needs more acknowledgement. Luckily, the author of the series does an outstanding
job at illustrating that. The Joy Luck Club depicts the types of hardships women must go through
throughout the movie and the novel. They battle against discrimination and sexism, all while trying
to keep the burden of their lives on their shoulders. The Joy Luck Club is truly an extravagant series
that deserves more validation. Not only that, but it educates ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Setting is the least important puzzle piece of feminism, but it does educate the viewers more about
what it was like during The Joy Luck Club. As stated beforehand, The Joy Luck Club took place in
the 1980s. Most people assume sexism and discrimination has long died down into the dirt, but it
still violently sprouted through the ground with determination instead of withering away. Chinese
people were way more strict and cruel when it came to discipline children or being in a marriage.
Children, shoved around ruthlessly by mothers, and wives; still experiencing mistreatment by their
sorry–excuses of a husband. Under those circumstances, Amy Tan portrays an accurate
representation of what it was back in the 1900s for women of Chinese descent. Back when the main
characters were teenagers, they did not have any rights to themselves. An incident that explains this
more in detail was Lindo's first husband. Lindo, forced at a young age to move away from her
beloved mother Practically insulted, she was required to marry a snobby, ill mannered little boy
named Huang Tyan–yu. From the beginning Lindo thought as if she didn't even belong in her family
anymore, hence this example, "Because I was promised to the Huangs' son for marriage, my own
family began treating me as if I belonged to somebody else. My mother would say to me when the
rice bowl went up to my face too many times, "Look how much Huang Taitai's daughter can

Stereotypes In The Joy Luck Club
I have read a book called 'The Joy Luck Club' by Amy Tan recently, and it is about stereotyping.
Amy Tan was an American born Chinese, who experienced being stereotyped very often through out
her life, and she explained how she had been stereotyped and how she stereotyped others in her
novel. She mentioned the fact that she had been stereotyped so often actually affect the way she
think about things, and it is very fascinating to find out whether stereotyping will affect other
people's concept. This book interested me on further investigation towards stereotyping, and made
me to keep an eye on the stereotypes around me. It is very interesting to find out that stereotyping
has a such great impact on our community and the way people think, it can have an impact on
community in different perspectives, not only personally, but also globally. ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
As the relationship between region and region got closer, there is a reduction in the appearance of
stereotyping. However, when their overall knowledge are limited on other cultures, stereotypes
appear more frequent. Moreover, the phrase 'People are People' is what people normally thinks, but
due to cultural, linguistic, and characteristic differences people's concept varies. Some people
simply thinks that the way how people think are generally the same, unfortunately they are wrong,
the person sit next to you can actually have a completely different way of thinking as you. The same
non–linguistic languages such as hand gestures and facial expressions among different regions may
be seen to show a completely different meaning. This is how stereotypes began, people assume what
they thought about, therefore, stereotypes cans sometimes caused by

Analysis Of The Book ' The Joy Luck Club '
Jessica Chen
Ms. Churchill
English 2 Honors, Period 0
6 September 2015
Reconciliation
Swan feathers. Hopes and dreams. Broken relationships and healing. Though these concepts might
initially appear incongruous, they are all depicted in the book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and
The Joy Luck Club film directed by Wayne Wang. Both modes of interpretation show how the
mothers help their daughters solve their problems by explaining the formers' pasts. However, while
the book leaves each of the daughters' stories open ended, the film boldly creates a 'happy ever after'
ending for the daughters. In both the movie and book, there are powerful bonds between the mothers
and daughters. As shown by these examples, there are many similarities as well as differences
between the movie and the book The Joy Luck Club, but both mediums ultimately seek to portray
the same themes.
To begin with, many events in the film are similar to those in the book. For example, toward the
beginning of both the book and the film, the mothers are astonished when June reveals to them that
she does not know what to say to her sisters about her deceased mother, Suyuan Woo. In the book,
the mothers frantically list out what qualities of her mother June should tell her sisters, such as her
mother's "kindness... smartness... dutiful nature to family... hopes, things that matter to her... the
excellent dishes she cooked..." (Tan 31). Just so in the movie, during the same scene, the mothers
appear

Joy Luck Club Sociology
Intro:
When most American think of immigration, we consider the Mexican and Hispanic populations. Yet,
Chinese Americans make up a vast population of individuals who make the United States home each
year. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tran brings to light the struggles of
Chinese American women who came to the country as first generation immigrants. The reason I
chose this movie is because it was my mother's favorite movie and it deals with many sociological
issues.
Summary:
The Joy Luck Club centers around eight individual women who are all of Chinese decent. Four of
the women are mothers and the latter four are each individual woman's child. The mothers are
immigrates and the daughter are first generation American Citizens. All four of the mothers ... Show
more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Moral and divine practices such as Confucianism have intense effect on the lives of Chinese
American women.
Critique:
I personally enjoyed the movie. I feel that the onscreen adaptation did do some justice to the novel.
The intertwinement of American and Chinese culture is not a common theme in writing therefore is
was a nice detour from the norm. The stories are prevalent and reign true to many cultures today.
The books starts off with stories and experiences of China. Each woman is detailed with her story
and she does not appear biased when mentioning her downfall. I do think that the stories of the
interaction between mother and daughter could have been used more in the screen adaptation.
Conclusion:
This movie exploits many different avenues of sexism and the struggle of being a woman and
transitioning to a new country. It is a warm story which gives hope to anyone having doubt about
moving to a new place. I recommend this movie without reservation to anyone wanting to get
insight on Chinese American women. The movie does not hold punches concerning the inferior roles
of women but it shows that anyone can overcome adversities. The two theories most prevalent were
the structural functional theory and the symbolic interaction theory. Both are thoroughly
documented and used

Joy Luck Club Identity
Identities depict the humane side we behold. Distinctiveness can be defined greatly through our
beliefs and traditions, no one is an exception, especially in The Joy Luck Club. The women in The
Joy Luck Club obtain and construct their identities through family traditions and ethnic heritage
which altered their mindsets to many doors of experiences and opportunities. Traditions play an
immense role in all of the mothers. It is what carries and exemplifies the mother's attentiveness with
their daughters. "In all the stories, whether narrated by the Chinese–born mothers or the American–
born daughters, assertion of self are shaped by the cultural context surrounding them," as stated by
Patricia, traditions depict the fundamental ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Each color has corresponding attribute, energy flow , action and much more. Green is a noted color
throughout the Joy Luck Club; it holds the power of balancing, health and harmony. Its power is
generative and displays a refreshing beginning with this color. Lindo's jade necklace is given to her
daughter Jing–mei and is painted to be a symbol of life's importance. This necklace is a faint pale
green, but darkens as Jing–mei understands herself and her mother in a deeper context. Color not
only employs the attribute a person beholds, but is also an aiding tool to unearth decipherable
context that is hidden within the

Summary Of The Joy Luck Club
Paragraph 2 of page 9 fits well into The Joy Luck Club. During this passage, Jing–Mei Woo tells the
story about why her mother, who passed away, moved to America. "So you can see how quickly
Kweilin lost its beauty for me. I no longer climbed the peaks to say, How lovely are these hills! I
only wondered which hills the Japanese had reached. I sat in the dark corners of my house with a
baby under each arm, waiting with nervous feet and scurried to the deep caves to hide like wild
animals. But you can't stay in the dark for so long. Something inside of you starts to fade and you
become like a starving person, crazy–hungry for light. Outside I could hear the bombing. Boom!
Boom! And then the sound of raining rocks. And inside I was no longer hungry for the cabbage or
the turnips of the hanging rock garden. I could only see the dripping bowels of an ancient hill that
might collapse on top of me. Can you imagine how it is, to want to be neither inside nor outside, to
want to be nowhere and disappear?"(9) The paragraph talks about the place where her mom, Suyuan
Woo, hid from the Japanese. She talked about how the place was once beautiful and gave her hope,
but after the place was attacked the beauty of it was strained away. In the beginning of the paragraph
it says, "How lovely are these hills!" but at the end it she states, "I could only see the dripping
bowels of an ancient hill that might collapse on top of me. Can you imagine how it is, to want to be
neither inside or

Essay On The Joy Luck Club
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.
Effective setting is one of the major successes. The story takes place in two main settings, one is in
San Francisco Bay area, the other one is located in China. The book expresses the story in the form
of "present day", but considering with the historical background, the year should roughly be around
1980s in the U.S. part, approximately 1950s for the flashbacks in China. The main idea of The Joy
Luck ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Both readers and audiences have trouble correctly insinuating the level of emotion they shall spend
with a particle scene, or they are not sure how dramatic this scene should be. For example, while
reading the book, there is a scene when June was having a conflict with her mother in the kitchen,
and she ended up understanding for the first time the way that her mother hope from her was
different as what she previously believed. As readers, it was just like any mundane conflict between
a mother and daughter would usually have everyday. Some audiences didn't realize that this scene is
one of the key connection with the plots until they watched the movie. This scene in the movie took
a much important role. The characters were so emotional which led the conflict to be so dramatic to
the audiences, most of them were very touched by the way the these actors are expressing their
emotion through facial expressions and gestures, and even cried while watching this scene. Another
great example in this case, is the ending of the novel. When June arrived in China and finally get to
meet with her two sisters. This part climax of the whole movie, the background music was strong,
the surrounding setting was prefect, the performances were great. Almost every single audience was
being very emotional at this part. However, while reading the book, many of the readers didn't trust
to tears on the last

The Joy Luck Club: Divorce
Divorce is something no one wants to go through in their lifetime. Unfortunately, for many of the
daughters in The Joy Luck Club, they face this issue head on. One of the daughters, Rose Hsu, goes
through a divorce with her estranged husband Ted Jordan. A main issue Rose faces throughout her
divorce is responsibility. In the article, 10 Ways Divorce Can Change Your Life for The Better, Lisa
Arends explains, "One of the first areas you have to assume responsibility for is your own well–
being." Rose begins to realize this as she starts to find herself and confronts Ted about his requests
concerning the divorce. She demands to be treated as Ted's equal and not something he can throw
away. Next, Rose faces the inability to make decisions for herself ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
In The Joy Luck Club, Waverly Jong faces a controlling and strict mother. Dr. Laura Markham says,
"The strict parent deprives children of the opportunity to learn self– discipline, because all control
and decisions come from the parent." From a young age, Waverly is pushed toward being a child
prodigy by her mother. Throwing herself into her studies to please her mother, she quickly loses
interest in her mother's dream for her. However, her mother persists and pushes Waverly to play the
piano. Through this process, Lindo never once asks for Waverly's opinion. She arranges a strict
schedule dominating all of Waverly's free time. Amy Tan shows that Waverly hates her mother's
decisions. The piano lessons make her feel like she "was being sent to hell" (Tan 147). With this
demeanor, she practices and takes lessons without enthusiasm or spirit. This clearly represents a
child resisting parental control. Through her mother's choices, Waverly never gets the chance to
discover her true passion. Although parental guidance is necessary for young adults to learn and
grow, pushing kids too much will restrict them from discovering who they are,

The Joy Luck Club Research Paper
Final exam essay
In The Joy Luck Club there are many contrasts and comparisons of chinese and american cultures.
The author, Amy Tan, references chinese culture and compares it to american culture at many
instances throughout the film. Amy Tan, being of chinese descent, had to adapt to an American
lifestyle and the cultural values that come with it. With this said, she incorporates much of this in her
novel. Amy Tan conveys culture differences in The Joy Luck Club by using the plot, characters, and
setting.
The Joy Luck Club focuses on Suyuan Woo and her daughter June. However, Amy Tan's novel
includes the stories of An–Mei, Lindo, Ying–Ying and their daughters. The story alternates between
the mothers' traditional chinese experiences and lives ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The setting of The Joy Luck Club changed throughout the film depending on who the story is
focusing on. For instance, when focusing on the mothers' stories the setting is usually somewhere in
China but when focusing on the daughters the setting shifts to San Francisco. The cultural values
differ vastly from America and China. For example, An mei was Wu Tsing's third wife. In China, a
wealthy man having more than one wife was seen as normal but in the United States this would be
seen as unusual and almost shameful. Aside from this, as mentioned before, the characters have
some difficulty understanding each other due to both the different languages they speak and their
cultural differences. These differences stem from the fact that the daughters grew into a more
american style of life while the mothers grew up with chinese values. An example would be when
June said "She said the two soups were almost the same, chabudwo. Or maybe she said butong, not
the same thing at all. It was one of those Chinese expressions that means the better half of mixed
intentions. I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place." This shows that June
sometimes doesn't understand her mother and does not understand her intended meanings of some
of their

Patterns In The Joy Luck Club
All literature is created by themes, without themes, they would simply be stories, and within those
themes are patterns; constantly repeating throughout the work. Throughout the novel, The Joy Luck
Club by Amy Tan, the use of themes and repeating patterns are seen through four different families.
Some of the most prominent themes or patterns are family, specifically mother–daughter
relationships, women and femininity, and growth in characters. The Joy Luck Club revolves around
the idea of family; specifically focusing on mother–daughter relationships. Each mother–daughter
pair faces their own struggles such as overly high expectations, miscommunication, and the passing
on of undesirable traits. In the first story of this novel Suyuan Woo, the mother of Jing–mei Woo,
wants her daughter to become a piano prodigy. She ends up putting such high expectations on Jing–
mei that she refuses to practice correctly and become good. Since her mother set such high
expectations for her daughter, her daughter begins to resent her. These expectations caused Jing–mei
to feel as if she was never good enough for her mother and as a result, their relationship is
weakened. Different from Suyuan and Jing–mei are Lindo and Waverly. All of Waverly's life she
feels as if her mother is always against her and is constantly pointing out the negatives in
everything. She blames her mother for the failure of her first marriage because she pointed out
everything wrong with her husband. Waverly says,

Joy Luck Club Essay
In the novel, Joy Luck Club, we see Waverly Jong and June Woo's competitiveness when Waverly
becomes a child chess prodigy and June struggles to master the piano. This rivalry reflects how
success and worth are depicted in this novel. A mother's success would be encouraging or coercing
their child to master a particular hobby and to improve constantly. A daughter's worth would be
determined by the daughter's talents, and whether or not the daughter brings a good reputation for
the family. We can tell that Lindo Jong was very proud of her daughter Waverly Jong when she was
a chess prodigy, competed in different cities, and would bring home a myriad of trophies. Because
Lindo was so proud of Waverly, she would brag excessively about her and ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Even if you learn about the tragedies in your family, at least you know the type of people you came
from and understand why you act a certain way. Passing on things to your descendants should be
amended in a way because you should only pass on useful and beneficial things to them. Lastly,
being free should also be adjusted slightly because it should not include leaving everyone you know
and your problems behind without having a resolution. It should be more like leaving after you say
your farewells everyone and after you resolved most or all the problems you are facing. This is the
concept of happiness I believe this novel revolves around.
One concept of happiness is understanding one's identity, background, and not lose sight of who you
are. This concept is an American thing because in a country full of immigrants knowing who you are
as a person is important, and to not forget that even you are when you the ethnic minority in a
particular area is even more crucial. Moreover, in America, there are always questions like who you
are and how does your cultural background influence you. These questions guide people to explore
their identity and find out who they are. This concept is also an Asian thing because the mothers in
The Joy Luck Club tells many stories throughout the novel to help their daughters understand who
they are.

The Joy Luck Club Analysis
Have you ever played a game of mahjong? Mahjong is a solitaire matching game which used
mahjong tiles. This game brings people together to create and reminisce memories while feasting on
Chinese delicacies. In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan reinforces the mothers' bonds through meeting
up to play mahjong in their club. They try to influence their daughters to take part in this Chinese
tradition, but the girls have different views. They try to become part of an American society, and
look back at their Chinese descent with distaste. While the mothers of The Joy Luck Club are
determined to keep their Chinese heritage, their daughters are open and willing to experience a new
American lifestyle, which causes conflicts between the mothers and daughters. ... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
The American society dominates over their Chinese descent. They want to accommodate to
America, however, being that their mothers so strongly hold onto their descent, the daughters feel as
if they too were born and raised in China. Being the children of immigrants makes them feel as if
they are mediocre to everyone else, and "...at times they may wonder, "Can one really assimilate?"
(Mohanram 74). As they grow up, they immerse themselves into this new society, yet while still
trying to "hide" their Chinese background. When they were children, the girls would try to
physically change themselves to appear more American. Lena would walk around her home and
open her eyes as wide as she could, if efforts to make them seem more European. Jing–mei denied
having any internal Chinese aspects, insisting her Chinese identity was only limited to her external
features. Waverly would feel overjoyed if her mother told her she did not look Chinese. They
realized that their image was what was ultimately holding them back from feeling accustom to San
Franciscan lifestyles: "Furthermore, the daughters experience themselves socially as a recognizable
ethnic minority and want to eradicate the sense of "difference" they feel among their peers"
(Hamilton 30). By changing their physical presence, the daughters believed it could change who
they are as a person. The daughters may have been taking aback by the realities of society, yet they
still longed for the opportunities and experiences America

The Joy Luck Club Themes
In the film "The Joy Luck Club", author Amy Tan clearly demonstrates various different themes
throughout her work. The film itself is truly compelling. Tan shows how discrimination can take
control of an individual's life. Amy Tan amazingly showed her audience the struggles that took place
and she creatively crafted her life into an amazing film. . Each character had their own flaw.
Primarily, prejudice and discrimination resulted in character flaw.Chinese women often faced
prejudice and discrimination throughout the film. Each character had their own flaw. Many
examples of discrimination added to the plots in the film and also the setting. For example the film
shows that men discriminated women, women discriminated women, and also Americans ... Show
more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Consequently, many of these challenges led to Chinese women lacking self confidence because of
how cruel and unfair they were treated. Moreover, the women in "The Joy Luck Club" experienced
discrimination in their own country and from their own people. Identically, the characters also
encountered the same challenges in a completely different country and from a completely different
origin of people. Furthermore, many of their struggles began in China and later followed them to
America. Notably, many of these examples of discrimination and prejudice shown throughout the
film can also tie with feminism. One reason being that majority of Chinese women faced a number
of struggles and were eager to overcome them. In one case, discrimination was the number one
aspect to wrecking homes. For example, because of discrimination within families, family members
were often affected, evidently as time went on family relationships strengthened. All in all, from
watching "The Joy Luck Club" film, I learned that discrimination came in many ways; men vs
women, women vs women, and Americans vs Chinese

The Joy Luck Club Essay
The Joy Luck Club Entry 7 Waverly was going to tell Lindo of her and Rich's engagement, but
whenever she mentioned him, Lindo cut her off and began to talk about something else. Waverly
was convinced that her mother did not have any good intentions, and that she never saw good in
people. Due to this, she was afraid of what her mother will say when she would meet Rich.
According to Waverly, she and Rich shared a "pure love", which she was afraid her mother would
poison. Waverly planned to go to Auntie Suyuan's house with Rich for dinner, knowing that her
mother would then invite the two over for dinner to her house, and this would give her mother a
chance to get to know and warm up to Rich. However, when they went for dinner, Rich did
everything incorrectly– he didn't understand Chinese customs and made several mistakes that were
seen as ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
This left Lindo horrified, and Waverly never got the chance to tell her that she and Rich were going
to get married. Waverly woke up the next morning, tense. She rushed to her parents' home
determined to tell her mother of the engagement. She woke Lindo up as she began to cry. Lindo
worried about what had happened, to which Waverly responded that nothing had happened and that
she and Rich were getting married. Her mother told her that she had already known. Waverly had
assumed that Lindo despised Rich, but Lindo was surprised that her daughter believed so. When
Waverly tried to explain why she thought so, her mother said, her face containing a look of sorrow,
"Ai–ya, why do you think these bad things about me? So you think your mother is this bad! You
think I have a secret meaning. But it is you who has this meaning, Ai–ya! She

The Joy Luck Club
First of all, the Joy Luck Club had so many conflicts and misunderstandings between almost all of
the characters. Most of the conflicts were between Waverly and her mom. Some conflicts were just
differences between Waverly and her mother because of the generation gap between the two. Her
mom didn't like the things she would do and she could never see herself doing things that Waverly
was doing back when she was a child. There were also cultural and martial conflicts throughout the
book also. The marital conflicts between Ying–Ying and her husband was one of the marital
conflicts that stood out. In the film her husband had been having an affair and one day he brought
the lady home with him. It was like he wanted her to know he was having an

Joy Luck Club Analysis
"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 ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
What the role of a women should be was another point of conflict between the mothers and
daughters. In the first anecdote on page 17, Tan tells the story of a Chinese women coming to
America who dreams that "over there nobody will say her [daughter's] worth is measured by the
loudness of her husband's belch." This quote shows that the traditional view of women in China is
that they should serve their husbands and families, and that they don't deserve freedom. Ying–Ying
St. Clair found herself conforming to this stereotype, saying that "[she] was pretty for [her
husband]." (Tan 247). Not only did Ying–Ying have to listen to her husband, she began to embrace it
and only serve her husband, without any regard for herself. When he left her to marry a younger
women, she realized that she had been wasting away her life. She waited four years, until she was
able to run away to America, where she gained her freedom. However, her daughter, Lena, was born
with these rights that she had worked hard to gain. Lena talks about her husband, saying, "really,
we're equals, except that Harold makes about seven times more than what I make." Harold is also
her boss, despite the fact that they originally started their company together. Ying–Ying realizes that
Lena is becoming submissive to her husband, much the way she did. Ying–Ying wants to "cut
[Lena's} tiger spirit loose" (Tan 252), but Lena refuses to listen, not realizing that her

Summary Of ' The Joy Luck Club '
Exam Project Process Check #1
Book: The Joy Luck Club
Author: Amy Tan
By: Bala Sundaram
Themes:
A) The Joy luck Club presents a couple of themes but one of which, relates to an issue that is
affecting many immigrant families who bring up their kids in foreign countries. In forwards, the
difficulty in speaking and translating another language.The mothers and daughters in the book have
difficulty in communicating their ideas and feelings with one another.The problems associated with
communicating with one another create a barrier between the mother's Chinese language and the
daughter's English language.The mothers and daughters misunderstand what the other is intending
to say due to the differences in the meanings of their cultural languages.The differences in the
languages are perceived differently by the mother and the daughter leading them to act towards each
other differently. The fragmented use of the two languages is understood by the reader when Jing–
mei realizes that some Chinese words cannot be translated into English. Jing–mei thinks of her
mother as a failure in society and sets herself apart from her. Her mother is impatient and says that
her daughter doesn't understand the cultural meaning of the Chinese language and doesn't
acknowledge the Chinese heritage. This theme is evident in the book because the characters bring up
the frustration associated with their daughters understanding the Chinese meanings without
understanding the Chinese culture.
B) Another

The Joy Luck Club Literary Analysis

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

More from Crystal Alvarez

More from Crystal Alvarez (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The Joy Luck Club Literary Analysis