The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

603 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Asian American identity development model

The Joy Luck Club One of the central themes in writing of the second generation Asian Americans is the search of identity and individual acceptance in American society. In the last few decades, many Asian Americans have entered a time of increased awareness of their racial and cultural identity built on their need to establish their unique American identity. In the book The Joy Luck Club, which revolves around four mother-daughter Asian American families whose mothers migrated from China to America and raised their daughters as Americans, we see the cultural struggle and differences by looking at their marriages, suffering and sacrifice, and their use of language in the novel. The fact that the fictional mothers and daughters of the story have unhappy marriages creates a common ground on which they can relate. However, marriage has different meanings for each generation in this book. In the mothers’ perspective, marriage is permanent and not always based on love. Especially with their marriages in China, which was a social necessity that they must secretly endure in order to be happ...

Show More
Related

  • Sacrifice In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “The Joy Luck Club”, Chinese fables are used as significant teachings for life. ‘Feathers from a Thousand Li Away: Introduction’ is used for the first section because the chapters are about the mother’s journey from China to America. The story elaborates on the sacrifice the mother is making for a better life for their children. The story introduces the contention between American culture and Chinese culture conflict because the mother sees the Americanized daughter as the privilege. Amy wrote, “And over there [America] she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow!” (Feathers from a Thousand Li Away: Introduction, Page 17) This quote means that the daughters born in America will not understand the struggles the mother's faced

    Read More

  • The Mother Daughter Relationship in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Joy Luck Club is a representation of the persistent tensions and powerful bonds between mother and daughter in a Chinese American society.  The book illustrates the hardships both the mother and daughters go through in order to please the other.  Also, it shows the troubles the daughters face when growing up in two cultures.  This book reveals that most of the time mothers really do know best.

    Read More

  • The Joy Luck Club Analysis

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, four Chinese born mothers and their four American born daughters tell stories from their own point of view about their relationships with one another. These four mothers demonstrate the finest parenting by trying to keep their heritage alive and educate their daughters, while being immigrants. Through the mothers' actions, they are able to teach and influence their daughters about their Chinese heritage, about everyday life and situations, and how to stand up for themselves all while being in an overwhelming American society.

    Read More

  • The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie, The Joy Luck Club, focuses around the lives of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters. The story takes place a few months after Junes mother, Suyuan has died. The mothers and daughters hold very different principles, where the mothers are still very traditional to their Chinese upbringings the daughters are much more “American.” The movie can be viewed from the Feminist Literary Theory, since the 8 main characters are female. The women’s life stories are told through a series of flashback scenes that deal heavily with female gender roles and the expectations of women. While the mothers and their daughter grew up in vastly different worlds, some of their experiences and circumstances correlate solely due to that fact that they experienced them because they are females.

    Read More

  • Essay on Clash of Cultures Portrayed in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    The environment in which one grows up molds their character and behavior. The four daughters portrayed in The Joy Luck Club are of Chinese descent, yet they are not Chinese. The daughters speak in English, not the language of their mothers, Mandarin. The daughters are addressed by their English names, or they do not have a Chinese name at all. They think as Americans and have little memory of their Chinese thinking, customs or traditions.

    Read More

  • The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

    1889 Words  | 4 Pages

    Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, a famous novel about the relationship between two generations, mother and daughter. Tan is an American-Chinese woman, whose parents are both Chinese immigrants. In order to meet the high expectation of her mother, Tan had to go through many hardships. Around five years old, she already knew the taste of pressure when her mother was displeased at her just because her picture was not hanged in the Principal’s Office. Growing up in America, Tan also realizes the differences between two cultures. Tan would get scolded at when she received a B, while other children were okay when they got a C. Tan realizes it would be hard to appease her mother or even at all. Even so, Tan still tried hard to meet her mother’s expectation. However, Tan completely changed from an obedient daughter to a rebellious one because of one incident - the death of her father and brother. Because of this, Tan thought that there would be no use of being good; therefore, she started to rebel against her mother. “Anything that my mother hated, that was better” Tan said in an interview. She began to put on make-up, wear short skirts, smoke, drink, and date a 26 year old man, who her mother absolutely disapproved of. Her eccentric and rebellious behavior got to the point when she was almost placed in jail. Eventually, as she grew up, Tan began to forgive herself for her stupid mistakes and to also forgive her mother. Tan came to the realization that all her mother did was out of love; she just wanted Tan to have a bright future.

    Read More

  • Chinese American Experiences In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    Amy Tan’s work is based on her Chinese American experiences. She has written several books, but she is most recognized by one: The Joy Luck Club. It was her first novel and won two national awards. Although Tan has won many awards for her books, she get criticized by her false interpretations of the chinese culture and her racial stereotypical writings. Students blame the author of pandering with the image of chinese people for her misinterpretation of the chinese heritage.

    Read More

  • Joy Luck Club Culture

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book tells a total of 16 stories divided into 4 sections. Each story is told by one of the 7 main characters and the stories are woven together that all connect with Chinese-immigrant mothers and their American born daughters. It all started in 1949, Suyuan Woo started the San Francisco version of the Joy Luck Club. After Suyuan Woo’s unexpected death her daughter Jing-Mei Woo also known as “June”, is asked to take her place in the club. The four mothers met at the refugee center in the city of San Francisco after emigrating from China.

    Read More

  • Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    299 Words  | 1 Pages

    Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is a brilliant heart-wrenching novel. Prior to this course, I’ve never read the full book only the two stories “A Pair of Tickets” and “Two Kinds”. However, I am glad I had the opportunity to read the book in its entirety. Naturally, based off the two stories I’ve read I was biased in a way towards Suyuan. I originally sided with her daughter until I seen things from the viewpoint of the other mothers who are also Chinese. Nonetheless, If I had to recommend one book that portrays mother-daughter relationships this will be the book. While reading the novel I found myself gravitating towards each character for who I was drawn to for different reasons. The characters, their individual life stories, their pain was realistic

    Read More

  • Marital Infidelity In 'Southern Song And The Drunken Lord'

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    (787)Topic 1: The Theme of Patriarchal marriage and the Contrasting Elements of Marital Infidelity in “Southern Song” by Li Qingzhao and “The Drunken Lord” by Yin E.

    Read More

  • The Joy Luck Club Identity Essay

    1671 Words  | 4 Pages

    An individual’s culture and history play undeniable roles in the person they are and the person they become. People are products of their environment, and regardless of how someone may feel about their life, their background, or their circumstances, these factors play an important role in their identity. Amy Tan explores the turbulent path to finding one’s identity in The Joy Luck Club, a novel that explores not only the strength of an individual, but the strength of a culture. Lindo Jong, a Chinese immigrant in the novel, describes this phenomenom as her two faces. Lindo believes that one always sacrifices part of oneself by putting on one’s ‘American face’ or one’s ‘Chinese face’. By choosing to wear one of these

    Read More

  • Cultural Symbolism In Amy Tan's Joy Luck

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, the “Joy Luck Club,” ‘joy luck’ is seen as a cultural concept that cannot be translated. ‘Joy luck’ was referred when anyone could be anything while living a joyful, lucky life in a poor, unsafe home condition. During the time of these four women, they would use their own resources to enjoy potlucks together every week with games of mahjong and quality food. To the daughters, ‘joy luck’ is not as powerful as it is to their mothers because they were in born the United States, where their children were more opened to possibilities and chances that their mothers never got to experience. Their daughters have conformed into the American morals knowing only a small portion of their cultural background but refuse to learn more because

    Read More

  • The Color Purple And The Joy Luck Club

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Joy Luck Club, written by second-generation Amy Tan, is a collection of stories written in the perspectives of four mothers and four daughters. Although there are various short stories in one novel, it relates to one theme of the conflict between the first and second generation. The second generation argues “That parents shouldn’t criticize children. They should encourage instead.---And when you criticize, it just means you’re expecting failure” (Tan 31), as the first generation answers, “You never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to expectations”(Tan 31). As a second generation Asian American, the thought process of June Woo is incredibly similar to how I feel, yet placed in a mature manner. As a teenager, it is hard to process one’s feelings because of puberty, hormones and scientific phenomena that I can not explain. However, it could also be the lack of conservation and communication between young adults and adults themselves. My parents have the highest expectations: getting straight A’s, having my back straight, being the top of my class and many more I do not want to list. As previously stated before, most of my childhood I lived in Anaheim which was not the most academically challenging district; being top of my class was a piece of cake. Unfortunately moving to Irvine, that was not necessarily the case. Irvine was showered with

    Read More

  • Teenage Trials And Tribulations By Amy Gleeson

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    How often do we, as teens, hear the phrases, “back in my day…” or “when I was your age…” or anything else along those lines? On the daily, we are sentenced to the endless spiels of our elders reminiscing about the rebellious things they did when they were young. However, I guarantee you that the same people who would happily spend hours relishing in their nostalgia wouldn’t hesitate to insult today’s youth.

    Read More

  • Decisions Revealed In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is a novel which consists of stories about the lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters. The stories are about each of the character’s struggles adapting to American society and how it affects each individual's personalities to the person they have become. This process of adaption is seen through one of the daughters named Rose. Rose’s inability to make decisions is due to her fear of the future responsibilities she has to hold if misfortunes occur. This part of her personality is shown through the events that impacted her such as her brother’s death as well as her marriage and divorce with Ted.

    Read More

More about The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Open Document