Analysis: The Joy Luck Club

A person must learn many hard lessons; standing up for themselves is among the most challenging. Fear of causing a commotion may always be present, but advocating a person advocating for themselves is essential for emotional health. To lack the ability to speak up for what one believes in, is to also lack power to dominate one’s circumstances. In the novel The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, the tension point between An-mei Hsu and her daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan, is Rose’s inability to stand up for herself; instead she just lets life happen. An-mei desires for her daughter standing up herself takes root back in China during her childhood. Until An-mei is nine years-old, she and her brother are raised by her grandmother who constantly reminds

Her mother jumps into the water to find her son, although she knows that she cannot swim. When the police finally calls off the search and sends the Hsu’s home, her mother admits her mistakes, but then instantly tells her daughter that they must go back to find Bing in the morning (127). That next morning, An-mei prays profoundly to God and brings valuable offerings to give to the “Coiling Dragon” (127-128). In this moment An-mei uses every faith she has ever been introduced to and has faith as she searches for Bing. She knows that he is already gone, but fights for him to be brought

Although Rose has the guidance of her mother and the freedom of an American, she only finds her voice after enduring a long journey of losing herself. Rose learns to appreciate that she has her right to be bold. “That was China. That was what people did back then. They had no choice. They could not speak up. They could not run away. That was their fate. But now they can do something else. Now they no longer have to swallow their own tears or suffer... (241)” The freedom of being able to stand up for oneself was once fought