Everybody is different despite which culture they’re from, religion they practice or beliefs they accept as true. Finding one person of your same culture, practicing your same religion and believing all the exact, same ideas as you do is practically impossible. There are always a few factors that make you different from this person, and this idea is acceptable to most. Why then, if one found they were almost identical in thoughts and feelings as another individual, but found that this individual was of a different race, would this be considered unacceptable? There lingers an aroma of ignorance and naive ness around a few that make it so they’re blinded to the idea that a difference in ethnic backgrounds does not make a person inferior or superior. If one were to be categorized as inferior or superior, it would have to be based on their actions: whether it be wrong doings or accomplishments. The main characters in this story are a generation of mothers and their daughters. This story is told in sections as a narrative, where each chapter is recounted by a different woman. The mothers speak of their experiences growing up under the strict conditions in China. They told of how their marriages were predetermined and how they had to do as any male ordered. The daughters, on the other hand, being raised under American ways, told of their hardships with pressure given to them by their mothers. They spoke of American husbands, equality between both sexes, and how they’d rather believe that their futures could indeed be controlled. This novel being reviewed for recommendation in minority studies is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, where the minority groups being presented are both the Chinese Gelman – Page 2 and women. The view seen of women in the United States is that of a rising class; once always under the wing of a male, but in the present day, rising to achieve equality. The view seen of Chinese women though, still remains that they are being held in the male’s shadow. “Reading scores… and math scores… for minority students are falling further behind those of white students” (Heartland Institute). This is from a report taken in the United States, which could be applied to China as well. There, though, only the women are the minority, instead of all Chinese. The Chinese men got the better educations,... ... middle of paper ... ... get across to the youth before they have a mind of their own, they’d learn not to even notice the color of one’s skin, but to look only into their eyes, which is a doorway to what the mind thinks, the heart feels and the body experiences. Gelman – Page 6 Bibliography Hart’s War. Dir. Gregory Hoblit. With Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Dashon Howard, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Cole Hauser, Rory Cochrane and Marcel Iures. MGM, 2001. McAlister, Linda Lopez. “‘The Joy Luck Club’ A Film Review.” The Women’s Show. WMNF-FM (88.5). Tampa, FL. 02 Oct. 1993. RARA Foundation. “Minority Role Models.” n.d: n.pag. On-line. Internet. 21 Feb. 2002 Available WWW: HYPERLINK "http://www.minrm.com/index.html" http://www.minrm.com/index.html The Heartland Institute: School Reform News. “Minority Academic Progress Falters.” Jan. 1997: n.pag. On-line. Internet. 21 Feb. 2002 Available WWW: http://www.heartland.org/education/jan97/minority.html Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Maine: Thorndike, 1989
Amy Tan 's novel, The Joy Luck Club, explores the relationships and experiences of four Chinese mothers with that of their four Chinese-American daughters. The differences in the upbringing of those women born around the 1920’s in China, and their daughters born in California in the 80’s, is undeniable. The relationships between the two are difficult due to lack of understanding and the considerable amount of barriers that exist between them.
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.
The Chinese mothers, so concentrated on the cultures of their own, don't want to realize what is going on around them. They don't want to accept the fact that their daughters are growing up in a culture so different from their own. Lindo Jong, says to her daughter, Waverly- "I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promise. This means nothing to you because to you, promises mean nothing. A daughter can promise to come to dinner, but if she has a headache, a traffic jam, if she wants to watch a favorite movie on T.V., she no longer has a promise."(Tan 42) Ying Ying St.Clair remarks- "...because I remained quiet for so long, now my daughter does not hear me. She sits by her fancy swimming pool and hears only her Sony Walkman, her cordless phone, her big, important husband asking her why they have charcoal and no lighter fluid."(Tan 64)
... did not afford her these things, Lindo is being very cautious, often critical, of her daughter and the choices that she has.
The first mother/ daughter pair whose experiences were shown are Lindo and Waverly. Lindo was born and raised in China, were women have very little rights, and no say in their futures. At a very young age Lindo was promised by a “matchmaker” to be married to a man when she was 15. She was told from the time she was a toddler that he “belonged” to her future husband, and was already his property and that she needed to act accordingly. At 15 she was forced to go marry a man she had very met, whose face she had never seen and whose age she didn’t know. She was expected to be subservient, obedient and dutiful wife who would produce a son for the Huang family. After her marriage her very, very young husband made it clear to her that he “was the husband and he made the rules” (The Joy Luck Club). When, through no fault of her own, she didn’t not produce a child with him all of the blame was placed on her and she was told if she continued to ...
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
The Chinese culture is based on Confucius, whose teachings are more practical and ethical than religious. Confucius’ virtues include righteousness, propriety, integrity, and filial piety toward parents, living and dead. His teachings also emphasize obedience to the father figure, to the husband, and to the eldest son after the passing of the husband. Thus, the role of women is one of subordination to men. In a family the male figure maintains an absolute power over his familial matters. Whereas in America, gender does not have the same bearing on the cultural trad...
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club describes the lives of first and second generation Chinese families, particularly mothers and daughters. Surprisingly The Joy Luck Club and, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts are very similar. They both talk of mothers and daughters in these books and try to find themselves culturally. Among the barriers that must be overcome are those of language, beliefs and customs.
The second and third sections are about the daughters' lives, and the vignettes in each section trace their personality growth and development. Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories, how they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time casting off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. Social pressures to become like everyone else, and not to be different are what motivate the daughters to resent their nationality. This was a greater problem for Chinese-American daughters that grew up in the 50's, when it was not well accepted to be of an "ethnic" background.
In the family aspect, female in the typical Chinese-lineage dominated society owned little freedom as well as the right of coming to grips of properties. All of the above happened, according to prof. Ma, owing to women were defined as not trust-worthy and considered as outsiders. With this being prevalent, female, no matter married or not, are expected to stay at home. They were responsible for all the housework and daily living needs foe the family. Thanks to the domination of patrilineal values, women`s social life was dominated as well as blocked. The gender role of male in the family are mainly the leader of the family and the sources of the family income. Thus, it can...
Kenzie Kress English 10 Sem. 2 The Joy Luck Club The difficult struggle of finding true identities ate the energy of these young women. “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan is about a group of young mothers and their daughters having issues with their identities as Chinese women in an American world.
When comparing the ways in which mothers and daughters relate within the Chinese and American society, it is evident these two societies tend to have a major discrepancy that helps in creating different views on socio/economic situations. Daughters of the Chinese society tend to have a closer, and personal relationship with their mothers providing them with a platform that enable them to gain the view presented by their mothers with regard to the socioeconomic situation. However, one cannot ignore the fact that mothers tend to have the same core values that define their mothering abilities with regard to providing their children with a support structure that would maintain success achievement. Mothering involves having to secure the interests of the children ahead of those of the mother as a way of creating a better
...oist China.” Gender & History 18, No. 3 (November 2006): 574-593. EBSCOhost. Accessed October 4, 2015.
The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” was written in 2011 by Amy Chua, who is a professor at Yale Law School in the United States of America. The article follows significant themes such as the upbringing of children and perfectionism.