Comparing The Joy Luck Club and The Woman Warrior Amy Tan's immensely popular novel, The Joy Luck Club explores the issues faced by first and second generation Chinese immigrants, particularly mothers and daughters. Although Tan's book is a work of fiction, many of the struggles it describes are echoed in Maxine Hong Kingston's autobiographical work, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. The pairs of mothers and daughters in both of these books find themselves separated along
In Amy Tan’s pieces “Two kinds” and “Mother Tongue” she tells of two different stories. These stories of which can be seen as different and in many ways are. However, they also share similarities. There are many things to take away from each that will change the idea of how they only share similarities or how they only share differences. Coming from my perspective, the two tell different stories but also give off the sense that there are similarities to be picked out. This is what I will analyze
Amy Tan‘s ―Two Kinds‖ is a tale of a young Chinese girl‘s life as an adolescent and the influence that her mother has on her growing up. Coming from a first-generation immigrant Korean family, I can‘t help but completely relate to growing up around that type of ―support.‖ Although my parents were fairly westernized in their way of thinking, we had an aunt living with us whom we affectionately called the Tiger Aunt growing up. Having no natural children of her own, she treated my siblings and
opportunities and success through hard work and dedication. In her short story “Two Kinds,” Amy Tan portrays a mother searching for her daughter’s talent by pressuring her with different activities. With high expectations from the mother, Tan shows the conflicting views between the mother and daughter. In the story, Jing-mei, the daughter, shows disrespect by being lazy and rebellious to her mother. Amy Tan uses point of view, symbolism, and situational irony to illustrate Jing-mei and her mother’s
Amy Tan makes her readers think about the meaning behind her story “Two Kinds”. She tells the story from her own point of view to state her experiences and how she is feeling all throughout the story. She does not state what is right or wrong based strict on her opinion. She does not give instruction about solving a family crisis, instead, she writes her story as a sort of diary expressing how she felt about her childhood events. Readers are offered an accounting of those events, as well as insight
The Joy Luck Club and Waiting for Mr. Kim Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that
Parents think they know best Have you ever as a child wary about why your parents wanting to turn you into someone, other than yourself. “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan is about a daughter, Jing-mei, feeling trapped by the unattainable expectations of her mother. Growing up, the mother-daughter relationship gets ruined when the daughter does not believe in her ability as strong as her mother does. Jing-mei still have love for mother even though their relationship was ruined. After a careful analysis of
Comparing the Novel and Film Version of Joy Luck Club Wayne Wang's adaptation of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club combines literary and cinematic devices by adopting the novel's narrative techniques and strengthening them through image and sound. The adaptation exemplifies not a destruction or abuse of Amy Tan's novel, but the emergence of a new work of art, not hindered but enhanced by the strengths of its literary precursor. Incorporating her family's own experiences as Chinese immigrants to the
more are visible within the novel entitled The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan. Three prominent conflicts seen in The Joy Luck Club are between Waverly and Lindo, Lindo and Suyuan, and between June and Waverly. The first prominent conflict within this novel deals with Waverly and her mother Lindo. Waverly feels as though her mother is attempting to ruin her life by causing her to "see black where there once was white" (Tan 186). Lindo, Waverly believes, is attempting to influence her daughter
The Joy Luck Club In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan’s first novel, short-story-like vignettes alternate back and forth between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and lives of their American-born daughters in California. The book is a mediation on the divided nature of this emigrant life. The novel is narrated horizontally as well as vertically; friendships and rivalries develop among the daughters as well as the mothers.(Matuz 92) As Jing Mei Woo describes, “Auntie Lin and
It was Emerson who said it best, “For nonconformity, the world whips you with its displeasure” (Porter 1155). With a detailed look of Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” and John Updike’s “A&P,” you will find that this quote is entirely applicable in the context of oppressiveness and in the likeness of “coming of age.” These two stories document the different perspectives of two characters’ growing up and how the role of the invisible hand of oppression guides developing adolescents into mature adults; without
arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither of us knew it at the time, chess games”(Tan 89). This quote indicates the beginning of Waverly’s journey as she discovers her chess talent. Despite this, Waverly fails to realize her mother’s important role in her success, “‘Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess’” (Tan 99). This quote shows Waverly’s immaturity and her inability to recognize her mother’s affection. This
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan is a piece of literature that displays the power of femininity. Through the past couple of centuries the role that women play in society has drastically changed. Women in various societies have experienced turmoil due to being discriminated against and looked down upon often. Women were viewed upon as being the house caregiver and leaving majority of the other jobs in society to men. Women have moved up the social ladder, politics, jobs, and in households. Femininity
Laura from "The Garden Party" and the Narrator in Amy Tan's "Two Kinds" come from different societal rankings/backgrounds, both daughters express their independent ideas from their mothers, which helps lead them to discover their own view of what the good life truly is. Laura and the Narrator in “Two Kinds” both develop their own strong beliefs that are contrary to those that their family has. Laura strays from the thinking of her family a little when she discovers that there has been a death near
hopes lay. She had come to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. Things could get better in so many ways” (Tan 1). This shows that the author’s mother did not let her crippling past stop her from having hope for the future and the will to give her family a better life. She always saw that things could and would get better with hard work. Through this light inside
Lost In Time 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. At the beginning of the novel, Suyuan
Set almost 20 years ago, in the middle of 1998 San Francisco, The Bonesetter's Daughter, authored by Amy Tan, follows the tragic, but lovely story of three generations of women in the Liu family. The author paints the picture of a turn-of-the-century Chinese woman, Precious Auntie, her daughter Liu LuLing who lived in the middle of World War II, and further, LuLing's daughter, Ruth, who was raised in a bustling 1970's San Francisco. Throughout the book, the characters share many of the same thoughts
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, is a short story about a young Chinese girl, known as “Jing-Mei”. The story begins with Jing-Mei telling us about her mother. Her mother came to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China, including her parents, home, first husband, and two twin baby girls. Mrs. Woo believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. She wanted to create Jing-Mei into a great American prodigy. The next Chinese Shirley Temple. After trying and failing at several things like
The Masked Secrets Arthur Miller famously stated, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan depicts the lives of four different families, whose mothers have emigrated from China to America. This novel takes place after Suyuan, Jing Mei Woo’s mother dies. The mothers include; Suyuan, Lindo Jong, An-mei Hsu, and Ying-Ying St. Clair, they hold traditional Old China beliefs within their families. Their daughters corresponding to the order of mothers includes; Jing-Mei
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, describes the lives of four Asian women who fled China in the 1940s and their four extremely Americanized daughters. Throughout this novel, similarities and differences are shown between the mother and daughter pairs. In addition, the mothers and daughters reveal important messages and themes that the author, Tan, tries to express through these similarities and differences of the pairings. The novel also reveals messages and themes through the difficulties