The Joy Luck Club Essay - 2220 Words

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, â€Å"Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and arch-enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children. I was one month older than Waverly Jong, Auntie Lin’s prized daughter. From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in†¦show more content†¦This influence, together with the security a family gains from being well loved, is one of the most compelling justifications for the existence of a family. (Time-Life 120) Anthropologists agree that the family is a central, positive institution in every society. (Ryder 23) As we bog down in the drama of daily living, a focus on the world can be hard to hold on to, but the support of a family helps. Supportiveness may be one of the most valuable tools for relationship building in your family. In healthy, functional family groups, individuals contribute to a peaceful and cooperative co-existence. (Bluestein 89) The distinct closeness that many siblings share forms the basis for what can be a rewarding and supportive lifelong connection. (Time-Life 57) As Jing Mei Woo describes her first time meeting her sisters, â€Å" And then I see her. Her short hair. Her small body. And that same look on her face. She has the back of her hand pressed hard against her mouth. And I know it is not my mother, yet it is the same look she had when I was five and had disappeared all afternoon, for such a long time she was convinced I was dead, and when I appeared, sleepy-eyed, crawling from underneath my bed, she wept and laughed , biting the back of her hand to make sure it was true. And then I see her again, two of her, waving, and in one hand there is a photo, the Polaroid I sent them. As soon as I get beyond the gate, we run toward each other, all threeShow MoreRelatedSummary Of The Joy Luck Club 853 Words   |  4 PagesExam 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 communicatingRead MoreJoy Luck Club Analysis981 Words   |  4 Pagesas 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 mothers 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 storiesRead MoreJoy Luck Club Essay1722 Words   |  7 PagesIn 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 canRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club Characterization1301 Words   |  6 Pages 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. T an 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 areRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Joy Luck Club 937 Words   |  4 Pagesup together. Towards the end of the novel, a gathered opinion can be made on the three characters true to all the viewpoints. The Joy Luck Club is a movie, based off a novel written by Amy Tan, displaying the struggles of a group of Chinese women and their daughters. The women grew like a family when they moved from China to San Francisco. The woman in the joy luck club all experienced rape, domestic violence or being abandoned by their family early in adulthood. Christina, Ida and Suyuan all liveRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club Is The Power Of Storytelling1054 Words   |  5 PagesA recurring theme in The Joy Luck Club is the power of storytelling. Throughout the book, stories are used as a way to socialize, teach lessons and warn about dangers. The article à ¢â‚¬Å"The Psychological Power of Storytelling† by Pamela B. Rutledge explains how stories are a form of communication. Rutledge says, â€Å"Stories have always been a primal form of communication.† From cavemen drawing pictures of stories on walls, to bedtime stories being read to children, sharing experiences through storiesRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Joy Luck Club 1700 Words   |  7 PagesChurchill 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 endedRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan841 Words   |  3 PagesIn the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tells stories of four Chinese mothers and four Chinese-American daughters and their mother-daughter relationship. The four mothers met in a San Francisco church in 1949. Suyuan Woo, founder of the Joy Luck Club, convinced the other mothers An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Yingying St. Clair to join the club. The club would meet every week at one of the mother’s house where they eat food, play mahjong, and brag about their daughters. The Chinese -American daughters tellRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club : Breaking Barriers1075 Words   |  5 PagesGrace Pating Mr. Devine English 203H 8 September 2015 The Joy Luck Club: Breaking Barriers When people struggle to communicate with one another or disagree, the usual response is to ask questions and make an effort to fix the issue. Unfortunately, owning up to responsibility can be much more difficult when the argument is with a close friend or family member. Coming from two time periods, this is a prevalent issue for the women of the Woo family, especially since both individuals are intolerablyRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan963 Words   |  4 PagesThe novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan shows the past and present experiences of several women including An-mei Hsu, the mother of Rose Hsu Jordan. Beginning at a young age, An-mei has to endure many situations. Her grandmother tells her that her mother is a ghost but she comes back to take care of her grandmother when she is ill. Due to the absence of her mother during her childhood years, she tries to be there for Rose as much as possible but is pushed away. An-mei believes she has nengkin, the