It has been said that America has no single tradition but rather is a melting pot of people from various backgrounds and ethnicities. During the 20th century a new wave of immigration to the United States took place bringing with it a new classification of American. However due to the intimidating cultural and social standards of the United States assimilation was inevitable. In reading Amy Tan's thought provoking novel "The Joy Luck Club," I am reminded of what has been termed for many decades as the "American Dream." Based on the foundations of the Declaration of Independence, this dream entails the idea that we are all, regardless of race or creed, entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Every human has the right and...show more content...
The self is seen as more important than the family as a unit, which is the opposite in Chinese culture. Traditionally they are taught to respect and honor their elders. Old translates to wise in Chinese culture. In American, old translates to incapable and there is no place for them, it is considered to be most undesirable in a culture which emphasizes youth and physical beauty. Tan implies that American's will result to falsity rather than truth if the circumstance happens to coincide with personal gain or desires. Lindo Jong tells the story of an American soldier who promises to come back and marry the girl who loves him. He says "my promise is as good as gold," but he in fact does not come back. She tells her daughter," His gold is like yours, it is only fourteen carats. To Chinese people, fourteen carats isn't real gold. Feel my bracelets. They must be twenty–four carats, pure inside and out" (Tan 49). Americans tend to be born with a sense of entitlement or superiority. This idea does not appear to stem from any notion in particular other than the simple fact of being born on US soil. Because of this sentiment, native–born Americans are generally more preoccupied with the materialistic and mundane things presented to them in everyday life. Tan stresses that there is little importance placed on one's overall self worth in relation to
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Cultural differences often cause divides between people. Within social groups people tend to gravitate towards those that share similar traits; so when, within a family unit, there are cultural differences the relationships gain a distance that eventually hinders the intimacy that is usually seen in families. The mother–daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club exemplify the distance that can be caused by these cultural divides. Amy Tan uses families built of Chinese immigrants and first generation Chinese–American children to display the cultural disparities between China and America and the effects such disparity has on the individuals within those families. Each mother–daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club exemplifies a characteristic...show more content...
The St. Claire family is used to give a differentiating cultural make up of an immigrant Chinese / Chinese American family as only one parent is a Chinese immigrant while the other is American. This allows for Amy Tan to present cultural rifts and complications within communication. Lena St. Claire is used to represent the complications of language brokering as it appears in cross–cultural scenarios. The experience of language brokering is common among immigrant families as "children often ... acquire fluency in English at a faster rate than their parents, [and] are expected to broker for their parents by translating for them" ultimately leading the child to be in a position of power in the parent–child relationship (Chao 271). The power position that is held by the child can "lead to brokers [, the child,] having diminished respect for and [diminished] identification with parents as authority figures and role models" which then can lead to rifts within the parent–child relationship (Chao 275). Amy Tan's character Lena is put in the language brokering position as her father does not speak any form of Chinese. This ultimately puts Lena in a place of power, giving her leeway to modify her mother's statements when she is translating (Tan 112). This power in the relationship leads to Lena seeing her mother as "crazy" and ultimately losing, not all but some, respect for her mother (Tan
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In 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 can tell that Lindo Jong was very proud of her daughter Waverly Jong when she was a chess prodigy, competed in different cities, and would bring home a myriad of trophies. Because Lindo was so proud of Waverly, she would brag excessively about her and...show more content...
Even if you learn about the tragedies in your family, at least you know the type of people you came from and understand why you act a certain way. Passing on things to your descendants should be amended in a way because you should only pass on useful and beneficial things to them. Lastly, being free should also be adjusted slightly because it should not include leaving everyone you know and your problems behind without having a resolution. It should be more like leaving after you say your farewells everyone and after you resolved most or all the problems you are facing. This is the concept of happiness I believe this novel revolves around. One concept of happiness is understanding one's identity, background, and not lose sight of who you are. This concept is an American thing because in a country full of immigrants knowing who you are as a person is important, and to not forget that even you are when you the ethnic minority in a particular area is even more crucial. Moreover, in America, there are always questions like who you are and how does your cultural background influence you. These questions guide people to explore their identity and find out who they are. This concept is also an Asian thing because the mothers in The Joy Luck Club tells many stories throughout the novel to help their daughters understand who they are.
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Research Question:
How and why does Amy Tan use storytelling to portray thematic elements in her book,The Joy Luck Club?
Introduction:
The Joy Luck Club is a novel known as the novel of stories within stories. This is because of how it is structured,Amy Tan writes about sixteen different interwoven stories about Chinese immigrant mothers and their relationships with their American born daughters. Amy Tan creates four different sections each of which contain four different narratives. In the first section the mother's recall their own relationships with their mothers back in china. The next section the daughters relate their recollections of their childhood relationship to with their mothers. The third section of stories narrate the...show more content...
"It's not showoff." She said the two soups were almost the same, chabudwo. Or maybe she said butong, not the same thing at all. It was one of those Chinese expressions that means the better half of mixed intentions. I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place. (I.1.6). Here we can see that Jing–mei does not fully comprehend the Chinese culture. She doesn't understand what her mother is saying and therefore missing the the intended message her mother was giving her. In this quote code switching is used Tan uses this to establish the character of the mother to the audience and again emphasizes the linguistic barrier. This concept of a barrier is an extremely important part of why the mothers and daughters seem to always misunderstand each other. The mothers are all immigrants from china and therefore speak broken english. Whereas the daughters were born in the US and speak the language fairly well. [Quote] These barriers also exist between the mothers and their daughters husbands and boyfriends which creates a strained relationship with the in–laws. One of the main conflicts is formed from this theme in the first section of the book Jing–me says that "In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to america. They see daughters who grow impatint when their mothers talk chinese, who think they're stupid when they explain things in fractured english. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American–born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation." . This one but long quote explains the main conflict of the book is that the mothers are afraid of being misunderstood and forgotten due to in no
In The Joy Luck Club, four Chinese women immigrated to San Francisco in hopes of a better life for both themselves and their children. The mother members of The Joy Luck Club wanted a greater variety of opportunities, and hoped to find them in America. In most immigration cases, people expect to find better living and working conditions in another populated country. And, usually, they do. In the article I chose based on immigration, a resident of the Rio Grande Valley named Adrian Guerrero said that hisfamily moved to Texas in hopes for a better life for their children. Similarly to the mothers of The Joy Luck Club, Adrian's family immigrated to America for a better life style. The article states, "Resident Adrian Guerrero said his...show more content...
Throughout the story, the daughters express their thoughts using the first person narrative and explain how their mothers had high expectations for them because they were different than most Americans and were Chinese. Because of this, the daughters felt they were not only viewed as different from their mothers but also from society. I myself am not an immigrant and cannot fully relate to the characters in The Joy Luck Club or the people mentioned in my chosen article. However, I have heard many things involving immigration on both the radio and TV news. I can imagine it must be difficult to be an immigrant, whether the current president does not support immigration or whether I am separated from other Americans because of my ethnicity. Many of my friends from last year complained about President Trump and disliked him because they too had members of their families who were immigrants and did not have citizenship. By reading this article and assigned novel, I have come to further realization that immigration is a serious issue for both families and society today.
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Usually when a country is under attack, residents flee to another country in hopes of better safety from whatever war their country is in. In The Joy Luck Club, Jing–mei Woo narrates of the time when hermother told her the story of when she went to Kweilin. June explains how her mother didn't want to go to Kweilin just to see how Get
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 mymother 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, " 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 three
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The Joy Luck Club is a story about four Chinese friends and their daughters. It tells the story of the mother's struggles in China and their acceptance in America, and the daughter's struggles of finding themselves as Chinese–Americans. The movie starts off with a story about a swan feather, and how it was brought over with only good intentions. Then the movie goes on, the setting is at a party for June the daughter of Suyuan. Suyuan has just past away about four months ago, and her mother's friends have found her long lost daughters. But it is too late for her to go see them so they tell June, about it and they arrange a meeting for her in China. The party is a going away party for June's trip to China. At the...show more content...
In the story of June and her mother Suyuan, in the kitchen. June stands out strongly, because of her mother's intention in giving her the pendant is unclear, it spurs her to the question. That the gift was given in the context of their discussion of quality, and may show in specific way her mother was valuing her, not just for being her daughter, but because she was finally, best at something. This was the night that Suyuan recognized her daughter is different, but Best Quality. Suyuan wanted the best for her daughter. Suyuan knew that her daughter was the best but never really said it to her. June always thought that she wasn't enough for her mother that she never measured up to her expectations. And everything that her mother hoped for that she couldn't meet, she was a disappointment. Her mother noticed that she had all the qualities that she hoped for in a daughter, she told this to her daughter when she noticed that she always took the worst crab so that the best crab was served to the guest. June had the Best Heart. This was something that Suyuan wanted to give to her daughter. June now realizes this, and she realizes that she has met her mother's hopes. The pendant is her mother's recognition that, if nothing else, June is true to her own nature, is the best. June finds herself performing the same kitchen–rituals that her mother did, June truly begins to understand and honor her. June takes on her mother's spirit as she sits down at the