Barriers In The Joy Luck Club

Language can often create bridges or barriers between people. In the “Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, the different languages the mother and daughters speaking caused barriers. The major conflict throughout the novel is the linguistic and cultural differences between the mothers and daughters. The language barrier between them is why certain ideas and customs are not translated or fully understood.

The mothers could not fully articulate what she has been through because she does not know English. She lacks the words to describe the hardships she been through. In broken English the daughters can only understand so much; “We translated each other's meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more” (Jing-Mei Woo: The Joy Luck Club, Page 37). The conversations between the two were alway misunderstood. The daughters failed to see the deeper meanings of their mother's words while the mothers misinterpret their daughter words by view too much depth into them which causes negative reactions from both parties.

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The misunderstandings between the mother and daughters is the conflict. Chinese culture and American culture is a dispute that is too different that the daughters or mothers can not compromise in order to understand. “A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said. . . . “A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.” Back home, I thought about what she said. . . These were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning would be “confused” and “dark fog.” But really, the words mean much more than that. Maybe they can’t be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have.” (American Translation, page 188). Many things in each culture do not have an equivalent in the other. June Woo is suggesting that “Joy Luck” is only understood in Chinese