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Deception In The Joy Luck Club

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Leonardo Da Vinci once stated, “The greatest deception men suffer from is their own opinions.” For eras on end, stereotypes and misconceptions have stood as obstacles preventing individuals from sharing experiences, perspectives, and ideas with one another. Amy Tan further exhibits an individual’s tendency to form preconceived opinions in her novel The Joy Luck Club. The pairing of Chinese mothers and daughters throughout Tan’s novel proposes that deception has a drastic effect on a woman’s life and the manner in which she is perceived. To begin, the strained relationship between Suyuan and Jing-Mei Woo signifies the misinterpretations that frequently occurred between mother-daughter pairs during the novel. Initially viewed as hypercritical …show more content…

Jing-Mei then decides to reunite with her sisters in China, anxiously stating, “I lay awake thinking about my mother’s story, realizing how much I have never known about her, grieving that my sisters and I had both lost her“ (271). At this point in the story, it becomes evident Jing-Mei no longer despises her mother for her distasteful tendencies. Instead, she aspires to see her mother one last time. Remorseful of her incapacity to connect with her mother on a deeper level, Jing-Mei feels inept to fill in for her mother at the mahjong table. Michelle Gaffner also notes the tension put on relationships due to cultural indifferences in her article “Negotiating the Geography of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club” when she writes, “The mother-daughter relationships in both China and the United States represented in The Joy Luck Club not only provide a link between the past and the present but also suggest how the ability, or the inability, for mothers and daughters to share geographically informed cultural stories influences both mother-daughter relationships and individual and cultural identity” (83). The

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Thesis Statement about theme of literary work- In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, expressions of love and hatred are shown in multiple mother-daughter relationships resulting in negative impacts such as pain, bitterness, and regret because of their differing opinions. Support Point #1- Suyuan Woo guiltily leaves her twin daughters on the ground in China as she walks away in tears.

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For instance, her famous novel ‘The Joy Luck Club’ depicts the Chinese mother and her American daughter relationship where they go through various circumstances trying to understand each other including the evolvement that comes in their relationships as the daughters know more about their mother’s life stories. Secondly, Tan considers the theme of identity in terms of Chinese immigrants and their life experiences as an immigrant in the United States. She reveals how the children born to the immigrants strive in an environment which is a mixture of American and Chinese influence. Moreover, Tan is found to have explored identity issues through her fictive creations and tackled the issue of authorial identity (Becnel, 2010). Similarly, romantic love is another subject included in the literary artworks of Amy Tan which considers the relationships and romance an important aspect of human’s life.

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The Joy Luck Club contains a mother- daughter pair of Ying Ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair. Starting off the mother Ying Ying has a different point of view regarding culture than her daughter, and as a result they experience miscommunication and conflict. In the story Ying Ying is culturally challenged with the topic of language, it is stated that “[Ying Ying] spoke in moods and gestures, looks and silences, and sometimes a combination of English punctuated by hesitations and chinese frustration” (Tan 106). This puts in perspective that their relationship as mother and daughter isnt “normal”, they don't communicate on the same level which leads to them not being able to understand and know each other on a personal level. Later, when moved

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People normally don’t think of teenagers as kids who always agree with their parents. Teenagers can have a difficulty relating to their parents and are often in conflict with them. Many teens feel embarrassed by their parents or have a hard time understanding what it is like to be an adult. In the stories “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan and “The Rights to the Streets of Memphis” by Richard Wright, the authors both say that mothers care for their teenagers deeply and want to teach them important life lessons, although “Fish Cheeks” displays this relationship with a calm mother who teaches her child Amy through emotional lessons and “The Rights to the Streets of Memphis” describes a stern and tough mother who teaches her child Richard through physical and violent lessons.

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Although it is often perceived as a controversial subject, immigration has admittedly shaped the United States both culturally and socially, hence the country’s nickname of “melting pot”. The personas of 1st generation immigrants who traveled here themselves, in addition to those of their 2nd generation children, have clashed with Western culture for hundreds of years. In The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, four Chinese immigrant families are members of their own club, and share their mother (1st generation) and daughter (2nd generation) experiences along the way. The fictional lives of these characters are inspired by the lives of immigrants that take up 14% of the U.S. population today. Both similarities and differences can be observed

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Ying Ying understands that her daughter does not understand how horrible her life was back in china-“All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me”(67). Their relationship shows how Ying Ying’s chinese background causes a rift in their communication and the successfulness. ”She and I have shared the same body. There is a part of her mind that is part of mine.

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Essay In Amy Tan’s novel, “ Joy Luck Club’s , the cultural and generational conflicts seen in the relationship between Waverly and Lindo Jong were based off diiferent beliefs when following the Chinese Culture and Generational pathsled from Lindo, the mother, which leads on down to her daughter, Waverly. It all begins with the Filial Piety rules of Wavely following and honoring her mother, Lindo, from her childhood until marriage. Lindo and Waverly conflicts are consists of Waverly’s dismissal of her Chinese cultures and traditions as she became older and Lindo’s ways of teaching Waverly her Chinses circumstances which does not work because Waverly growing into the American culture all her life.

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In the novel ‘The Joy Luck Club,’ Amy Tan outlines the reality of Chinese immigrant’s lives through the perspectives of Chinese immigrant women and their daughters. The story begins after the death of an elderly Chinese woman Suyuan Woo, one of the founding members of the Joy Luck Club, who wished to reunite with her two lost daughters in China but was never able to. Since 1989, The Joy Luck Club has become one of the best selling books and was later turned into a movie. However, due to the lack of other Asian American narratives, this book remains important. Twenty-five years after it was written, teenagers have the opportunity to be exposed to Asian American culture, history, and spirituality through reading The Joy Luck Club in their classes.

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In the passage her mother has passed away several months before, Jing-mei felt very lost after that. After the death of her mother Jing-mei receives a letter from two twin-sisters in China who were Jing-mei’s sisters that her mother had left in China to be in a better home during the war. Letter broke Jing-mei’s heart because they were hoping to get in contact with their mother, they did not know she had already died. Jing-mei sent a letter back saying that she was sorry and told her that their mother had died. Later Jing-mei and her father had setup a trip to meet her sisters in China.

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The movie The Joy Luck club (1993), based on the novel by Amy Tan, takes place in San Francisco where four Chinese immigrant women, An-Mei Hsu, Suyuan Woo, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying, meet to play mahjong. In this club they eat, drink, and discuss memories of times past. In the meantime, their daughters also reflect back on their life growing up in America. There are several themes in the movie; however, the most prominent issues are identity, language and communication, family, and femininity. Each issue is thoroughly explored through a series of flashbacks to explain the cultural difference each character faced while growing up in China and living in America.

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Soon enough Jing mei and her mother's relationship changed for the worst. All of a sudden Jing mei started to hate what her mom was doing, trying to find a prodigy, so she stop trying. After this incident Jing mei and her mother would never be

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947 Words | 4 Pages

In Jing Mei's opinion, she has let her mother down. Jingmei’s whole childhood has been all about trying to be what her mother wants her to be. Now that she's older and has given up on becoming a prodigy and making her mother proud, she realizes how disappointed her mother was with

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Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

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“Composer is the basis of morality”. This quote by Arthur Schopenhauer, on the coexistence of morality and control is explored throughout Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club. Examining, the unique experiences of Chinese Americans, she writes of the stories of three women and their daughters. More specifically, Tan uses their conscious morals to develop the personalities of both negative and positive characters. Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego are present in extremes in the novel.

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Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment.

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