How Does Amy Tan Use Language In The Joy Luck Club

Many would say that the root of life, or rather the perspective of it, belongs to the flower of the young future. This vision is exceedingly prevalent in the works of author Amy Tan. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, readers are lead through a series of short interconnected stories told from the perspective of Chinese immigrant mothers and their daughters. Throughout the novel, it becomes overwhelmingly obvious that the mothers and daughters can’t seem to properly and effectively convey their emotions to each other. With each pair, a new issue with the same fundamentals of misunderstandings presents itself. With the prevalence of such issues, one may begin to wonder what could be the root of all this madness. One only needs to look so generally

Different languages deal with different explanations, resulting in different perspectives. In the beginning of the novel, Jing-mei speaks of her mother, playfully teasing her, and Suyuan responds in a bewildering way. “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. “ (Tan 19). Jing-mei cannot understand her mother language wise, and so she misses the meaning of her words. This makes it exceedingly simple for Jing-mei to disregard her mother’s words that hold significance, causing rage and confusion. This language barrier allows for significant miscommunications between the two. This is shown in the second quarter of the book, where the reader is introduced to The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, a Chinese book of misfortunes. A mother warns her daughter of dangers that are detailed in the book."’I don’t believe you. Let me see the book.’ ‘It is written in Chinese. You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me’" (Tan 87). The mother is bluntly stating the inabilities of her daughter when it comes to Chinese. The daughter’s only outlet to understanding the book is her mother’s explanations, which could be clumsy or baffling. Considering the mother is Chinese, she picks up on the metaphorical cultures cues that the child cannot, and most likely spits these confusions back at her daughter. This inability to understand her mother’s mother tongue is representative of the issue of language in the novel that causes so much miscommunication. The last issue that scorches the bridge between mother and child is natural teen