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Suyuan had many different conflicts that shaped her differently from her daughter. When Suyuan was trying to leave China due to a war she had to make the hardest decision of her life. She had to leave her daughter’s behind in hope for the best. For years Suyuan searched for her children but, when she never found them she used Jing-Mei. Suyuan wanted Jing-Mei to be something great because she couldn’t watch her other daughters do this.
It consisted of sixteen related stories about the experiences of four Chinese-American mother-daughter pairs. According to Dong in Reading Amy Tan, “Daisy’s tragic experiences directly inspired the stories of the characters An-mei Hsu and Suyuan Woo in The Joy Luck Club” (Dong 3). The character Suyuan Woo in The Joy Luck Club was a woman who was born into a wealthy family, married an officer in the army, and gives birth to twin girls; she later lost this family during the Sino-Japanese war. Suyuan narrated, “The man who was my husband brought me and our two babies to Kweilin because he thought we would be safe. He was an officer with the Kuomintang” (Tan 21).
In the world today there are a lot of miscommunications between mothers and their daughters. In “ The Joy Luck Club “ Amy Tan the author shows the miscommunications between Suyuan and her daughter Jing Mei. Tan shows the miscommunications by showing different situations throughout the story between Suyuan and Jing Mei. In the Joy Luck Club Tan shows the miscommunication between Jing Mei and suyuan.
Unlike Sojourner Truth, Qiu Jin in her except, Injustices to Chinese Women, was softer and more passive in term of language. Although the first half of Qiu Jin’s except also showed sorrow and sadness, it was not filled with anger like Truth’s except. The live of a Chinese woman back then was like a object, a “thing” instead of a human being. From being treated like a “useless thing” the moment they were born to being sold to different family as a wife in exchange for money for their family, Chinese women have no power in choosing their destiny. It is so sad to see how women have to be fit in with the traditional Chinese standard.
Jing-Mei was then shocked when she learns some history about her mother leaving behind two young daughters in China. Because of the incident, Jing-mei thought to take care of the situation even though she doesn’t understand the suffer of Suyuan. After the death of Jing-Mei's mother, she learns about the sufferings of her mother when she was in China from the women in the club and her father. This knowledge helps her to appreciate Suyuan for what she has done for her. However, it mainly teaches her to get used to her Chinese heritage like when she went to China to meet the twins when they have been found and she then share Suyuan’s story with them.
In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the book is dense with symbols, allusions, and motifs that involve the Joy Luck Club, food, and the Chinese language and Chinese-English patois. Tan breaks down the book into four sections, each with four stories within of the different women present throughout the novel. In each story, the women talk about their lives, both past and present, and some include symbols that are important to them. Three symbols that stood out in The Joy Luck Club were Jing-mei’s pendant, Lena’s vase, and Lindo Jong’s candle.
Another major consequence of the Opium Wars and ensuing trade that can be observed in the lives of the Chinese-Americans of The Joy Luck Club is the consumption of the opium itself and how over time it became integrated into Chinese culture. How Opium Made the World Go Round mentions that at first, opium consumption wasn’t a big deal because it was too expensive for recreational use, only being available for the rich. However, in 1818 a cheaper manufacturing process was discovered and by 1839 enough opium for eighteen million Chinese consumers was being imported (Pomeranz 102). Over time, more and more Chinese citizens began to use opium until it became commonplace in Chinese restaurants and by 1900 over forty million were addicted to the
Sadly, due to this experience, Lindo’s daughter Waverly grows up seeing her mother as a cold hearted woman who just likes to brag and will fight to be better than everyone else. Waverly Jong, Lindo’s daughter, grows up in a whole different manner. She has a hobby of being the best chess player around which her mother constantly brags about, and has an interest in American males, which she worries will not
When Waverly was younger, she had accepted her mother’s rules to control her life and respect her as the tradition said. As Waverly got older, she started developing her own independence and she became very stuck up and selfish. In the beginning, Waverly was more in touch with her Chinese culture, but as she grew older it faded very quickly. Lindo wanted Waverly to have a Chinese character mixed with her American circumstances, but she later learned that those two do not mix. In Double Face, Lindo states, “ It is my fault she is this way.
While the tone in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom is one of frustration and tension from the point of view of the mother, Amy Chua; the tone in The Joy Luck Club is bitter and resentful from the point of view of Amy Tan as a child. In Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, the mother, Amy Chua, is constantly concerned about her daughter's violin playing and is trying to give her feedback on how she can do better. Her daughter, Lulu, responds to the feedback with annoyance and discontent. The irony in this passage is due to the fact Amy Chua is trying to create a calming environment for Lulu even though she irritatingly screams “RELAX!” (Chua 47-48).
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.
Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” focuses on the character Jing-Mei on her path of self-discovery. The story follows Jing-Mei on her journey to China as she develops a deeper appreciation for her Chinese heritage and her deceased mother. The central conflict in Tan’s story is Jing-Mei’s struggle to understand the different elements of her culture. This realization comes to fruition through a series of steps which are also reflected in Jing-Mei herself. She begins the story by being ashamed of her heritage, but as the story progresses, she realizes how badly she longs to learn more about her Chinese self.
Comparison Application to Nonfiction A person’s identity is comprised of what they look like, how they act, how they speak, and where they are from. All of these attributes are directly affected by a person’s culture or country. Immigrants and the children of immigrants struggle with this more so than others who live in the country they were born in. In The Joy Luck Club all of the daughter’s in the story struggle with their identity as the child of an immigrant.
“Communication is the key to a successful relationship, attentiveness, and consistency. Without it, there is no relationship,” (Bleau). The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan. Set in the twentieth century, this novel depicts the life of four Chinese immigrant women escaping their past and their American-grown daughters. The novel reveals the mothers’ hardship-filled past and motivations alongside with the daughters’ inner conflicts and struggles.
Marriage is what we picture as a lovely thing in which a couple is usually bonded by love and mutual support, but in The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan marriage is deemed a problem and a difficulty to the couples. The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, is about four ladies that are together to play Mah Jong. The ladies tell each other stories about their lives and it shapes the life of the youngest lady, Jin-Mei Woo, who is there because her mother, who was in the club, passed away. Amy Tan develops the theme of marriage in The Joy Luck Club using flashbacks. Marriage in Chinese culture is based on traditions.
