Quotes From The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan

Jing-Mei Woo from The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, goes through the everyday challenges that a woman foreigner goes through, as well as various moments of misunderstanding and misconception. In the novel, she learns how to deal with the challenges and face the obstacles that are thrown at her before, during, and after her mother’s death. Tan shows the struggles of everyday life between the daughters and the mothers due to the language barrier that keeps them apart. Tan was born and raised in San Francisco, California. Tan’s family and a few friends made up a club called the joy luck club in order to test their luck, and they did that by playing the stock market. In the book The Joy Luck Club, it is shown throughout how language can create

Tan uses characterization to show the reader the differences between the daughters and the mothers. An example that reflects this is when Jing-Mei thinks about she and her mothers relationships while talking to Auntie Lin and the rest of the joy luck club, “These kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and I spoke two different languages, which we did. I talked to her her in English, and she answered back in Chinese.” (Tan, 23). Jing-Mei speaks in a sense as if both she and her mother didn’t quite understand each other. The daughters do not speak fluent Chinese, and the mothers do not speak fluent English; and due to this complication, a language barrier is created. The women of The Joy Luck Club, ”Especially

Tan uses and slightly manipulates the emotions of the daughters and mothers. For example, this is seen when Jing-Mei is listening to Auntie Lin talking at the joy luck club, while thinking, “But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once again: My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other’s meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more.” (Tan, 27). The language barrier causes Jing-Mei to not understand her mother's true meanings and intentions, while her mother understands everything she says but cannot communicate with her in a way that she would understand. Translations are never accurate, and so the mother and the daughter know how to word their intentions properly so it can be interpreted. Another example of the emotional distress going on between the daughters and the mothers is when Suyuan’s daughter Jing-Mei goes to see her half sisters in China. This represents the biggest battle of culturally different countries. June (Jing-Mei) sees this constant battle that her mother has gone through, and is upset that Suyuan died before ever seeing her twins. “Jing-mei Woo … becomes the frame narrator linking the two generations of American Chinese, who are separated by age and cultural gaps and yet bound together by family ties and a continuity of ethnic heritage.” (Xu, 108).