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Symbolism In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

533 Words3 Pages

On the contrary, Waverly's mother kept her Chinese heritage throughout the story, unlike Waverly. Her mother was the antagonist in the story and her viewpoint is of a Chinese-American who does not fully understand American culture. By keeping her Chinese heritage she displayed how proud she was of Waverly. However, she did not understand her daughter fully. In the text, Waverly's mother stated, "Next time win more, lose less" (Tan 504). Waverly told her mother that the amount did not matter, but her mother still was set on the idea that to win chess, the player needed to lose the least amount of pieces. An example of when Mrs. Jong took pride in her Chinese culture was when she stated that "Chinese people do many things. Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not lazy like American people. We do torture. Best torture." (Tan 499). This showed that her joy in Waverly's accomplishments is evidence of her great pride. However, the plot was greatly affected because of the conflict between the two …show more content…

Tan created a clear setting for the reader by describing the people, places, and grime of the neighborhood. Since Waverly’s family did not have much money, they were forced to live in a poor part of Chinatown. Tan created a poverty-ridden setting by stating, in the story, that the community Christmas party was held, "...at the end of the alley” (499). Through this statement, it is clear that Waverly's community was unable to afford a place to hold their Christmas party, so they were required to have it at the end of the alley. Tan stated that Waverly was, "...eight by the Chinese calendar" (500). This statement not only helped the reader to get a better understanding of the time period in which the story took place, but it also directly related to the theme of cultures clashing by showing how she was young and how this impacted her views on her

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