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The Joy Luck Club

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Recommended: The relevance of psychoanalytic theory

“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. Finally, In Amy Tan’s work, The Joy Luck Club, she explores Freud’s psychoanalytic personality theory to develop the different levels of personality in her characters.
To begin, Amy Tan adopts the ID characteristics in Ying-Ying’s first husband. Operating on his own …show more content…

While, the Ego in Freud's studies is not as evolved as the Superego, Tan displays the important balance between the levels of consciousness. In Rose Hsu Jordan’s narrative she plays the role of the super ego then devolves to the ego. Moreover, in her marriage Rose plays the superego. Ignoring her own needs, Rose does what is best for others. As followed, in her marriage her relationship becomes distressed, she does everything for the man she loves but is unable to find contentment. Rose’s Superego and misery coincide; her selflessness brings her only isolations and self loathing. In order to fix her marriage Rose embodies the Ego, she no longer is a bystander in her failing marriage. Calling for her rights to be met, she speaks her mind. For example, Rose thinks of what she wants and asserts her needs to her cheating husband. In the rain, during the climax of her story, Rose exclaims, “You're not taking my house, you're not taking my daughter, you're not taking any part of me, because you don't know who I am. I died sixty years ago. I ate opium and I died for my daughter's sake. Now get out of my house” (Tan). The author, consciously shows Rose’s selfish side as a positive. This setting in particular also adds to the change in Rose. More specifically, the rain represents the washing of the the Superego for the better. Therefore, Tan’s example of the positive effects of the Ego is shown in Rose’s

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Kai Foote Martinez Sophomore Honors English 25 January 2023 The Sacrifices That Come with Love in The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan ’s novel The Joy Luck Club is about the hardships of relationships with different cultural beliefs and expectations and how they influence people. There are numerous examples of the hardships and sacrifices that mothers make for their children; these sacrifices teach and influence all the daughters to help them have a better understanding of the world and their expectations.

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What Is A Cultural Collision In The Joy Luck Club

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In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, many cultural differences exist between the characters, creating complications in their relationships. An example of a cultural difference is between An-mei’s Chinese values and traditions and those of Christianity. The collision of these Chinese and Christian faiths profoundly influences An-Mei's character by causing her to doubt both faiths and resulting in her daughter Rose's inability to control her own choices. An-mei’s exposure to Chinese culture and the Christian faith results in an intermixing of both ideals which eventually leads to a cultural collision. An-mei is exposed to the traditional Chinese values of filial piety, wisdom, deference, and honesty through her grandmother.

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Joy Luck Club Thesis

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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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Compare And Contrast Tan And Hurston

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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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Monkey Bridge Character Analysis

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Throughout the novel The Joy Luck Club, Jing-Mei Woo struggles with her sense of identity and belonging in a community as she is often embarrassed of her heritage, and prefers to live her life in the shadows. However, at the end of the book, Jin-mei finds peace when she seeks her roots and sisters in China. She finally finds her inner Chinese that she described is “in your blood waiting to be let go” (Tan 306). This shows that although immigrants of the time period often struggled with self identity, deep down they wanted to find acceptance in their

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His moral crisis when he is caught between rescuing his wife or himself formulate and shape the falling action. The reader find himself in front of a poor, suffering soul who struggles between

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Marriage And Divorce In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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‘“Not know your own mother?” cries Auntie An-mei with disbelief. “How can you say? Your mother is in your bones!”’(Tan 40). The Joy Luck Club has recurring messages throughout the book, including: marriage and divorce, culture and beliefs, and mother and daughter relationships.

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Power In The Joy Luck Club

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Power can be expressed in many ways and forms. The novel Joy Luck Club and its movie counterpart, share in the struggle of power between Chinese ideals and American ideals and how their balance creates and eventually fixes barriers between Ying Ying St. Claire and her daughter Lena St. Clair, and Lindo Jong and her daughter Waverly Jong. Since the first look into the relationship between Lena St. Clair and her mother Ying Ying, their relationship clearly has a crack in it. Both Lena and Ying Ying view each other as broken at some point during the novel and this brokenness creates a rift in how they understand one another.

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The Joy Luck Club Research Paper

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Despite speculations on the significance of these myths and superstitions, they hold a very important meaning, and play a vital role in Chinese families. In The Joy Club, Amy Tan uses imagery to express how Chinese myths and

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The Joy Luck Club Cultural Analysis

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As seen by the mothers’ and daughters’ behavior towards each other in The Joy Luck Club, it is difficult to preserve one’s culture when one is exposed to a new environment or country. With a difference of two distinct generations between them, the four main pairs often come across cultural collisions. Other than facing the age gap, these mothers and daughters also have to deal with a language and communication barrier. Already, at the beginning of the story, Jing-Mei Woo is able to understand how the mothers of the “Joy Luck Club” are displeased with their daughter’s rejection of their Chinese culture. She speaks to herself, admitting that “they are frightened.

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Mother-Daughter Relationships In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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In her novel, The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan focuses on the fact that the bond between a mother and daughter can overcome any ethnic barrier. Despite there being many disagreements and arguments about the ways to live their lives, Tan defies this issue by creating a bond that is unbreakable even though the experienced different upbringings. Certain disagreements keep the novel interesting and create a conflict depicting the problems stemming from this barrier. Through her use of similes, metaphors, and flashbacks, Tan shows how the bond between a mother and daughter can withstand even the strongest cultural differences.

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Character Development In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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In Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, the different stories show how the different characters develop and progress. Rose Hsu Jordan begins “Half and Half” as someone who clearly lacks of conviction as she allows everyone but her to make decisions. Throughout “Without Wood”, however, Rose Hsu Jordan begins to learn, with the help of her mother, how to speak up.

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Joy Luck Club Mother Daughter Relationship

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Mother knows best. And yet so many daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club feel slighted by what the matriarchal figures in their lives have in mind for them, or rather, what they believe their mothers have in mind for them. A perfect storm of expectation, true and false, about love, about success, about being Chinese. The souring of mother-daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club stem from unrealistic or ill conceived expectations that both parties hold for the other.

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The Importance Of Communication In The Joy Luck Club

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“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.

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