ipl-logo

The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Thesis Statement

828 Words4 Pages

Many people have different values and beliefs. Many of these are caused by the experiences they have throughout their lives. Amy Tan shows this in her story The Joy Luck Club with Jing-Mei’s and Suyuan’s different experiences and how they affected their values and beliefs.
Amy Tan introduces the conflict between Suyuan and Jing-Mei by showing how the differences between their experiences result in each of them having different beliefs and ways of thinking. She uses Jing-Mei to prove this. I know this because the text states,” I was surprised at myself, how humiliated I felt. I had been outsmarted by Waverly once again and now betrayed by my own mother” (Tan 231). This relates to the thesis statement because it shows that due to Jing-Mei’s past involvement with Waverly, she felt worse that …show more content…

The result of this is that they have different experiences, which have shaped their current points of view. One example of an experience that shaped Jing-Mei’s point of view is shown in the story. The text states,” So it was a surprise to me when I hit the first wrong note and I realized something didn’t sound quite right. And then I hit another and another followed that. A chill started at the top of my head and began to trickle down” (Tan 150). This shaped her because it caused her to quit piano and see her mothers someone who is controlling and who doesn’t appreciate her for who she is. Amy Tan uses Jiny Mei to represent this in another example in the text. On page 220, the text states, “But these days, I think about my life’s importance. I wonder what it means, because my mother died three months ago, six days before my thirty-sixth birthday. And she’s the only person I could have asked, to tell me about life’s importance to help me understand my grief (Tan 220). Suyuan’s death had a big effect on Jing-Mei through the rest of the story because of the dependance she had towards Suyuan to help her figure out her

Show More
Related
849 Words | 4 Pages

When the story was told from Jing-mei’s perspective, Suyuan seemed like a selfish mother but when Suyuan’s story was told from Jing-mei’s father’s perspective, we saw the reality of Suyuan’s sacrifice. Another example of is when she takes on an extra job so that Jing-mei could take piano classes. After Suyuan had passed away, Jing-mei reminisced about her past and told her story of when she was 9. Her mother had wanted her to be a prodigy. When Suyuan saw a piano prodigy on TV, she called Jing-mei over and

Read More
207 Words | 1 Pages

Her intentions are not meant for heartbreaks, but for the well-being of her babies. Support Point # 2- Suyuan’s top priority is to educate Jing-mei as ideal daughter; however, high expectations are difficult to achieve causing problems and leading bitterness into the relationship. Support Point

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

As Jing-mei’s mother is telling her that she has to go play piano, the reader can imagine how she gets more and more angry as her daughter disregards what she is saying. Finally, the narrator emphasizes to the reader how the relationship between Jing-mei and her mother deteriorates more and more as time

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

Regardless, her mother still is persistent on Jing Mei becoming a prodigy, despite her passionless performance and her family’s negative reaction. In return, Jing Mei becomes angry at her mother, and will do anything to change her mind. Screaming, “I wish I were dead! Like them.”, her mother freezes, disappointed in her daughter, and quits Jing Mei’s piano classes. On Page 28-29, Jing Mei’s perspective on the world becomes more apparent: “For unlike my mother, I didn’t believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me.”

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1243 Words | 5 Pages

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).

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

This is your life’s importance” (Tan 232). This shows us that Suyuan wants her daughter to know that she will always be with her no matter what happens. They will always be

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club is an amazing representation of what Chinese immigrants and their families face. The broad spectrum of the mothers’ and daughters’ stories all connect back to a couple of constantly recurring patterns. These patterns are used to show that how the mothers and daughters were so differently raised affected their relationships with each other, for better and for worse. To begin with, the ever-present pattern of disconnect between the two groups of women is used to show how drastically differently they were raised.

Read More
1023 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1177 Words | 5 Pages

One dynamic that false expectation strains is the relationship between Suyuan and her daughter Jing-Mei. In a vignette told from the perspective of the latter, Suyuan has the notion that Jing-Mei should be able to perform something at the level of a prodigy. She begins

Read More
1034 Words | 5 Pages

Through analyzing the stories about their lives’ hardships and experiences, it is revealed that Suyuan’s American Dream is achieved by Jing-mei by going back to her own country, retrieving her two sisters, and makes the family whole again. The story of Suyuan and Jing-mei chasing their American Dream teaches us a lesson: Never gives up your dreams casually. One day, you will be thankful for your persistence, when the dream comes

Read More
2019 Words | 9 Pages

She then uses these “new thoughts” and ideas to state that she “won’t let her [mother] change” her into the person she seeks her daughter to be. When Jing-Mei experiences a realization that she is her own person and not simply another part of her mother, she can embrace the comfort of knowing that she will not change for anyone, and is simply extraordinary for having her own thoughts and feelings. This reflects how Amy Tan can understand her thoughts and feelings about the hardships in her relationship with her mother as a way to connect more closely to her characters and make them more realistic in her writing (“How Amy Tan’s family stories made her a

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

As a whole, while the story was very depressing at times, it still has an underlying tone of family ideals, as the relationship between the mother and daughter still remained despite the arguments they had. In my opinion, I think the author’s message that she wished to convey was that despite any event that may occur, family members will always be there support you. This is shown in how, despite Jing Mei’s failures at becoming a prodigy, her mother still supported her and did not give up hope on helping her daughter becoming a successful person. As such, it strengthens the idea that “family will always be there for you”, no matter what hardships come their way. In addition, it helped to add a sense of togetherness in the short story, as it inadvertently revealed how much Jing’s mother actually loved her, despite her tough exterior.

Read More
1309 Words | 6 Pages

In the words of Jing-Mei in the last line of the story, “Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish” (Tan 159). Throughout her life, Suyuan, their mother, held onto the hope that she would see her daughters again. In this hope, she named Jing-Mei in connection to her sisters, keeping the “long-cherished wish” that someday her daughters would reconcile and complete their family circle. The occasion that

Read More
477 Words | 2 Pages

(Tan 24). through this it can be said that Jing-Mei’s mother has a very different culture compared to

Read More

More about The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Thesis Statement

Related Topics

Open Document