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The Joy Luck Club Identity Essay

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June, Jing-Mei, Woo lives in a whirlwind of cultures confusing her about her identity. Throughout Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, June is fighting to find who she is. The combination of her mother’s Chinese culture pressuring June to take advantage of her opportunities and the American culture of choosing one's own destiny results in June trudging through this turmoil to gather a sense of her identity. The cultural and historical settings of The Joy Luck Club majorly influenced the development of June Woo by placing her in a clash of cultures resulting in June realizing that both cultures are a genuine part of her identity, supporting the universal theme that the way to truly understand your parents and their motives, and yourself is to fully …show more content…

June Woo’s upbringing placed her in the clash of her cultures, the Chinese strive to take advantage of your opportunities, and the American idea of choosing your destiny. In June's second story, she talks about her mother's pressure to be a prodigy. Her mother is obsessed with the idea that June could be the next Shirley Temple, and this pressure got June’s hopes up. She describes how “I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the need to sulk for anything.” (Tan 143) In this excerpt, June truly believes that she needs to be perfect to be “worthy”. She hasn’t been influenced by the American culture yet, she only knows the Chinese culture. Afterward, she goes on to try out many other things to be a prodigy at. This Chinese idea is what June was raised to believe, and she truly took it to heart. She felt as though her worth lay in her ability to be perfect at something. However, as her story progresses her mother is progressively more and more disappointed in her failures at being a prodigy. As June noticed …show more content…

In her last story, June remembers a lesson her mother told her as she tried to erase her Chinese side. She said “Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese. “Someday you will see,” said my mother. “It is in your blood, waiting to be let go.” (Tan 304) June was 15 when her mother told her this. It was her mother that first understood that she couldn’t erase her Chinese side, that it was a part of her identity as much as being American was. As she reminisces on this, it starts to guide her in finding her identity. When she meets with her sisters, she thinks to herself “... I see no trace of my mother in them [her sisters]. Yet they still look familiar. And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my Family. It is in our blood. After all these years, it can finally be let go.”(Tan 329) This is when June embraces her Chinese side. She understands what her mother was trying to get through to her after all these years and understands that although she is American, she is as much Chinese. She realizes

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This language is evident on page 6 in which Maxine asks her readers, "Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things are in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese?" (Kingston, 6). This quote from the beginning of the book demonstrates the struggles around being the ideal Chinese American Maxine's mother envisioned her to be. From the young age at which Maxine's mother began telling her stories, Maxine had to equip and absorb the Chinese manners her mom forced upon her. Accordingly, it was crucial for Maxine to fully understand and execute expectations these stories unveiled, due to how significant they were in shaping her identity.

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Two protagonists of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Lindo and Waverly Jong live the lives of a usual Chinese mother, and American daughter. They live through struggles, and although both go through journeys, there are key distinctions in which the Jong family does not complete the Hero’s Journey. The Jong family does not complete the Hero’s Journey, primarily due to their lack of sacrifice for the purpose

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Although June never was as successful as her mother had hoped she’d be, her mother was very proud and believed that she had a good heart. June finally understood her mother’s intentions in her parenting. Suyuan wanted June to realize her internal worth, rather than monetary and academic success or fame. Suyuan had to grasp that her daughter wasn’t a traditional Asian girl with traditional goals for her life. She was June, and she was

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When Jing-mei is young she ignore her mother’s hopes, but as she grows up she finds herself by understanding those hopes of her mother; as for Junior he finds himself by searching the white-part within himself, however, both of them go on the journey not only physical, but also spiritual to find who they are and Jing-mei finds her Chinese part on the journey. By looking inside herself and

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Jing-Mei’s American upbringing hindered her ability to understand her mother’s perspective – which was based on Chinese heritage – resulting in strong differences of opinion that led to arguments. In addition, since Jing-Mei and her mother failed to communicate effectively about their different perspectives, they became frustrated and upset with each other. The relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother was harmed by their emotional distance from each other. The absence of verbal affection between them translated to increased resentment and disappointment. Positive emotional connection between a parent and child proves vital in maintaining a healthy relationship in the face of

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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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The first part June doesn’t take where she is from and who she is, but as the story goes on she learns more about her mother and realizes who she is. Growing up in America, June was used to the western civilization. While June was in school she "..denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin.."(302). She didn’t think she was in fact Chinese. Identifying she doesn’t have any Chinese was in fact her saying that she doesn’t identify with this other side of her.

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Jing did not feel as if she was Chinese, since she lived in California; she felt more American. Once the train entered China she felt as if she was becoming Chinese. “The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border… And I think, my mother was right, I am becoming Chinese” (241). Jing is excited to visit her relatives there

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At her first glance at them, she knew exactly who they were because of their resemblance to their mother. However, as she approached them, she realized that there were no evident similarities in features between them and her mother, but that the similarities she noticed at first ran deep in their blood: they were family. And at this brief moment of realization, the most perceptible change in Jing-Mei took place. She said, “Now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious.

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