Literary Analysis Essay on The Joy Luck Club Text

These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the joy luck club by amy tan. Gradesaver provides access to 678 study guide pdfs and quizzes, 3587 literature essays, 1197 sample college application essays, 118 lesson plans, and ad free surfing in this premium content, ldquo members only rdquo section of the site! membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders. In fay weldon's opinion, a good writer does not always need to conclude his story with a joyous flourish in order to satisfy his reader. The writers, i do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer.

Music is a prevalent motif in amy tan’s the joy luck club, appearing during times of loss and confusion as a reminder of the past. The vignettes all share a common thread, in that music reveals how one must acknowledge the past and learn from it. rating: aqua price: $35.95 americanization in the joy luck club oftentimes the children of immigrants to the united states lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to walter shear, it is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in china and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives. This unseen terror is portrayed in amy tan’s the joy luck club as four chinese women and their american born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second generation women in the joy luck club prove to lose their sense of chinese values, becoming americanized. The joy luck club daughters incontestably become americanized as they continue to grow up.

They lose their sense of chinese values, or chinese tradition in which their mothers tried to drill into their minds. The four young women adopt the american culture and way of life, and they think differently than their traditional chinese mothers do, upsetting the mothers gr. It is composed of a group of chinese women who come together to share their friendship and to play games.

The real purpose, however, is to support one another and to save their chinese culture and heritage. At the beginning of this part of the book, jing mei is thirty six years old, and her mother, suyuan, has suddenly died of a cerebral aneurysm. Jing mei’s father asks his daughter to go to the joy luck club in her mother’s place, to honor her memory. Suyuan had told jing mei that she began the first joy luck club back in kweilin, china. Then, when suyuan moved to america in 1949, she formed a joy luck club in san francisco. She had chosen members for the second club from the first chinese baptist church all of the selected women had undergone suffering, much like she. When suyuan tried to tell her daughter all about the club, jing mei never really listened.

As a result, all she knows about the joy luck club is that the ladies meet to play mahjong, to gossip, and to share gifts with one another. Suyuan had also told her daughter about the soldier who had come to her house in kweilin. He told her she must flee at once to avoid the atrocities of the japanese invaders. She had never heard her mother’s tragic story and had never known about her abandoned sisters.

Honoring her father’s wish, jing mei travels to an mei’s house to attend a meeting of the joy luck club. As she is about to leave, jing mei is approached by some of the women in the group. They explain that her mother’s lifelong dream had been to locate her lost twin daughters.

Ielts Writing Task 2 Band 8 Essays

jing mei june woo

in a way, jing mei woo is the main character of the joy luck club. structurally, her narratives serve as bridges between the two generations of storytellers, as jing mei speaks both for herself and for her recently deceased mother, suyuan. When she travels to china, she discovers the chinese essence within herself, thus realizing a deep connection to her mother that she had always ignored. She also brings suyuan rsquo s story to her long lost twin daughters, and, once reunited with her half sisters, gains an even more profound understanding of who her mother was. For the most part, jing mei rsquo s fears echo those of her peers, the other daughters of the joy luck club members. They have always identified with americans jing mei also goes by the english name ldquo june rdquo but are beginning to regret having neglected their chinese heritage.

Her fears also speak to a reciprocal fear shared by the mothers, who wonder whether, by giving their daughters american opportunities and self sufficiency, they have alienated them from their chinese heritage. She believes that her mother rsquo s constant criticism bespeaks a lack of affection, when in fact her mother rsquo s severity and high expectations are expressions of love and faith in her daughter. All of the other mother daughter pairs experience the same misunderstanding, which in some ways may be seen to stem from cultural differences.

What tan portrays as the traditional chinese values of filial obedience, criticism enveloped expressions of love, and the concealment of excessive emotions all clash with the daughters rsquo ldquo american rdquo ideas about autonomy, free and open speech, and self esteem. However, by eventually creating a bridge between china and america, between mothers and daughters, jing mei ultimately reconciles some of these cultural and generational differences, providing hope for the other mother daughter pairs.

suyuan woo

suyuan woo is a strong and willful woman who refuses to focus on her hardships. Instead, she struggles to create happiness and success where she finds it lacking.

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It is with this mentality that she founds the original joy luck club while awaiting the japanese invasion of china in kweilin. Her sense of the power of will can at times cause problems, such as when suyuan believes that her daughter jing mei can be a child prodigy if only the woos can locate her talent and nurture it well enough. Yet it is also by virtue of suyuan rsquo s will that she eventually locates her long lost twin daughters in china. Suyuan shares many characteristics with her fellow mothers in the joy luck club: fierce love for her daughter, often expressed as criticism a distress at her daughter rsquo s desire to shake off her chinese identity in favor of an american one and a fear that she may be alienated from her daughter either because of her own actions or because of their divergent ages and cultural upbringings. At an early age, an mei hsu learns lessons in stoic and severe love from her grandmother, popo, and from her mother. Her mother also teaches her to swallow her tears, to conceal her pain, and to distrust others. Although an mei later learns to speak up and assert herself, she fears that she has handed down a certain passivity to her daughter rose.

An mei sees ldquo fate rdquo as what one is ldquo destined rdquo to struggle toward achieving. When her youngest child bing dies, an mei ceases to express any outward faith in god, but retains her belief in the force of will. Rose initially believed that the death had caused her mother to lose faith altogether, but she eventually realizes that she may have misinterpreted her mother rsquo s behaviors.

rose hsu jordan

rose hsu jordan finds herself unable to assert her opinion, to stand up for herself, or to make decisions. Although she once displayed a certain strength, illustrated by her insistence on marrying her husband, ted, despite her mother rsquo s objections and her mother in law rsquo s poorly concealed racism, she has allowed herself to become the ldquo victim rdquo to ted rsquo s ldquo hero, rdquo letting him make all of the decisions in their life together.

She finally needs her mother rsquo s intervention in order to realize that to refuse to make decisions is in fact itself a decision: a decision to continue in a state of subservience, inferiority, and ultimate unhappiness. Because bing drowned at the beach while rose was supposed to be watching him, rose feels responsible for his death, despite the fact that the rest of the family does not hold rose accountable. Her refusal to take on future responsibilities may stem from her fear of future blame should misfortunes occur.

lindo jong

lindo jong learns from an early age the powers of ldquo invisible strength rdquo mdash of hiding one rsquo s thoughts until the time is ripe to reveal them, and of believing in one rsquo s inner force even when one finds oneself at a disadvantage. She discovers these values while in china, caught in a loveless marriage and oppressed by the tyranny of her mother in law. By playing upon her mother in law rsquo s superstition and fear, lindo eventually extricates herself from the marriage with her dignity intact, and without dishonoring her parents rsquo promise to her husband rsquo s family.

Lindo later teaches these skills of invisible strength mdash for which she uses the wind as a metaphor mdash to her daughter waverly. Her lessons nurture waverly rsquo s skill at chess, but waverly comes to resent her mother rsquo s control and seeming claims of ownership over her successes. Eventually, waverly seems to become ashamed of lindo and misunderstands her as a critical, controlling, and narrow minded old woman. Lindo perhaps experiences the largest crisis of cultural identity of any of the characters. She regrets having wanted to give waverly both american circumstances and a chinese character, stating that the two can never successfully combine. She thinks that from the moment she gave waverly an american name mdash she named her after the street where the family lived mdash she has allowed her daughter to become too american, and consequently contributed to the barrier that separates them. At the same time, however, she recognizes her own american characteristics and knows that she is no longer ldquo fully chinese rdquo: during her recent visit to china, people recognized her as a tourist.