'The Joy Luck Club'

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that Amy Tan's novel 'The Joy Luck Club' says much about the conflicts experienced by Chinese immigrants to the United States. The writer discusses that the novel focuses on differences between American and Chinese culture, with some of the differences revealed through generational differences within the Chinese-American community in San Francisco. The writer points out that, to a great extent, this novel may be seen as the author's story and the story of her mother. The writer maintains that Tan is herself a member of the culture she describes in the novel, and the time period of that novel covers the history of a certain immigrant experience in this century as Chinese fleeing the terrors of the Revolution came to the United States seeking peace and a better life. The writer concludes that, as can be seen in this novel, they never lose their ties to their homeland and may gather together in order to preserve that culture to the degree possible and to celebrate it just as the four women do as they play mah jong and talk each week.

From the Paper:

"In fact, the stories the mothers tell can be seen as object lessons for their daughters, stories that not only gain the older women the respect of the younger but that also gain that respect from every reader. The stories the mothers tell are about loss, courage, and survival, all qualities that each of the younger women needs, and indeed each qualities that everyone needs to face the vicissitudes of life.
"The stories of the four women offer dramatic contrasts for the more staid and "normal" lives of their daughters. An mei Hsu was forced to watch her mother live as a concubine until the mother reaches the point where suicide is her only way out, a way out the child sees take place. Lindo Jong ran away from a suffocating marriage, and she emigrated to the United States by pretending to be a theology student. Suyuan Woo, the narrator's mother, escapes the Japanese invasion of Kweilin with two babies on her back. Ying ying St. Clair finds herself abandoned by a rich husband and goes to live with poor relatives for ten years; she meets an Anglo American visiting China and settles with him in California, in some ways the easiest journey to these shores of the four, and in other ways one of the most difficult because of the need to adjust to a different level of racism and cultural shock."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lee, Caroline and Clark Lee. "Chinese Immigration." (5 March 1998). June 19, 2007. http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/kane98/kane_p6_immig/chinese/ClCl.html.
• De Bary, Wm. Theodore, Wing-Tsit Chin, and Burton Watson. Sourceas of Chinese Tradition: Volume I. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.
• Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989.
• Thompson, Laurence G. Chinese Religion. Belmont, California: 1989.

More papers on 'The Joy Luck Club':

• Comparison Essay # 32877 : "The Joy Luck Club": Story Comparison"
• Film Review # 36109 : "The Joy Luck Club"
• Book Review # 32509 : "The Joy Luck Club"
• Analytical Essay # 29286 : "Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club"

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