essay

Jason Chung
Mrs. Bosch
AP English
3 August 2007
I read The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan. She was born in Oakland, California where the book is based around. Her parents were Chinese immigrants. The Joy Luck Club focused on Chinese-American Immigrants who start a club known as the Joy Luck Club. There are sixteen chapters divided into four sections. Each chapter is about the mothers and daughters that share their stories about their lives in vignettes. Tan wrote it in dedication to her mother. She wrote the book because she wanted to remember her mother in a special way. The story is fiction, but fractures of the daughters are parts of Amy. She also wrote it because she wanted to understand her own relationship with her mother. Amy not only wrote it because of that but also to sort out her cultural heritage, and how she and her mother can get along better. The conflicts the mothers go through are a way to show Amy’s struggles throughout her life being a Chinese-American.
The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan. It is about these Chinese-American families stories about the daughters growing up in America, and the mothers immigrating from China to the United states. There are four stories about four mother daughter relationships. Suyuan Woo and her daughter Jing-Mei Woo, An-mei Hsu and her daughter Rose Hsu Jordan, Lindo Jong and her daughter Waverly Jong, finally Ying-ying St. Clair and her daughter Lena St. Clair. One story is about Suyan and her daughter Jing-Mei. They came to America in 1947. Suyan lost her two twin daughters and the rest of her family in war. She does not know that her twin daughters were rescued. She is now in San Francisco remarried with a daughter, and she forms a Chinese-American woman club called the Joy Luck Club with the three other Chinese mothers. They form a very strong friendship. However in the beginning of the book Suyan dies, so her daughter Jing-Mei also known as June has to take her spot in the Joy Luck Club. June Narrates most of the story too. As she tries to fill in her mothers spot the other woman tell her about her mother and finds out that she has two twin sisters living in China. In the end she goes to China and visits her two twin sisters. Ying-Ying St. Clair was also born in China and immigrated to America. Her daughter Lena got married to a Irish-American Father named Harold. An-mei had the ability to predict things that are going to happen in the future, but it is only things that happen in their family. Her relationship with Harold is different from any other spouse relationship. Harold wants financial equality in their marriage. Her mother daughter relationship with her daughter Lena is not a very close one. She realizes that she has inherited her behaviors and trapped herself in a loveless marriage. She then tells her daughter her story and tells her to take control. Later on Lena files for diverse. An-Mei and her daughter Rose. Rose feels guilty that it was her fault that her youngest brother Bing drowned. She later then get married to an American names Ted and she finds out he is having an affair with another woman. He wants a divorce and wants to sell the house they lived in, in San Francisco. Her mother tells her her story about her maternal grandmother; Rose becomes assertive and tells Ted that he can not just throw her out like that. She gets a lawyer and fights for possession of the house and she wins.Lindo Jong is another one of the Joy Luck Club members. She has a daughter Waverly. Lindo story is that she was forced to marry in china when she was sixteen. Lindo’s mother in law wants her to have a grandchild but her husband doesn’t have any sexual interest in Waverly. She creates a plot where she will get out of this situation without dishonoring her family. She eventually gets free and immigrates to America where she has Waverly. Lindo is constantly criticizing Waverly. She does not want to let her mother down in anyway, and her mother always compared her to June. Waverly becomes a chess prodigy. She later gets married to a American named Rich.
The Joy luck Clubs themes are daughters trying to live up to their mother’s expectations, and how mothers help out their daughters. Waverly Jong was a chess prodigy. She became like the because of her mom always criticizing her and Waverly wanting to live up to her mother. “This is my daughter Wave-ly Jong”(101) Waverly did not like it when her mom showed her off. She thinks it is embarrassing. The Other theme is bad relationships between the daughter’s husbands. Rose Hsu Jong and her husband Ted started off good but Rose found out that Ted was having an affair with another woman. She received a call from him when he was in Los Angeles “Because later that evening he called from Los Angeles and said he wanted a divorce”(127) But after her mother An-mei had a talk with her she became a more strong and independent woman that took control of the divorce.
Another element that contributes to the mother daughter theme is setting. The mothers were born and raised in China. Chinese do not like disrespecting each other’s, friends, or most important family. They do what they are told and they do not ask questions. They want to bring Honor to their families. Now that the mothers have immigrated to American, the American customs are very different. They do not worry so much about bringing honor to their families. The daughters question everything. Their mothers just want them to not being dishonor to their family so they try to control them. It is really different from growing up in China than America. This contributes to the high expectations of the mother having high expectations for their daughters.I think The Joy Luck Club novel should be included on a list of works of high literary merit because it is a great book about Chinese-American immigrants growing up in china then immigrating to America to raise their daughters and starting a club called The Joy Luck Club. It shows the struggles between Mother and daughter relationships. It also shows Chinese traditions and beliefs. The daughters talk about their mothers how their always criticizing them and wanting more out of them, but in the end when the daughters need help the most in their adulthood, the mothers tell them stories about their own life experiences and it helps them get through there hardship. Either through marriage, divorce, approving husbands, or doing things they abandoned in their childhood. In conclusion I think that The Joy Luck Club should be included on a list of works of high literary merit.