A Review of The Joy Luck Club

A Review of The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is a story about two generations of Chinese America n women. The first generation consists of the mothers living in pre-1949 China. These women are Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. They esta blished the Joy Luck Club, which was a small group that discussed their homeland an d troubles, but still enjoying the delicious food and each other’s company. The second generation of daughters born in America are Jing-mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair.

Each chapter is either a mother or a daughter talking about their experiences of growi ng up in either China or America. It is quite obvious that the women who grew up in China have much different viewpoints on their lifestyle than their daughters who grew up in America. The women who grew up in China had suffered great hardships yet th ey all took it to heart and kept it within themselves. At that time, little girls were basic ally worthless while little boys were prided upon in China. The book continues on wit h the stories of these women’s daughters, telling stories of their lives being raised by mothers who were immigrants, and being integrated into American society. Chinese m others try to pass on their values, ideas, and goal onto the second generation. Great for tune has come to the members of the Joy Luck Club through their harsh lives, and the y only want their daughters to understand what it takes to succeed in life.

The Joy Luck Club members were all friends who have formed decent lives for thems elves in America. All of the daughters in this book were raised with high expectations, even the mothers while they were in China. At times, these high desires may have do ne more harms than good, because this is contrary to an overall idea that girls in Chin a were not a great gift to their parents. Each member of the Joy Luck Club was a moth er that tries her best to cultivate her daughter in the way she believes is right. Unfortu nately, it works not as good as they planned.

Doubtlessly, these Chinese mothers take great pride in their traditions and their childr en. A Chinese mother is not easily pleased. The women of the Joy Luck Club were co

mpetitive amongst each other when it came to their children’s successes, only wanted their own daughters to understand why they should be respectful of their Chinese cult ure and grateful for their American opportunities. Later, another daughter of the Joy L uck Club, Waverly, disgusted her mother when she decided to marry a Caucasian man. Clair remembers when her mother kept having a feeling to rearrange furniture, only t o find out she was pregnant. An-mei Hsu said that no matter how much she raised her daughter to be more American, the more she became Chinese, desiring nothing and s wallowing other people’s pride. In other hand, Jing-Mei(also called June)’s mother, S uyuan, wanted her daughter to be a Chinese version of the “perfect child” during the 1 950s. Avoiding trouble is also an instinct for the Chinese, so mothers warned their dau ghters repeatedly to behave themselves, and go forward exactly through the road chos en by their mothers. She created the Joy Luck Club, hoped to bring luck to her family and friends and finding joy. She had already deceased when the film begins. Jing-Mei (Also called June), takes her mother's place in the Joy Luck Club when her mother die s. Jing-Mei searches for her own identity and lacks confidence. Her mother just won’t cease comparing her to other people's children, particularly Lindo’s daughter, Waverly . Jing-Mei had always felt uncomfortable with her mother's Chinese lecture ways. She is also used as her mother’s replacement in a sense she takes her mother’s position in the club. She wanted to be happy so that’s what she was going to be. She becomes the victim in the story. Rose Hsu Jordan marries her husband Ted even though her mother tells her not to. She started the club because she does not want to forget her roots, cult ure and she believes that this club will bring the women happiness in this new strange land. Similar to when Suyuan made the decision that she was not going to be victim d uring the Japanese invasion when she was a fugitive.

In old China, most of the women had no opportunities to choose their husbands. Inste ad, their parents often planned arranged marriages, even when the girl or boy might o nly be 6 or 7 years old. They often consulted a local "matchmaker" on the issue of ma rriage for their children. Some Chinese were very superstitious about things like marri age.

Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California on February 19, 1952. Her family lived wit hin many northern California residents before they finally settled in Santa Clara. Befo re Amy Tan became a best-selling author, she worked writing speeches for business ex ecutives. She received her bachelors and masters degree’s in English and linguistics fr om San Jose State University. The novel, The Joy Luck Club, was her first books. The Joy Luck Club shows the relationships between mother and daughter. What one want s and what we are willing to do is to be accepted. It’s only about what does lives mean if tragedies repeated themselves again and again.

In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan explores the different mother-daughter relationships between the characters, and at a lower level, relationships between friends, lovers, and even enemies. In this book, she lists the conflicting views and the stories of both side s, providing the reader with an understanding of the mentalities of both mother and da ughter, and why each one is the way she is. Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growi ng up as a Chinese-American and the problems when integrating into modern Americ an society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become “Americanized,” at the same time abandoning their heritage while their mothers were disturbed by it. T hey didn’t try to comprehend their culture, which was a big part of understanding thei r traditional Chinese mothers. The swan feather in the beginning of the book was a sy mbol of all hopes and dreams that the mother wanted to give to her daughter. Thus A my Tan is very successful in expressing the inner world of each character. As far as I a m concerned, The Joy Luck Club is a worthy book not only for Chinese readers.