Free Essays on Joy Luck Club

Growing Up In A New World â€Å"`Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother,’ I shouted.† â€Å"`Too late change this,’ said my mother shrilly.† â€Å"`Then I wish I’d never been born!’ I shouted. `I wish I were dead!’† (p. 153) In the novel, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, many conflicts arise between the mothers and their daughters. Problems arise from the high expectations from Chinese mothers, the mothers’ pride in their daughters, and the daughters’ disrespect towards their mothers. Two very similar problems grow and resolve in the novel. The problem between June and her mother reflects the problem between Waverly and her mother. The conflicts between the mothers and daughters of the novel come from the mothers’ high expectations for their daughters. Suyuan expects her daughter June to be a prodigy at something. This idea of a prodigy came from Auntie Lindo, Waverly’s mother. Lindo takes pride in her daughter’s skill in playing chess. Suyuan expects something to be proud of about her daughter as well. â€Å"Of course you can be prodigy, too†¦ You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.† (p.141) She begins to give June piano lessons. June practices for two hours everyday in preparation for a talent show a few weeks later. Suyuan wanted to show the whole Joy Luck Club her daughter’s talent. She expected a lot from June, exacerbated by Auntie Lindo’s pride in Waverly. In Waverly’s situation, Auntie Lindo watched closely to her practice playing chess. She gave her tips that she never listened to because her mot her never played chess before. Both mothers are very tight on their daughters, hoping to boost their skill and talent. In the end, their encouragement ends everything in their daughters. Problems only worsen as the mothers brag about their daughters having their talents. The traditional Chinese mothers have expectations for ... Free Essays on Joy Luck Club Free Essays on Joy Luck Club The Joy Luck Club In Amy Tan’s novel â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† there are many themes and imagery throughout the book, but one theme that is relevant and stands out is the issue, â€Å"Cruel men? Weak men? Fair portrayal of men?† The novel is based on women in the Chinese traditional families, but does not discuss the men. What role do they play in their lives? Were they the people that made there lives unbearable? The men that will be looked upon are associated to the Jong, The Hsu, and the St. Clair family. Although many people would believe that the men in â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† were vindictive, they have shown that they not only are they feeble but that the weak men over power the cruel, and through their actions this statement will be apparent to all. The Jong Family have two key males that fit the description of cruel and or weak men. The first was Tyan-Yu, Linda Jong’s first husband. Lindo and Tyan-Yu’s wedding was arranged marriage. Lindo’s parents were forced to depart their home leaving Lindo behind. Even though she was only twelve years old, Lindo belonged to the family of her betrothed. The Huangs, the family of Tyan-yu, were very wealthy and took little interest in Lindo which lead to the first impression that Tyan-yu was a cruel man by the way he acted. He and his family made her stay in their servants’ quarters and made her perform physical tasks, such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, and embroidering clothes. Tyan-yu would make her sleep on the couch lying to his mother so that he would not get himself into trouble which was a sign of weakness on Tyan-yu’s part. Lindo proves this by saying â€Å"That’s when I could see what was underneath Tyan-yu. He was scared.†. (58) Lindo’s marriage was miserable, for there was no love in it. Tyan-yu, feeling no emotion for his wife, would not touch her. Matters were made worse when everyone wondered why Lindo did not become pregnant and for this came ... Free Essays on Joy Luck Club â€Å"One of the earliest and most profound bonds women form with each other is that of mother and daughter† (Alan). Amy Tan’s â€Å"The Joy Luck Club,† which explores mother-daughter relationships, emphasizes the struggle for identity, balance, and understanding between Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters. The cultural differences impede the daughters’ realization of the importance of their mothers’ role in the journey of life. As readers, we are enlightened by the life lessons each daughter learns. These moving and powerful stories share the irony, pain, and sorrow of the imperfect ways in which mothers and daughters love each other (Chong). We are able to relate to the conflicts and struggles, and, thus, discovering how much our own mothers mean to us. Each of the daughters in the novel struggle with gaining her mother’s acceptance as well as society’s. â€Å"Each mother has to transmit the rules of feminity to her daughter to help them survive in the world as she knows it† (Alan). The daughters reject this attempt and, thus, initiate a life-long conflict between the two. Coming from a rough childhood, the mothers want nothing less than perfection for their American daughters. They believe that anything is possible for a daughter if the mother wills it. June Woo explains, â€Å"My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America† (141). However, this causes conflict as the daughter acquires the American way of life, she is both obeying and betraying her mother. â€Å"Even the most successful daughters are haunted by a sense of failure, and even the most determined mothers are dismayed to find their daughters repeating their own weaknesses† (Williard). June exhibits this à ¢â‚¬Å"in the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations† (153). This assertiveness for independence, in turn, delays the daughters un... Free Essays on Joy Luck Club The Joy Luck Club â€Å"Hey, Sabrina, are you Japanese or Chinese?" I asked. Her reply, as it seems to be for many minority groups, is, "Neither, I'm Chinese-American." So, besides her American accent and a hyphenated ending on her answer to the SAT questionnaire about her ethnic background, what is the difference? In Amy Tan's enjoyable novel, The Joy Luck Club, about the relationships and experiences of four Chinese mothers and four Chinese-American daughters, I found out the answer to this question. The difference in upbringing of those women born during the first quarter of this century in China, and their daughters born in the American atmosphere of California, is a difference that does not exactly take a scientist to see. From the beginning of the novel, you hear Suyuan Woo tell the story of "The Joy Luck Club," a group started by some Chinese women during World War II, where "we feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories. In addition, each week, we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy." (p. 12) Really, this was their only joy. The mothers grew up during perilous times in China. They all were taught, "to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, to eat [their] own bitterness." (p. 241) Though not many of them grew up terribly poor, they all had a certain respect for their elders, and for life itself. These Chinese mothers were all taught to be honorable, to the point of sacrificing their own lives to keep any family members' promise. Instead of their daughters, who "can promise to come to dinner, but if she wants to watch a favorite movie on TV, she no longer has a promise" (p. 42), "To Chinese people, fourteen carats isn't real gold . . . [my bracelets] must be twenty-four carats, pure inside and out." (p. 42) Towards the end of the book, there is a definite line between the differences of the two generations. Lindo Jong, whose daughter, Waverly, doesn... Free Essays on Joy Luck Club Growing Up In A New World â€Å"`Then I wish I wasn’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother,’ I shouted.† â€Å"`Too late change this,’ said my mother shrilly.† â€Å"`Then I wish I’d never been born!’ I shouted. `I wish I were dead!’† (p. 153) In the novel, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, many conflicts arise between the mothers and their daughters. Problems arise from the high expectations from Chinese mothers, the mothers’ pride in their daughters, and the daughters’ disrespect towards their mothers. Two very similar problems grow and resolve in the novel. The problem between June and her mother reflects the problem between Waverly and her mother. The conflicts between the mothers and daughters of the novel come from the mothers’ high expectations for their daughters. Suyuan expects her daughter June to be a prodigy at something. This idea of a prodigy came from Auntie Lindo, Waverly’s mother. Lindo takes pride in her daughter’s skill in playing chess. Suyuan expects something to be proud of about her daughter as well. â€Å"Of course you can be prodigy, too†¦ You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.† (p.141) She begins to give June piano lessons. June practices for two hours everyday in preparation for a talent show a few weeks later. Suyuan wanted to show the whole Joy Luck Club her daughter’s talent. She expected a lot from June, exacerbated by Auntie Lindo’s pride in Waverly. In Waverly’s situation, Auntie Lindo watched closely to her practice playing chess. She gave her tips that she never listened to because her mot her never played chess before. Both mothers are very tight on their daughters, hoping to boost their skill and talent. In the end, their encouragement ends everything in their daughters. Problems only worsen as the mothers brag about their daughters having their talents. The traditional Chinese mothers have expectations for ...