Mother-Daughter Communication in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
Of the many stories involving the many characters of "The Joy Luck Club", I believe the central theme connecting them all is the inability of the mothers and their daughters to communicate effectively.
The mothers all have stories of past struggles and hard times yet do not believe their daughters truly appreciate this fact. The mothers of the story all want their daughters to never have to go through the struggles they themselves had to go through, yet they are disappointed when their daughters grow up and do not exhibit the respect or strength of their mothers. This is the ironic paradox of the story.
The Chinese mothers came to the United States to escape the difficult life they led in China and to start fresh in the United States. They did not want their children to grow up as they had. The short story in the beginning of the book describes this feeling. "Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: "In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan - a creature that became more than what was hoped for." Even though this is just a short story before the long one begins and is not actually attributed to any specific character in the story, I believe it accurately describes all the mothers' feelings a...
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Finally, investors went into “panic mode” on October 24th, 1929, and began trading and dumping their shares, totaling a record of 12.9 million. Of course, following “Black Thursday,” the more well-known “Black Tuesday” ensued as a result of this. Between Black Monday and Black Tuesday, the market lost 24% of its value, and investors bought and traded over 28.9 million stocks. These stocks, now worthless, were used as firewood for some investor’s homes. The Dow Jones Company is perhaps the greatest example for this crash. Dow Jones started at 191 points at the beginning of 1928, then more than doubling to 381 points by September 1929. The crash caused their record 381 points to plummet to less than 41 p...
He, Qiang Shan. "Chinese-American Literature." New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage. Ed. Alpana Sharma Knippling. WEstport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. 44-65.
It has been said that every good thing must arrive at an end. On account of the Roaring Twenties that end came suddenly and startlingly. It is simple for one to think back upon the monetary circumstance that prompt the accident and disparagement the specialists for not seeing the indications of a potential calamity. Be that as it may, it was not all that simple for them to see such an accident coming. The 1920 's were a blasting decade and stock costs appeared to be at an unfaltering move for an apparently interminable ascent. Numerous elements can be ascribed to the reason for the accident however nobody element can be singled out as the lone reason. The real reasons for the share trading system accident of 1929
“Women are two times more likely to develop depressive symptoms then men”(Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Women’s Health, 1990), and women who are among the child-bearing years tend to be more at risk. However this is not to say that men are not affected by depression. It is usually, because of negative social influences, such as economic instability, and/or the inability to handle stress in their lives.
As a result, literature has to follow certain guidelines to be classified as Asian American; being placed in a box limits many great pieces of work to gain the recognition they deserve. As Wong and Sumida state, Asian American Literature is a presentation of American culture within Asian American history and culture, rather than a representation of the entire culture. “Asian Americans” is a large and complex, pan-ethnic group of people making it difficult to classify them all under the same stereotypes. Many Asian American works portray Asian Americans as “perpetual aliens or castaways whose cultures tumble nicely and helplessly” (4). This is because Asian Americans create their own culture, a hybrid of Asian culture and American culture, they don’t fully fit in with American culture just as they don’t fully fit in with Asian culture. Asian American Literature is a reflection of just that, it doesn’t fit into specific guidelines, breaking away from the labels that others create and making its own impact by culturing its readers on being Asian American. Whether the author is Asian American or is solely writing about Asian American culture, it still classifies as Asian American Literature
Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club uses much characterization. Each character is portrayed in different yet similar ways. When she was raised, she would do whatever she could to please other people. She even “gave up her life for her parents promise” (49), I the story The Red Candle we get to see how Tan portrays Lindo Jong and how she is brought to life.
Clinical depression is a serious medical condition. It is not a case of "the blues", or being sad sometimes. Clinical depression is sadness that never goes away for those who have it. Sometimes it can be treated, and sometimes it is just something that will never be solved. Other symptoms of Clinical Depression may include, having self hate, feeling sad, anxious, or having “empty”feelings. Feelings of hopelessness,guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness. Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, angry, fatigue and decreased energy (Clinical Depression). Also difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions, Insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping, overeating, or appetite loss, and lastly thoughts of suicide (Clinical Depression).
Depression is defined as "a state of despondency marked by feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness" (Coon, 2001). Some people can mix up depression with just having the blues because of a couple of bad days or even weeks. It is already said that depression affects about one sixth of the population or more (Doris, Ebmeier, Shajahan, 1999). Depression can happen in any age range from birth to death. The cause of depression is still obscure and becoming clear that a number of diverse factors are likely to be implicated, both genetic and environmental. Some causes are leading stressful lives, genetic factors, a previous depressive episode, and the personality trait neuroticism (Doris, et al., 1999).
Strong evidence suggests that clinical depression runs in families. Still, just because a person has family members with clinical depression does not guarantee that he or she will develop it. Similarly, you may get it even if no one else in your family has had it. People with high levels of stress are much more likely to develop depression that those who do not. Though most people go through a "down" period after a particularly stressful event like a divorce or death of a loved one, sometimes extremely difficult stresses can trigger depressive episodes in certain people who are susceptible to the illness.
Throughout Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the reader can see the difficulites in the mother-daughter relationships. The mothers came to America from China hoping to give their daughters better lives than what they had. In China, women were “to be obedient, to honor one’s parents, one’s husband, and to try to please him and his family,” (Chinese-American Women in American Culture). They were not expected to have their own will and to make their own way through life. These mothers did not want this for their children so they thought that in America “nobody [would] say her worth [was] measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch…nobody [would] look down on her…” (3). To represent everything that was hoped for in their daughters, the mothers wanted them to have a “swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for,” (3). This swan was all of the mothers’ good intentions. However, when they got to America, the swan was taken away and all she had left was one feather.
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 greatly. The daughters do not even understand the culture of their mothers, and vice versa. They find that the American way of thinking is very different from that of the Chinese.
The banks wanted their money from the brokers. The brokers wanted their money from the customers. The only way most customers could get the money was to sell the stock, and selling the stock depressed the market even more, increasing pressure all along the line. (Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins)
Neurotransmitters are substances that allow the brain cells to communicate with each other. Serotonin and norepinephrine are the two most common forms of neurotransmitters. Too little serotonin mat cause many symptoms of depression including irritability, sleep loss, and anxiety. Too little norepinephrine may be responsible for fatigue and a sense of hopelessness. A person's genetic structure, environment, and personality are all factors that affect the balance of these chemicals.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a disorder of an individual that is undergoing repetitive patterns such as sadness, feeling of self worthlessness, thoughts or expression of suicide and self destruction. (www.teendepression.org). Depression can be spread through families if there is a history of depression. Detecting depression is not always easy to detect because in teens depression and normal teenage moodiness is hard to differentiate. Teens that suffers from depression can lead to failure in school, alcohol or and other drug use and even suicide. There are 15 to 20% of American teens that are involved in depression. (www.ezinearticles.com...
Depression isn’t just a state of being, or someone’s mood. There are different types of depression, and each of those types have their own lists of symptoms and treatments, all similar but they have some differences.