Tradition Lives On
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is a book that compiles stories of the lives of Chinese women that were raised in China and became American citizens. These women formed the “Joy Luck Club,” which was a small group that discussed their homeland and troubles, but still enjoying the treasures of food and each other’s company. Each section of the book is written from the point of view of the character. The book continues on with the stories of these women’s daughters, telling stories of their lives being raised by mothers who were immigrants, and dissolving into American society. Chinese mothers try to pass on their values, instincts, and intuitiveness on to the second generation. Great fortune has come to the members of the Joy Luck Club through their hardships, and they only want their daughters to understand what it takes to succeed in life.
The Joy Luck Club ladies were all friends who over time have formed blissful lives for themselves in America. All of the daughters in this book were raised with high expectations, even the mothers while they were in China. This is contrary to an overall idea that girls in China were not a great commodity to their parents. Each member of the Joy Luck Club was a mother that only wanted their own daughters to understand why they should be respectful of their Chinese culture and grateful for their American opportunities. Waverly Jong, daughter of Lindo, was raised in Chinatown and her mother taught many lessons to “raise them out of circumstances.” (Tan, 90) Lindo thought the best combination was “ American circumstances and Chinese character.” (259) The women of the Joy Luck Club were competitive amongst each other when it came to their children’s successes. Jei-Mei (June) Woo’s mother wanted her to be a chess prodigy like Waverly Jong, or become a Chinese Shirley Temple. Jei-Mei’s mother, Suyuan, wanted her daughter to be a Chinese version of the epitome of American culture and the “perfect child” during the 1950s. Chinese mothers even go to great extents to instill their values into their children. The family of An-mei Hsu in China and Lena St. Clair’s mother, Ying-Ying, both would make up stories to make a moral to a story, to put fear into their daughters and detour them from trouble. Avoiding trouble is also an instinct for the Chinese. Their natural instincts tell them when something will not go well.
Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled. Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York. Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.
Amy Tan 's novel, The Joy Luck Club, explores the relationships and experiences of four Chinese mothers with that of their four Chinese-American daughters. The differences in the upbringing of those women born around the 1920’s in China, and their daughters born in California in the 80’s, is undeniable. The relationships between the two are difficult due to lack of understanding and the considerable amount of barriers that exist between them.
Holden is the main character of the book. He is a complicated boy how seems to get thrown out of boarding schools left and right. He is constantly thinking about depressive thoughts of his past, like times he was with his brother, who is dead. His thoughts of his brother bring serious rage for some reason. In one instance he tells about the day after his brothers death, and Holden was filled with such anger and loneliness, he punched through all the glass doors in his garage. This required him to go to the hospital, and unfortunately his stay at the hospital forced him to miss his brothers funeral. He also keeps thinking about his old girl friend Jane. Holden is reminded of past times with her, where her father upset her, and Holden was the only one there to console her. So with that in mind, he thinks he still may have a place with her, and Holden believes that all his happiness will rest with her. Holden is just a guy who is searching for something to get him out of his depression, but he has no idea what it is, and above all how to get it.
The overwhelming pain that Holden had suffered during the past was nonetheless an impact, which stained his future life. Some evidence that implies Holden’s characteristic is how he grudgingly criticizes and scorns at almost everyone he knows. After he leaves Pencey Prep School, he falls into a dilemma where he faces loneliness and depression. More so, he desperately seeks company from clubs, bars, and hotels to have someone to accompany him. The factors that affect this isolation of him are mostly because of the tragic death of his younger brother Allie and the life he has in school. He was an important person to Holden. He mentions how great and smart Allie was out of the entire family. When Stradlater told Holden to write an essay for him Holden decided that he wanted to write a paper about Allies baseball mitt, which had poems written on it and Holden still carries with him the mitt at school (38). The life he has in school is very miserable to him because he has already failed two other schools and it is happening to him again. He says that he did not mean to disappoint and hurt his parents’ feelings so he takes a few days out to Edmont Hotel (59).
In The Joy Luck Club, the novel traces the fate of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters go through, they become women. The mothers all fled China in the 1940's and they all retain much of their heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female, but more importantly what it means to be an Asian female.
A severe example of Holden’s troubled state of mind was his angry outburst while he was on a date with Sally. He quickly traveled from one extreme to another: “We could live somewhere with a brook and all, and, later on, we could get married or something” (Salinger 132) Holden explains an elaborate plan to Sally that depicts them running away to Vermont together and getting married. When Sally rejects him Holden angrily says “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger 133). He overreacts to the situation and makes Sally visually
“ Depression is living in a body that fights to survive with a mind that tries to die”. In the Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield expresses how he gets depressed and is disgusted by the phonies that surround him. Holden feels as if his life is full of disappointment and it doesn’t help to have a brother that used to be a prostitute, one that passed away, and a sister who he thinks so highly but lives so far away. After getting kicked out of Pencey for failing most of his classes, Holden travels to New York to get away from his problems but seems to feel more depressed. When finishing the book came to realize that Holden Caulfield suffers from depression.
The Joy Luck Club is an emotional tale about four women who saw life as they had seen it back in China. Because the Chinese were very stereotypic, women were treated as second class citizens and were often abused. Through sad and painful experiences, these four women had tried to raise their daughters to live the American dream by giving them love and support, such things which were not available to them when they were young. These women revealed their individual accounts in narrative form as they relived it in their memories. These flashbacks transport us to the minds of these women and we see the events occur through their eyes. There were many conflicts and misunderstandings between the two generations due to their differences in upbringing and childhood. In the end, however, these conflicts would bring mother and daughter together to form a bond that would last forever.
In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, Ann-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying Ying St. Clair are all women who grow up in a traditional China, where there is sexism. They deal with serious problems that corrupt their lives. Through perseverance and the passing of time their lives return to normal.
When Holden and Sally are on their date at an ice skating rink, he brings up a possibility of them running away together. He talks about how they can live in a cabin camp somewhere far and how he will find a job for himself when they run out of money
Traditions, heritage and culture are three of the most important aspects of Chinese culture. Passed down from mother to daughter, these traditions are expected to carry on for years to come. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, daughters Waverly, Lena, Rose and June thoughts about their culture are congested by Americanization while on their quests towards self-actualization. Each daughter struggles to find balance between Chinese heritage and American values through marriage and professional careers.
Holden said many things in the novel that showed how sad he was. One in particular said “New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed. I kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe.” (Salinger, 106) This quote shows that Holden was depressed and sad about such little things. But, it also shows that even in his depression he still loved his sister Phoebe. Additionally, throughout his whole New York trip Holden showed a lot of bizarre behaviors. According to the article by “Depression in Teens”, teens may express their depression through risky behavior. Furthermore, Holden Caulfield shows his depression with the quote he stated at the end of the novel. He says “Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." (Salinger, 277). In this quote, it shows that while he is getting help he still gets depressed when he recites his story to others because he misses everyone he speaks about. Lastly, Holden often thought of his brother Allie who died of leukemia and all the great times they had together. This family situation could even be the main cause for Holden’s
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.
In life we sometimes experience cultural differences. In The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan shows how mother daughter relationships are affected by these cultural differences. Therefore each of the mothers and daughters has a different view on their Chinese culture.
In the Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, focuses on mother-daughter relationships. She examines the lives of four women who emigrated from China, and the lives of four of their American-born daughters. The mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying St. Clair had all experienced some life-changing horror before coming to America, and this has forever tainted their perspective on how they want their children raised. The four daughters: Waverly, Lena, Rose, and Jing-Mei are all Americans. Even though they absorb some of the traditions of Chinese culture they are raised in America and American ideals and values. This inability to communicate and the clash between cultures create rifts between mothers and daughters.