The American Dream in The Joy Luck Club

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The American Dream can mean a number of different things to number of different people. Over the years this ideal has evolved and its definition will continue to change for many more years to come. What has not changed is the desire to achieve this dream. For decades now, people from all over the world have immigrated to the United States with hopes of obtaining this dream. However it seems that, to many immigrants the American dream has a very different and more modest definition. To many foreigners it means having the basic necessities in life and giving their children opportunities and life they ever had. Immigration can be a good and a bad thing. On one hand the overall standard of living is better but on the other hand it is almost inevitable that the family, especially the children, will lose some of their culture as they Americanize and assimilate. This is partially the reason why the mothers of The Joy Luck Club continue to have the Joy Luck Club meetings. Even though they are now in America, they want to make sure their daughters are exposed to and maintain the Chinese culture. Mother/ daughter relationships are a large component in Amy Tan’s award winning novel, The Joy Luck Club.

When analyzing the Joy Luck club it is important to consider the life of the author. It is apparent after studying both The Joy Luck Club and Amy Tan that there are some incredible similarities among the two, particularly the story of mother Suyuan-Woo and her daughter Jing-Mei Woo. Suyuan is a main character and plays an extremely important role in the novel even though she passed away. She created the Joy Luck club years ago and is the main reason why this tight kit family exists today. Suyuan decided to create the Joy Luck club during a ve...

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...mbers due to an unfortunate circumstance and struggles to b accepted once again and regain her dignity. An-Mei’s daughter Rose also learns a lesson of acceptance as well as self-worth when it comes to the end of her marriage. Rose was never accepted by her husband’s wealthy family from the beginning due to her Asian heritage however her husband loves her so dearly that he marries her regardless of his parent’s opinions. As their life together progresses, Rose finds herself worrying less and less about making herself happy and losing her own opinions which ultimately cause her husband to lose interest in her. As they file for divorce rose continues to try to save the marriage but soon realizes with the help of her mother that she is better than that and should stand up for herself for once. In the end this newly gained self-confidence is what saves her marriage.

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