Identity In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Kenzie Kress

English 10 Sem. 2

The Joy Luck Club

The difficult struggle of finding true identities ate the energy of these young women. “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan is about a group of young mothers and their daughters having issues with their identities as Chinese women in an American world. The establishment the women created became The Joy Luck Club. Throughout everyone’s stories, many lessons were learned. The Chinese women often faced the issue of not being able to accept their identities. As well as not being able to find their identities: it became lost in the hype of all the judgment of others. As the women dealt with these problems, they also bonded as a group. In the start of the book, the character named Suyaun was introduced. She started the whole Joy Luck Club. A group of Chinese mothers and their American-raised daughters. Each time The Joy Luck Club got together, they would play a game called mah-jong. The women played this game in hopes of luck, to bring them joy and

What was worse, we asked among ourselves, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces? Or to choose our own happiness?” (25). In this passage, Suyuan pursued the goal of establishing the Joy Luck Club for her personal benefit. While being faced with the horrors of poverty and murder in Kweilin, Suyuan searched for a sanctuary. She decided she could escape the pain seen around her through the simple game of mah jong. With three other women and a variety of delicious food, she traveled to a place far from the wasteland she resided in. They called these gatherings the Joy Luck Club. Suyuan also noted that many people believed she was foolish for celebrating and partying in such desperate times. While others starved, her and her friends held feasts. The Joy Club laughed as young children cried in