Cultural Symbolism In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

The novel “The Joy Luck Club”, is about a club started by June Woo’s mother, who passed away. The club started during the war, while her mother was still in China. The club was started to bring happiness to the women in the joy luck club. To make them feel like everything was fine and normal. To bring them good fortune and luck in the troubling times that were currently happening. After June Woo’s mother came to America, the club was soon started again and each time they played, they saved money up. They found joy in their luck. They were lucky while others were not. The term “Joy Luck” could not be translated because it is made up of what the mothers, as part of the Chinese culture, believe in. It can not be translated because the

They all migrated from China to the United States of America. The older women, the mothers, were raised in the strict Chinese culture. They were told stories and told the beliefs of their family. They grew up in China. Their daughters, grew up, and were raised in the United States of America. The difference between the mothers and daughters were where they were raised. The daughters were raised differently, they grew up as Americans. The stories their mothers told them were just stories to them, while the mothers believed them. The stories were lessons to them, telling them what to do and what not to do. The stories translated to the mothers meant something. The mothers translated those stories, their beliefs to their daughters, only to be seen as stories. The term “Joy Luck” had actual meaning to the mothers. The daughters did not believe the same as their Chinese mothers. To them, there was no such thing as “Joy Luck”. Those words did not make sense. These Chinese mothers always told their daughters their stories, their beliefs, their lessons; only to realize during one of the meetings of the “Joy Luck Club” that their daughters, their American raised daughters, knew nothing about them. The stories that their mothers translated to them, were nothing but