Mother and Daughter Relationships in Joy Luck Club and A Hundred Secret Senses

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Mother and Daughter Relationships in The Joy Luck Club and A Hundred Secret Senses

In life, many things can be taken for granted - especially the things that mean the most to you. You just might not realize it until you've lost it all. As I walk down the road finishing up my teenage days, I slowly have been finding a better understanding of my mother. The kind of bond that mothers and daughters have is beyond hard to describe. It's probably the biggest rollercoaster ride of emotions that I'll ever have the chance to live through in my lifetime. But, for those of us who are lucky enough to survive the ride in one piece, it's an amazing learning experience that will influence your entire future.

In Amy Tan's novels, The Joy Luck Club, and A Hundred Secret Senses, she describes relationships between mothers and daughters reflecting on her own parents experiences in life.

Four mothers, four daughters, four families... whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "telling" the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to talk, eat dim sum, and play mahjong.. As June's mother said, "Idea was to have a gathering of four women, one for each corner of the mahjong table" (Joy p.32) Being together in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Instead of sinking into tragedy, they choose to gather and raise their spirits. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." (Joy p.134) In other words, why sit back and keep pondering the tragedy, it's better to let the past go, and move on.

In The Joy Luck Club, Tan examines the sometimes painful, often t...

... middle of paper ...

...ring a closer relationship to their families.

Works Cited and Consulted

"Biography of Amy Tan." DIScovering Authors Modules. 1998. GaleNet.

"Criticism, Amy Tan" DIScovering Authors, Gale Research Inc, 1996.

Buck, Claire. "Amy Tan." The Bloomsbury Guide to Womens Literature. Pg1065 Great Britian: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1992.

Shear, Walter. "Generational Differences and the Diaspora in The Joy Luck Club." in <>Critique. Volume 34, No3,

Spring 1993 pp 193-99.(on GaleNet

Tan Amy. The Hundred Secret Senses, New York; Mass Market Paperback, 1996

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York; Mass Market Paperback, 1994

Willard, Nancy. "Tiger Spirits." in The Women's Review of Books. Vol.6, Nos. 10-11, July 1989, pg12.(on GaleNet)

*Amy Tan interview was conducted on the front cover of the hard cover copy addition of The Joy Luck Club.

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