The Joy Luck Club Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey consists of three main parts that each hero must trek through in order to complete their quest. The departure or call to adventure, the hero’s fulfillment which includes the trials and transformations that he or she will go through and the hero’s return. Through these stages heroes find themselves and accomplish things they may have never believed were possible. The Joy Luck Club follows the lives of four women and the things they had to overcome while in China and later in America with their daughters. In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tam each woman goes through their own journey, some embarking on a journey more heroic than others. Each of the women had their own difficulties during their lives in China and then

their migration to America. All the mothers had their own unique characteristics and every story has a heroic quality to it. In terms of Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of what the Hero’s Journey is, Lindo Jong is someone whose own path through life would be considered as heroic. The three stages of the Hero’s journey are all present in Lindo’s life and throughout the course of the book as her life is laid out readers can see that her journey was started at a young age. Lindo’s life perfectly exemplifies the trials and the course a hero has to take throughout their experiences. From beginning to end Lindo Jong is a woman that can be looked at and admired as a hero.
“I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents promise” (Tam 40). A hero is not always eager to embark on their departure and Lindo was no different. At a young age she was matched to a boy from a rich family by the matchmaker of her village and from then on her life began to lead up to her departure. Her family began treating her as if she was the daughter of Huang Taitai and she had the constant reminder that her life was no longer her own. Lindo could not have a say in the arrangement, she did not want to bring dishonor to her family so her life was destined to be spent with Tyan-yu and his family. Throughout her childhood years she had encounters with Tyan-yu and his mother Huang Taitai. Although she respected the Huangs she never fell in love with Tyan-yu during their encounters as exemplified by the quote “So I didn’t have instant love from my future husband the way you see on television today. I thought of this boy more like a troublesome cousin” (Tam 52).
At the mere age of twelve her real call to adventure came, “I was twelve years old, old enough to separate from my family and live with the Huangs” (Tam 53). Her family’s land was destroyed and they could not live in their home anymore; Lindo had no choice but to move in with the Huangs. Her separation from her family is when her real journey began. Readers had learned prior to this separation that Tyan-yu was not really the ideal person she wanted to marry, but because she had to do what was right she continued on the path she was on. Huang Taitai became her new mother and she learned all she could from her and other servants so that she could be the best wife for Tyan-yu. A hero achieves great things on behalf of others, and Lindo on behalf of her family was going to bring honor to her family by keeping their promise.
Throughout the first few years that Lindo lived with the Huangs she was constantly tested by them, this was a stage in the fulfillment of her journey. Her relationship with Tyan-yu started off as rocky and unpleasant, “I knew what kind of husband he would be, because he made special efforts to make me cry” (Tam 55). Huang Taitai made her learn things perfectly so that she could keep her son happy. “When I turned sixteen on the lunar new year, Huang Taitai told me she was ready to welcome a grandson by next spring” (Tam 56). At this point in her journey Lindo has to prepare herself for the most difficult part of her marriage. Although she may not love Tyan-yu, there is no where she can go and she has to stay to marry him and try to fulfill Huang Taitai wish of having a grandson. She approaches her greatest test upset, “I wondered why destiny had been decided, why I should have an unhappy life so someone else could have a happy one” (Tam 58). Her inner feelings are an important part of the fulfillment stage of her quest. Even though she is unhappy she also comes to an important realization that will help her in future conflicts, “I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind” (Tam 58). An important part of the Hero’s Journey is when they realize their self-worth because it will always help them in future conflicts and Lindo manages to find herself.
The biggest ordeal that Lindo faces is the red candle, “That red candle was supposed to seal me forever with my husband and his family, no excuses afterward” (Tam 59).

The candle burning completely was a seal, it would make her marriage with Tyan-yu permanent and it was the biggest obstacle in her way at the time. Every hero faces tough conflicts at one point in their journey and the candle was Lindo’s. “But I was hoping-I was praying to Buddha, the goddess of mercy, and the full moon-to make that candle go out...My throat filled up with so much hope that it finally burst and blew out my husband’s end of the candle” (Tam 60). She wanted so much for the candle to go out and it did, although this resolved her internal conflict it did not resolve the problem of her marriage. The next morning the matchmaker still declared that the candle had burned completely and Lindo’s journey was still not over. Another test she continually had to face was the fact that Huang Taitai wanted a grandson, but Tyan-yu did not plant any seeds in Lindo and Lindo did not want to become pregnant with his child. “..She confined me to the bed so that her grandchildren’s seeds would not spill out so easily” (Tam 62). Haung Taitai began to try all kinds of different things so that Lindo would become pregnant, but nothing

worked.
After a while Lindo began to create a plan that would put into action the third stage of her journey, the return.

“I made the Huangs think it was their idea to get rid of me, that they would be the ones to say the marriage contract was not valid” (Tam 63). Lindo came up with the clever plan to say it was the ancestors who did not approve of their marriage and that their marriage was cursed. This was the last big obstacle that Lindo would have to face with the Huangs. She gave them three signs that were supposedly given to her from their ancestors and they believed her. In the end Tyan-yu ended up marrying the servant girl that had fed Lindo and Huang Taitai was happy with a grandson. “The Huangs asked only that I never tell anybody of any importance about the story of my doomed marriage” (Tam 66). In exchange for her freedom, Lindo had to keep the cursed marriage a secret. To end her journey Lindo also got things that would help her wrap up her hero’s journey, “I got my clothes, a rail ticket to Peking, and enough money to go to America” (Tam 66). Not only did she receive her freedom and keep her free will, but she also had enough to begin a new life in America as a person who was changed for the better. Her new beginning is a whole other adventure that she got to have, but for that experience she had the experience of her hero’s journey under her

belt.
Lindo Wong was a strong woman whose life journey had all the characteristics of Joseph Campbell’s Hero Journey. The stages of departure, fulfillment and return are all present in the experiences that she had in China. Her journey started at a very young age and as she grew she had to go through many trials. In the end she came out as a stronger person who knew her self-worth.
“But I’ll never forget. On the day of the Festival of Pure Brightness, I take off all my bracelets. I remember the day I finally knew a genuine thought and could follow where it went. That was the day I was a young girl wiht my face under a marriage scarf. I promised not to forget myself” (Tam 66).