Use Of Figurative Language In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, uses figurative language to create an effect on the readers. Tan uses similes, metaphors, and symbolism, to add to the overall message of the relationships between mother and daughter and bond between them that has been inherited. However, Tan also uses language to show the connection between storytelling, memories, and inheritance.
Tan uses a simile to describe the resemblance in the circumstances that the four mothers and their daughter face. For example, “... she still came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was a girl. And i was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.”(Tan 215). Tan’s use of language in this quote, explains the connection between mother and daughter, and the stories told between them. Also, the mothers see their own mistakes and flaws in their daughters, and hope to prevent these daughters from suffering the same way they did.

However, it also resembles the inherited mother-daughter bond.
Metaphors help demonstrate the impact of the lessons that are learned by the mothers in their Asian culture.

For example, “And seeing the garden in this forgotten condition reminded me of something I once read in a fortune cookie: When a husband stops paying attention to the garden, he is thinking of pulling up roots”(Tan 194). The forgotten garden is being compared to Roses marriage and the letter that was sent to her by Ted with a pen, check, and a divorce document to sign. Also Roses observation of her dying garden that her husband once tended to, is a sign of her dying marriage with Ted, which is similar to her mother's observation of the plant her father got her and it dying even after she had faithfully watered it. However the title of the third part is "American Translation", resembling the reflection of what the daughters face in their American like life, compared to what the mother's,  face in their heavily followed Asian

culture.
Amy Tan's take on symbolism in the novel is based mainly upon relationships and family,. For example, “ But he could not stop my mother from giving me her chan, a necklace made out of a tablet of red jade… “Obey your family. Do not disgrace us.” she said. “Act happy when you arrive. Really you're very lucky.”(Tan 53/54).In the Red Candle, the Jong family is awoken to a disastrous sight of their living room and furniture drenched in water from the stream, soggy to the touch while also covered in mud. this causes the family to leave, except for Lindo due to an arranged marriage. Before, the family's departure, Lindo is solemnly given her mother's chan, a necklace made of red jade. Although her mother's face is stern and serious she sees through her stone cold demeanor and detects her mother's heavy hearted feelings. Also her mother's use of the word “act”, interprets that although this marriage shall not be a happy one, Lindo must still make that sacrifice. Therefore the chan symbolizes the promise and sacrifice made, but also the closeness between Lindo and her mother at the time.
Metaphors, similes, and symbolism, are just examples of some of the many literary devices demonstrated in The Joy Luck Club. However, these examples help to reinforce the overall message of the novel, of the inherited bond between mother and daughter, but also expanding the circumstances that they face, these include cultural and language barriers. Therefore the author, Amy Tan uses figurative language and language to show the importance of storytelling, memories, and inheritance.