The Joy Luck Club
In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan’s first novel, short-story-like vignettes alternate
back and forth between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and lives of
their American-born daughters in California. The book is a mediation on the divided
nature of this emigrant life. The novel is narrated horizontally as well as vertically;
friendships and rivalries develop among the daughters as well as the mothers.(Matuz 92) As Jing Mei Woo describes, “Auntie Lin and my mother were both best friends and
arch-enemies who spent a lifetime comparing their children. I was one month older than
Waverly Jong, Auntie Lin’s prized daughter. From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed when we scraped our knees, how thick and dark our hair was, how many shoes we wore out in one year, and later, how smart Waverly was at playing chess, how many trophies she had won last month, how many newspapers had printed her name, how many cities she had visited.” (95) In Amy Tan’s novel she shows that the bond between a
family is the strongest bond between any type of people.
Tan has written a novel without a central plot but with characters and events that are as powerful as myth, and which often entangle it. The stories of the aunties are interspersed with events involving the daughters, so that China and America come
together in fantastic and unconnected succession. Tan lets each woman tell her own
story; at the center of each tale is the ferocious love between a mother and daughter. (89)
“ Even though I taught my daughter the opposite, she still came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born 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 92)
Born in Oakland, California, in 1952 to a father educated as an engineer in
Beijing and a mother raised in a well-to-do Shanghai family, Amy Tan grew up in an
American world that was far from the childhood world of her parents. (Matuz 92)
When pollsters ask people what is most important to happiness, the overwhelming
majority give the same response: a good family life. Most individuals need the care,
comfort, and securit...
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...emphasizes the significance of the emotional relation and commitment to children. (Shannon 44)
The Joy Luck Club is a book about relationships between families. The book
portrays how families stick together between hard times and how the bond they share
always stands strong.
Work Cited Page
1. Blankenhorn, David. Fatherless in America. New York: Basic Books, 1995.
2. Bloomingdale, Teresa. Up a Family Tree. New York: Doubleday and company, 1981.
3. Bombeck, Erma. Motherhood, The Second Oldest Profession. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1983.
4. Bluestein, Jane. Parents Teens and Boundaries. Florida: Health communication, 1993.
5. The Editors of Time-Life Books. Family Ties. Virginia: Time Life Books, 1987.
6. Matuz, Roger. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Inc, 1989.
7. Ryder, Verdene. Parents and Their Children. Illinois: The Goodheart-Willcox
company, 1985.
8. Shannon, Thomas. Surrogate Motherhood. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company,
1988.
9. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
10. Worth, Richard. The American Family. New York: Franklin Watts, 1984.
Yet he took the case with no hesitation. Atticus knows the difference between what is fair and what is true justice. He is well aware that whites and blacks have many differences with one another, but is also educated enough to know that there truly is no diversity in equity, and tries to teach everyone including his children this. ”You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around it.(30)” Atticus is encouraging Scout to respect everyone and consider their true potential without considering false accusations in this quote. He applies what he teaches to his children to the people attending the Tom Robinson trial. Atticus is just one man, but with an unprecedented amount of sense of pride, intelligence, and justice. He reflects the image of the town’s people by showing them what they’ve allowed themselves to become based on their beliefs. He genuinely expresses their deepest consternation. In this quote he tells the audience what they are afraid to hear, but need to hear, “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.(272)” After stating his point and releasing the profound truth Atticus causes for Mayella and Bob Ewell to lose their composure. Nevertheless people of most of the white people of Maycomb continue to refuse to believe that a white woman kissed a black man. But they undoubtedly believe that a black man with a useless left hand beat and raped an “innocent” white woman. Atticus could have predicted the outcome from before he even took the case and refused to defend Tom Robinson. But he
Growing up in California, Tan continued to embrace the typical values of Americans. She had taken on American values as her own identity, completely ignoring most of her Chinese heritage. In fact, young Amy Tan would answer her mother’s Chinese questions in English (Miller 1162). Teenage Amy Tan lost both her father and sixteen-year-old brother to brain tumors. Soon after that, she learned that she had two half-sisters in China from her mother’s first marriage (“Amy Tan Biography”). In 1987, Tan made a trip to China to meet those very same ...
Based on Deconstruction theory, Lan Cao’s novel Monkey Bridge depicts the mother-daughter relationship before and after living in exile in terms of language, familial roles and deception.
Atticus Finch shows, in many ways, the true definition of a hero, but no situation was more important than the Tom Robinson trial. In Maycomb, the thought of taking a negro’s word instead of a white man’s was ridiculous to the citizens, especially over a matter as serious as a black man raping a white woman. Regardless of this information, Atticus still takes on Tom Robinson’s case and tries to make as big of a difference as possible. When Scout asks him if he thinks that he will win the case, Atticus subtly replies “No, honey” (76). Atticus goes on to explain, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try and win” (76). Basically, Atticus believes that just because it is unlikely that he will win, it does not mean that he should just give up without trying. Throughout all the discrimination, Atticus remains tough and tries to achieve his goal, no matter how hard it is. This was an example of moral courage. Even Scout knows how hard her father is trying by comparing Atticus’ efforts to “watching Atticus walk down the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but...
“We see the town of Maycomb in its worst light, willing to execute an innocent man for a crime he did not commit rather than question their belief in black inferiority and their social taboos about interracial relationships” (Felty 299). This quote may seem extreme, but it is completely accurate in Scout’s hometown Maycomb, Alabama. In the town of Maycomb, prejudices and discriminations are a common idea in the life of its citizens. This is shown in various ways. For example, African Americans are treated as lower class citizens because they are discriminated by white people. Scout perceives these prejudices and discriminations in different ways throughout the book. Scout’s views on the prejudices and discriminations in her society evolve
Scout stands up for her beliefs and rights when Francis calls Atticus rude and offensive names. She gets tells Francis, “He is not!... I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, but you better cut it out this red hot minute” (83). The argument had started when Francis called Atticus a “n*****-lover”. Scout became defensive and stood up for Atticus because she knew that Atticus was a fair man who didn’t believe in racism. He stood up for black people because he believed that everyone was equal regardless of race. Scout, along with her father believed that black people should be treated fairly as well so when Francis called Atticus rude names she stood up for him because she knew that Atticus was a fair and equal man. This shows that you do not need to be an adult to understand the world because most of the people in Maycomb were racist such as Bob Ewell. Despite her young age, Scout stood up for her father and her beliefs and knew that not all black people were bad people. Additionally, Jem stands up for his rights and his father when Mrs. Dubose says something rude about black people. Scout describes Jem’s attitude when she thinks, “Jem had probably stood as much gruff about Atticus lawing for n***** as much as I, and I took it for granted that he kept his temper” (102). This shows that although Jem had a pretty steady temper, he lost it when Mrs. Dubose said that Atticus was “no better than the n****** and trash he works for”. Jem, like his father didn’t discriminate against black people unlike the rest of the people in Maycomb. While he did get heated, it was because he stood up for Atticus and his beliefs which were to not judge black people. There was already so much prejudice in Maycomb and Jem regardless of his young age, stood up for what he thought was right and protected black people and his father. This lesson of standing up for what you think
A small city nestled in the state of Alabama, Maycomb has got its faults, just like any other place in the world, but one of its main faults or (pg.88) “Maycomb's usual disease,” as Atticus calls it in the book is prejudice. Jem and Scout learn a lot about prejudice when a black man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell and their father, Atticus, is called on to be his lawyer. They realize the hate that people have buried deep within their heart when they see a black man accused of doing something only because of his color. On pg.241, Scout starts understanding this and thinks, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” As the case continues, up until the death of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout learn more and more about prejudice and how the hate that people have towards others causes them to take wrong actions. They also see how unfair it is that a white man can get treated better and think of himself better than a black man only because he was born white. This prejudice and the trial cause Jem and Scout to get in argum...
Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets," especially, explores the relationship of setting to place, heritage, and ethnic identity. Jing-Mei Woo, the main character, has trouble accepting that she is Chinese, despite her heritage. Jing-Mei Woo believed, at fifteen, that she had no Chinese whatsoever below her skin. If anything, she perceives herself as Caucasian; even her Caucasian friends agreed that she "was as Chinese as they were." Her mother, however, told her differently, "It's in your blood, waiting to be let go." This terrified Jing-Mei, making her believe that it would cause her to suddenly change, "I saw myself transforming like a werewolf." Jing-Mei Woo finally realizes that she has never really known what it means to be Chinese because she was born and has lived in America all her life. After her mother's death, Jing-Mei discovers that she has two twin sisters living in China who have been searching for their mother and that s...
Amy Tan was born February 19, 1952 in Oakland California. Her family lived in several communities in Northern California, both parents are Chinese immigrants. Her father named John Tan was an electrical engineer, he also had a second job as a Baptist minister. He came to America to escape the turmoil of the Chinese Civil War. Amy’s mother is named Daisy who inspires her book The Kitchen God’s Wife. Her mother divorces her first husband who abused her, but had custody of her three daughters. She escapes on the last boat to leave Shanghai before the communist took over. Moving to the United States, she marries John Tan in which they produced three children, Amy and her two brothers. In Amy’s teenage years she experiences the loss of her father and older brother due to brain tumors in 1966, which Amy soon finds out she has two half sisters who lives in China from her mothers first marriage. Later on Amy, her mother and younger brother move to Europe, her mother tries to carry on their Chinese traditions, but Amy longed to be Americanized.
...da’s, Christine’s, and Rayona’s individual stories” (Roby64). Their stories correlate with each other which keep them together in a bond so strong they themselves can not separate. Ida ends the novel with a stunning statement about their stories calling their lives, “three strands, the whispers of coming and going, of twisting and tying and bending, of catching and of letting go, of braiding”(Dorris372).
Atticus, father of Scout and Jem likewise assumes for a the part of an educator, for his children and his town. Atticus trusts that individuals as a rule contain parts of both great and insidiousness, however that great would normally overcome. Atticus instructs this to his children and people of his community, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson. In the supremacist town of Maycomb in the heart of America’s South amid the sorrow period, this is a Herculean errand. Regardless of the test of Maycomb’s profound prejudice and compelling individuals to change their social points of view, Atticus battles on, in light of the fact that he trusts one day, goodness wild beat fiendishness of racism and racial fairness will
Atticus is a good father for teaching his children to respect everyone. Scout asks Atticus if he is a “nigger lover” and he simply replies, "I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody... I'm hard put, sometimes—baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you." This shows that atticus is not like the other people in Maycomb he considers every man to be equal to one another. Judge Taylor comes to Atticus to defend Tom Robinson because he knows he’s the only man in Maycomb that is fit to do to the job, and do it fairly. While thinking about taking the offer Atticus firsts thinks about his kids and how it will affect their lives. Atticus says “…do you think I could face my children otherwise? You know what’s going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anythin...
The biased racism limits the arguments a lawyer can appeal to the jury about defending the defendant to win the case, but can simultaneously limit the amount of voice the jury hears from both sides. Reassuring that Tom Robinson’s case is dealt seriously Atticus exchanges his identity as the noble man he is for the reputation of a villain that the town flames and calls names such as “nigger lover”. Sacrificing Atticus’s identity does not give him much room to speak during the case, in fact, without his title as an intelligent, helpful, and wealthy citizen the people of Maycomb could potentially harm Atticus which forces him to be a little more cautious approach with the people of Maycomb. Concerned with the matter of how her father finds that his actions are right; when the majority of the town finds is wrong. Atticus then responds strongly to Scout with that he could not live with himself or tell her and Jem to do the right act if he did not take the case seriously himself. Atticus’s identity sacrificed for the intention to save his kids from, “Maycomb's usual disease” which is racism. The town of Maycomb, filled with racist views which exposes the kids to the racist views of close friends such as Dill Harris, family members such as Aunt Alexandra, and neighbors such
Tan was born to a pair of Chinese immigrants. Her mother understood English extremely well, but the English she spoke was “broken.”(36) Many people not familiar with her way of speaking found it very difficult to understand her. As a result of this, Tan would have to pretend to be her mother, and she called people up to yell at them while her mother stood behind her and prompted her. This caused Tan to be ashamed of her mother throughout her youth, but as she grew, she realized that the language she shares with her mother is a “language of intimacy” (36) that she even uses when speaking with her husband.
The Soong sisters were very close to each other at the start of their lives, but always had distinctions between each other. In childhood, “…lively little Mei-ling wishe[d] she had been born a boy so she could ‘do things’. Sweet, shy Ching-ling astonishe[d] them all by the ardor of her determination to serve the revolution which [was] prophesied by her father and his friend, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Clever, capable Ai-ling [was] looking forward to college”(Spencer 92).