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... views in each family set. In one story one of the daughters is getting involved in her second marriage. She is content and very much in love with the man she wants to marry; however, her mother doesnt see how her daughter would marry him because he is not Chinese and does not keep a clean house. The daughter would say that her mother was too stuck in her old Chinese views, while the mother would say that her daughter is foolish and has let herself become too Americanized. Other stories just center around growing up and learning to accept lifes hardships.
An example is the story of a girl who goes to the beach with her family and is left with the responsibility of watching her brothers. Her youngest brother tries to go by his father who is fishing and has to walk over rocks to do so. On his way, he trips and no one sees him drowning but the girl who was supposed to be watching him. However, she finds herself unable to move and stands frozen as the horrible event takes place.
The rest of the story is about how she and her family deal with the death throughout the rest of their lives. Tan organizes this book so that each mother-daughter story comes together in the end, with lifes lessons revealed and learned (Tan). The title of The Joy Luck Club, from a gathering that started during wartime in China. The club consisted of four women who met once a week to maintain sanity and luck during the raid in China.
The name of the club was called the Joy Luck Club. (McCarthy 2793) At every meeting, the women would sit at the four corners of a Mag-jongg table and play games that always started on the east end. The book The Joy Luck Club follows this idea to a T. Just as there are four corners to the table, the book has four main sections and four mother daughter pairs. As the games always started in the east, the stories in the book start with the story of the woman who sat on the East corner of the table. (McCarthy 2792) The mothers and daughters tell two stories each, with the exception of Jing-mei who speaks four times because her mother is dead. One critic noted that, The voices of all stories are told in first person, making the character differences hard to differentiate. Whos speaking now, whose mother, whose daughter?
One must constantly wonder. (Painter 98) The mothers stories are about their life in China. Through these stories they reveal how they stand for China and older beliefs, map out their daughters lives for them and never take no for an answer. Their main ground rule is that there is no way the daughter wins and American decisions always disappoint them. For example, Lindo Jong said, I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? (Ling 441) The daughters stories are just about growing up and their current family situations. Amy Tan incorporates herself into the novel as one of the daughters by reshaping some of her experiences into fiction.
The combination of the mother-daughter stories, bring out how the two generations as well as the two different cultures contrast each other. However, no matter how they fight and disagree, the love the mother-daughter pairs share for each other is made evident. One critic commented, Tans implication is clear: we all take our mothers for granted and we dont fully appreciate them until theyre gone. (Ling 441) Most critics agree that The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is an enjoyable book due to its content and lessons. For me, The Joy Luck Club proved to be a very confusing, yet enjoyable book. I found that as I was reading I had to continually look back to figure out which character I was reading about. It was very frustrating and sometimes I would have to just take a break from reading to sort things out so they made sense.
However, I found that once I had a clear understanding, the book was really neat. I found myself really caring for the characters and getting mad at the moms at different points. Like when the mother makes her daughter see all the bad things in the people she falls in love with. I just wanted her daughter to say STOP RUINING MY LIFE! I enjoy a book that can take control of your emotions and pull you into the story. Though I couldnt relate to the Chinese viewpoints, I learned a lot about what Chinese life and culture was like and how difficult the transition to American life must have been for many immigrants.
The structure was also very interesting in how it reflected the corners of the table. It was really neat to see the correlation in the end. As far as recommending this book I would only recommend it to people who have a lot of time to concentrate on it and really understand its content. It is definitely not a book to just skim over and read once through.
The reader has to have time to look back, see who the story is really about and think about how it fits in with the story opposite it. With that in mind I would never recommend The Joy Luck Club be in a curriculum. There are just too many students who would try to rush through the book just for the sake of finishing it, which wouldnt do the book justice with the reviews it deserves. I do however believe that it should be recommended and in circumstances such as what our class did, it should be made available. The age level I would recommend for reading this book would be fourteen and up just because of the confusion and some of the vocabulary it contains.
Also because I think it takes that kind of maturity to appreciate the cultural points made and to read about the sexual aspects in a respectable way. All in all, I thought Joy Luck Club was a great book and a really neat style that deserves the attention of those who are willing to take the time.
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Research essay sample on Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
