Within each one of the four sections of the Joy Luck Club, author Amy Tan includes a foreshadowing and symbolic prologue. The themes of these prologues are a quick introduction to the main themes of the section, and they often include “Chinese-worries” that are faced in America by the mothers and daughters. In the first section, “Feathers from a Thousand Li Away,” the main theme is the relationship between the mother and daughters of the Joy Luck Club. In the first chapter, Suyuan had to leave everything behind in China as she was escaping from Kweilin. Suyuan’s was also never able to reunite with her daughters due to her death from “a cerebral aneurysm.”…
60 percent of women say their mother was more influential than their father. This fact is quite blatant in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, as all the mothers impact their daughters’ lives a great deal. Some examples are Lindo criticizing Waverly’s possessions and Suyuan pressuring Jing-mei to work towards becoming a prodigy. The mothers cause their daughters to rethink what they do time and time again.…
Family Ties- “A Pair of Tickets” There are so many different cultures around the world which makes up the very core of who we are as individuals. From the way we speak, dress, our religion and to the food we eat are just a few examples. At times, we can lose our sense of heritage of who we are from the relationships with have with our parents. A disagreement or being embarrassed by our parents can cause someone to totally disconnect themselves from one’s own heritage.…
Whether it’s about a man out for revenge due to an insult from a friend or a mysterious castle on a hill, setting often play an important role in establishing meaning in stories. Setting is the when, where, an action in fiction takes place. While the setting in a story may seem like a simple part of the story, it can in fact have a huge impact on what is going on in the narrative. In “A Pair of Ticket” the setting plays an effective role because it shows the progression of June May learning about herself, where her family comes from and also relates to the overall theme of the story.…
The relationship between a parent and their child can be the utmost complicated, yet valuable relationship one can have. The relationship you have with your parents plays an important role in shaping who you are and who you’ll be; it determines your true identity. Authors Amy Tan, Putsata Reang, and Sherman Alexie all implemented clear descriptions of their personal relationships with their parents. Despite how complex their relationships might have been, these authors tell us how their relationships with their parents did indeed shape them into becoming the individuals they are in present day. Amy Tan would not be the individual she is today if she did not face the obstacles that came her way.…
Annotated Bibliography Souris, Stephen. " `Only Two Kinds Of Daughters': Inter-Monologue Dialogicity In The Joy Luck Club." Melus 19.2 (1994): 99.…
The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan, an American writer who was born to Chinese immigrant parents in Oakland, California, in 1989. In her work, Tan often explores the mother-daughter relationship and the misunderstandings between Chinese and American culture. The Joy Luck Club is Tan’s best-selling novel. It was a novel popular enough to be adapted into a film release. In the story, Tan focuses on four Chinese immigrant families who joined the San Francisco version of the Joy Luck Club started by Suyuan.…
Point of view is one of the most important aspects of a novel. It helps the reader understand what is happening in a novel and how different characters react. When a novel uses multiple points of view it gives the reader a chance to view an event from multiple angles. The novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich uses multiple points of view to show irony among other things of different events. There are many characters that can be considered the protagonists of the novel as well as the antagonists of novel depending on the situation, point of view, and way the reader interprets it.…
10726 Donna Spears ENGL 112-51 Fall 2015 Summary/ Amy Tan "Mother Tongue " What rhetorical strategies are used in the essay to depict the notion of time? In Amy Tan’s essay titled "Mother Tongue" the specific general point is the limitations that imperfect English can impose in society and the richness that such English can bring to writing. Tan give details that this idea by analyzing her mother's language, her own use of English and society's response to unlike people's English usage.…
Desire is an expressed wish, and sometimes these desires are easier to obtain than others. Desire is a theme that is expressed in three novels: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. The characters in these three novels struggle with the idea to please the people in their lives, along with themselves. All of these characters are thrown into unexpected situations that they normally wouldn’t to please the people they love, but in the end, they end up doing what is best for them.…
In The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan introduces four mother-daughter pairs which displays the perspectives of each character through their view on life. Tan also shows how each of the mothers’ thoughts influence their daughter as well as their expectations for them in America. The novel compares the past life and experiences of each mother, cultural conflicts, and the transition from their life in China to America. Through the mothers stories of their experiences in China, many family secrets and cultural backgrounds are revealed. Ying-Ying and Lena St. Clair, one of the four mother daughter pairs, both experience tragic lessons from emotionally abusive husbands, leading them to fear their surroundings, and the struggle to find their true…
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tackles many themes throughout the book. These themes seem to be illustrated through the conflicts between the main characters specifically the conflicts involving the mothers and daughters. The book also provides an insight at the role that age and culture play in regards to conflict resolution. Suyuan and Jing-mei…
Reading Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue", I came across the idea of language being "fractured and broken". In the essay, she provided examples of how her mother's limited English caused her to be given poor service at department stores, banks, and restaurants; stating how people would usually consider a lack of depth in their thinking due to their "broken" or "limited" use of language. Conversely, she thinks that her mother's English is "vivid, full of observation and imagery". Indeed, Chinglish is what creates meaning for the speaker and highlights the emotional viewpoints of the native tongue, despite it being the literal translation of a Chinese saying (which makes it grammatically incorrect with funny pronunciations and deemed as a form of "broken…
Tan was embarrassed by her family because they were not American, their christmas was not traditional, and their manners were different. Obviously Tan felt embarrassed because she was not American, and thought for Robert to like and accept her she needed to be. She even prayed for a slim American nose for Christmas just to be the kind of girl she thought he would like. Towards the end of the passage her mother tells her "you want to be the same as American girls on the outside." Which shows she was embarrassed to be Chinese.…
The first-person point of view tells the readers only what the doctor is thinking and not how other characters react. When the doctor first sees the child, he states, “The child was fairly eating me up with her cold steady eyes, and no expression to her face whatever.” The child does not seem nice, and the readers do not know who or what could be causing the child this feeling. The mother was nervous about her daughter, so she “moved back and forth behind us raising and lowering her hands in an agony of apprehension.” The readers cannot tell the mother’s mind, so they cannot feel how this doctor is making her think.…