Feminism In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

While Chinese women were stuck in their marriages, American women could choose to leave their marriages if they felt it was the best option for themselves. The character Rose Hsu is an example of this. Her husband had cheated on her, and she wanted the divorce to be over quickly because “he wanted to get married again to someone else” (Tan 217). Rose was upset, but because of America’s system, she was able to assert power over him. When he came over and expected to take their house from her she said, “I’ve already found a place [to live] …Here” (Tan 219). Rose was given the power to leave her relationship, and she was given the tools to support herself. Unlike Ying-Ying, Rose was able to continue with her life and exit the unhealthy relationship …show more content…
By being a male dominated culture, women often get roped into destructive relationships. Through characters like Lindo Jong, An-Mei Hsu’s mother, and Ying-Ying St. Clair, it is shown how much pain the Chinese system has caused escalating from wasting years of a woman’s life to causing her death. In contrast, the characters like Rose Hsu, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair, find a life of independence and more successful relationships. Although many aspects of their culture were different, the way women were considered unequal to men was the ultimate cause of relationship issues. The patriarchal system employed in China sentenced women to suffering from the day Confucian decided women were less than men. Amy Tan knew of this suffering in the stories she constructed as the pain the women experience seems to bleed between the lines and into the readers’ hearts. Although this book is not considered nonfiction, it contains the terrible truths of what happens when one gender is put in a position higher than