The Joy Luck Club was a novel written by Amy Tan and published in 1989. It was a novel that contained many different intertwined stories about the relationship and conflicts between the Chinese immigrant mothers and their Americanized daughters. Some of the themes presented in Amy Tan’s work The Joy Luck Club that are also discussed in our women’s studies course are oppression, motherhood, identity formation, and culture differences.
Women and motherhood is a major theme of this novel because life was hard upon women, especially for those in China. Chinese mothers were supposed to obedient women who worked hard, did household chores, raised her children, and did what was asked of her. In America, however, women were treated much different than they were in China because it was more liberated. The theme of motherhood shows from all that the mothers had to go through; they had to work so hard for their daughters to have a better life in America. The mothers have sacrificed a lot for their daughters, and it showed how much they were willing to give up for their daughters’ lives. An example in the novel that illustrates this is when Suyuan sacrificed her two daughters by leaving them behind. She was not able to carry them anymore and believed that they had a chance of survival if she left them on the side of the road with money and jewelry stuffed under their clothes. “She loved these girls so much, she only wanted them to have what they were entitled to a better life, a fine house, educated ways” (Tan 327). She demonstrated how much she was willing to sacrifice for the life of her daughters because by abandoning them, she was giving them so much more to live for.
Because the mothers worked so hard for their daughters to have a good life, the theme of oppression occurs in the novel. The women in this novel are oppressed due to society because it is society that looks upon them differently, and it is because of patriarchy and sexism that these women feel oppressed. In Chinese culture, the women had little or no status in society, and they were discriminated against. Chinese culture is also male dominated, which is where the patriarchal system comes from and because of this, you can see why the women were oppressed. For instance, Ann-Mei was oppressed in many ways. Her mother was invited to spend time at the home of Wu Tsing. At night he would come into her mother’s room and rape her. Despite emotionally scaring Ann-Mei, this demonstrates the lack of respect for a woman in China and her lack of power as a woman.
The mothers are Chinese immigrants, whereas their daughters are American-raised. Because of this difference in generation and in being raised differently, there are going to be culture conflicts and language barriers. The mothers and daughters have trouble communicating with each other because the mothers speak very little English and the daughters don’t really know their Chinese. Conflicts arise because the daughters think that their mothers are incompetent for not knowing English, while the mothers believe that their daughters do not know the culture and heritage that they came from.
The theme of identity is also very pertinent in The Joy Luck Club. In this novel, the daughters try to discover who they are because family and heritage make up a major part of who you are and throughout this book, the girls try to figure out who they are. In the beginning, they try to hide their Chinese as much as possible because they wanted to be American, but as time went on, they realized that their Chinese heritage is a part of their identity. They have to determine what their identity is based on their Chinese heritage, but in an American environment.
Sources:
The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam's, 1989.
Why do you think Amy Tan made her characters communicate using stories instead of just direct statements? All of the stories made the book so long, so in your opinion, why didn't she just speak directly about their relationship with their mother/daughter instead of telling a story?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that she thought it would make a better story for the people. She never cared that the book was going to be so long. I think the story idea made the book a very interesting concept and just a better idea in general. Personally, I'd rather read a book about stories then have a direct relationship of the mother/daughter. Thats just my ideas on the subject but i'll let Karen respond with her feelings.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I really appreciate your answer :) Wonderful job on your blog! I really enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with David--the number of intertwining stories definitely makes the story more interesting. If Amy Tan would have wrote the book in direct statements between the characters, it would have been dry. When reading, it's hard to keep track of the characters when it bounces back and fourth... maybe that's why they chose to make the movie? Those kind of plots are common in films.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Krista and David. Because Amy Tan had written the book in many different stories, you were able to see each of their lives in a different story. You can see what each character had to experience throughout the book and if she had just written it in direct statements, then you wouldnt have been able to see what the characters had to go through. All of these stories intertwine with each other and they all connected in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI like how you showed how important the Chinese heritage was to the mothers. That's what Amy Tan was trying to express. I also like how you focused on how that affected the relationship with their daughters. That is a big problem with any immigrants who raise their children in a different culture than they were raised in. This also has to do with oppression. For example, you said how the daughters were trying to hide their heritage when they were younger because it wasn't accepted by their peers. This shows how oppression affects people and their cultural backgrounds. People have to try to change who they really are just so they can fit in. Good job!
ReplyDeleteRegan Aurich
The idea of oppression and lack of identity for Asian women in America reminded me of the video we watched in class based on writing by Hisaye Yamamoto where the Asian mother wins the poetry prize and her husband becomes angry and destroys all of her work. The poetry was her formation of an identity, it was something only for herself but her husband was not happy with it. Mothers in our society have the expectation of sacrificing themselves for their families, a expectation men rarely are faced with. Her husband was angry because she was taking time to herself for her poetry and was not contributing to the family, she is expected to be thinking about the family and not about herself at all times. I just though that related to the sacrifices mothers make in this story and how they are expected to make these sacrifices for their children.
ReplyDeleteKatherine: That's a great connection! We should have included that in our blog--not only does it fit the "oppression" of women/mothers, but it is also the same nationality as well. And what you said about sacrificing mothers goes hand-in-hand with "Revolt of Mother" as well.
ReplyDeleteI am also create the blog for Amy Tan and analyze The Joy Luck Club. I really like this novel because it has a lot of culture distinctions during that. Could you explain more about how the different cultures work on the relationship between mothers and daughters? What do you think the main difference between Chinese culture and American culture on marriage and feminism?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog. The themes of motherhood and the relationship between a mother and daughter are very evident in the summary of this novel, which parallels well with what we have learned in class. The Joy Luck Club looks like an interesting novel and because of this blog it has interested me to look into more of her novels.
ReplyDelete-Lisette Nunez
Every culture has different standards, and in America I think (for the most part) mothers and daughters are more open. In China, however, I think these relationships are more reserved, partially due to the idea that Chinese women might [still] be more oppressed than American women. This can also translate to your question about marriage and feminism.
ReplyDeleteKaren, this is a great post. Thank you for putting these materials together in such a clear and coherent fashion. Judging by the comments you have received you and your blog partners have sparked a lot of interest in Amy Tan. And collectively you have all worked to help the students utilize what they have learned in the class.
ReplyDeleteA question for consideration: what are the materials that we discussed this semester that acknowledge cross cultural and cross generational conflict?