Reading Response To The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan
The novel, The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan has shown how much parents struggle for their children's happiness. This story elicits an initial mixed reaction of being very relatable, ambitious, and inspiring. First off, it’s relatable, since it’s about four mothers and their daughters' relationships, which looks to be like mine and my mother’s relationship. For example, ‘“There’s a school of thought,” I said, “that parents shouldn’t criticize children. They should encourage instead. You know, people rise to other people’s expectations. And when criticize, it just means you’re expecting failure.” The main character, June, was referring this statement about how her parents do not understand her. My parents expect too much from me as well. In fact, I won't be capable to follow their dreams because they do not come out of my interests. The story represents ambition because the parents convey affection towards their children's education. Although some of their kids aren’t built for their parents' interests, they work with dedication. To illustrate, June was forced to play the piano, since her mother always wanted to show how talented her daughter was in front of her best friend, Lindo Jong. However, June refuses to play the piano after her performance; she still worked very hard to learn the piano. In the novel, it has a countless amount of inspirational aspect. The mothers have been through a tragedy life, and they walked their way out of it, by creating a club called “The Joy Luck Club.” The Joy Luck Club was found by Suyuan Woo. She is the main character’s mother. The club began in China as a for women to come together and celebrate their life during the Japanese attacks. Also, it is inspiring of how much the mothers and daughter care for each other. Like so, from reading this novel, I felt very content because it shows the love between the two generations.
It all began in 1949 when four Chinese women immigrated to San Francisco. Their journey starts together when they meet up to eat dim sum, playing mahjong and having small little chitchats. They’ve joined together, to share their miseries and dreams, they called themselves “The Joy Luck Club.” The author Amy Tan explains that sometimes the bad situations can often change into a happy ending. The main character, June, her mother has passed away and she’s been called to be replaced for her mother’s sit at The Joy Luck Club. She finds out that her mother’s long lost twin “babies” are found, she needs to travel to China and greet them. “What will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything. . . .” The aunties are looking at me as if I had become crazy right before their eyes. And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinesewho will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.”. This quote establishes that June is from the younger generation; who acknowledges a deep sympathetic relation to the older generation. So her adventure begins and the other mothers and daughters stories start to unravel up. To add on, the author demonstrates deep connections between the mothers and the American-born daughters. As they all reveal their secrets and endeavoring to resolve reality about their life. The strings to their stories become progressively tangled and more twisted.
In a way, Jing-mei (June) Woo is the leading character in this novel. She describes the stories between two generations of the narrators as Jing-mei express both for herself and for her recently died mother, Suyuan. While she was traveling to China, to reunite with her half-sisters, she noticed the Chinese spirit within herself. On top of that, she had discovered a deep and emotional relationship with her mother, that she always happened to ignore. Jing-mei has shown to be simple in her taste and manner. Like her mother, she believes in “simple living and high thinking.” She also carries her mom’s generosity and kindness. Another established traits are her sensitiveness. For example, when Waverly said “Listen. June, I don’t know how to tell you this, that stuff you wrote, well, the firm decided it was unacceptable.” The quotation outlines how Waverly humiliated June when June was trying to embarrass her; June was trying to hold back her tears. She was also very emotional when she saw her father and aunt reunite. As it shows in “They are both crying openly, laughing at the same time, and I bit my lips, trying not to cry. I’m afraid to feel their joy. Because I am thinking how different our arrival in Shanghai will be tomorrow, how awkward it’ll feel.” At the end of the novel, she lives up to be like her mother. For being understanding of goodness and having the Chinese qualities that her mom had wanted for her to be.
The novel took place in the past and the present. The stories of the women date back to the years the 1910s when the mothers were born, till the 1980s when the daughter becomes adults. The stories of the daughter take place in San Francisco, and the stories told by the mothers are taken place in different parts of China. Including: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. The different settings lead to China vs. America, translation, the first half of the 20th Century vs. the second half. Which gives a demonstration of how the mothers and daughters grew up. For example, “I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught my daughter how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it’s no lasting shame. In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. She learned these things, but I couldn’t teach her about Chinese character . How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. Why Chinese thinking is best.” This statement shows how the mother wanted her child to have a mixture of Chinese and American culture. As well it shows how they spent their childhood thinking about the values and the way they related to the world. The differences in setting reflect towards conflict and confusion between the two generations.
The Joy Luck Club conflicts play a significant role in the novel, the conflict is seen in many forms. There are two kinds internal and external. An internal conflict is when the characters are struggling with their own problems. External conflicts are when a character is dealing with problems that come from others or the public in general. The first initial problem the novel faces is that June’s mother has died from a cerebral aneurysm. Her father thinks she died from her own thought. He says ‘“ she had a new idea inside of her head,” said my father. “But before it could come out of her mouth, the thoughts grew too big and burst. It must have been a very bad idea.”’A prominent conflict in the novel is dealing with mothers and daughters relationships. An example would be Waverly and her mother Lindo; Waverly assumes her mother wants to ruin her life by making her to “see black where there once was white”. She thinks her mother wants her life to always be worse; essentially they are just miss-communicating. Another conflict that appears in the story is mother vs. American culture. Each mother had to cope with the changes that they saw in America and the effect America had on them. For instance, “Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.” The idea of this quotation is that the mothers want their children to have some part of Chinese heritage, yet they want to rescue them from the pain they threw as kids. Another major problem was when the Japanese came to attack China. The mothers resolved this problem by escaping to America. Overall, this book has many problems, which shows that there is more to life than just to give up. Last but not least, the book was a wonderful piece of literature to comprehend, from the significant lessons the storytellers took us through, with the memories and inheritance.
