The idea of respect is like a cycle. If you do not give it then you will not receive it and vice versa. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a contemporary novel which explains the story of four chinese immigrant mothers and their daughters. In Chinese tradition, the children show respect and loyalty to their parents no matter what happens. In return, the parents give the children the respect they deserve. If respect is not given, you are treated as a ghost meaning that you do not speak of them or speak to them, just like they just disappeared. The family bond between a mother and daughter is a key concept in this novel. The mothers tell their life stories to ensure their daughters don’t make the same mistakes as they did. They tell these stories …show more content…
Popo treated An-Mei like her own daughter because her mother chose to disrespect Popo and leave. Popo did not want An-Mei to be taken by her dishonorable mother so she partly raised An-Mei. Popo never spoke of An-Mei’s mother or brought her up. They treated her like a ghost almost as if she were never part of their lives (42). When Popo was towards the end of her life, An-Mei’s mother came back and made an ancient soup with a piece of her flesh in it (48). She came back even though she knew that Popo never forgave her for disrespecting her. An-Mei’s mother made her last condolences, and honored her mother in the best way she could. In The Joy Luck Club, the mother-daughter relationships characterize how respect can define a person. Respect is a big part in every person’s life. Every human being needs some respect given to them and we need to show respect towards others. Lena may not realize it, but she gives respect to her mother and takes everything she says to heart, even when her mother told her if you don’t finish your rice then your husband will have spots on his face. It is like a cycle. Respect is circulating through every person you give it to and one day it will come back, restarting the whole process
Throughout the novel The Joy Luck Club, Jing-Mei Woo struggles with her sense of identity and belonging in a community as she is often embarrassed of her heritage, and prefers to live her life in the shadows. However, at the end of the book, Jin-mei finds peace when she seeks her roots and sisters in China. She finally finds her inner Chinese that she described is “in your blood waiting to be let go” (Tan 306). This shows that although immigrants of the time period often struggled with self identity, deep down they wanted to find acceptance in their
In Abuela Invents the Zero by Judith Cofer, a common theme would be respect. If you don’t respect others, you can’t respect yourself. To begin, Constancia, Abuela’s granddaughter, shows disrespect toward her grandmother multiple times throughout the story. In the beginning of the story , when connie was waiting for her grandmother at the airport, Constancia doesn’t feel like she is close to her grandmother.
Kai Foote Martinez Sophomore Honors English 25 January 2023 The Sacrifices That Come with Love in The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan ’s novel The Joy Luck Club is about the hardships of relationships with different cultural beliefs and expectations and how they influence people. There are numerous examples of the hardships and sacrifices that mothers make for their children; these sacrifices teach and influence all the daughters to help them have a better understanding of the world and their expectations.
In Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, the different stories show how the different characters develop and progress. Rose Hsu Jordan begins “Half and Half” as someone who clearly lacks of conviction as she allows everyone but her to make decisions. Throughout “Without Wood”, however, Rose Hsu Jordan begins to learn, with the help of her mother, how to speak up.
In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan writes about the intergenerational struggle between the mothers and daughters. This emcompasses the daughters’ modern day life complications such as marriage and money and the mother's old-fashioned wishes such as, following parental orders and honoring the family. Based on the following quote the theme of shame is crystal clear: “But my mother's expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything” (Tan 140). Jing-Mei Woo had failed her
Jing-Mei’s American upbringing hindered her ability to understand her mother’s perspective – which was based on Chinese heritage – resulting in strong differences of opinion that led to arguments. In addition, since Jing-Mei and her mother failed to communicate effectively about their different perspectives, they became frustrated and upset with each other. The relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother was harmed by their emotional distance from each other. The absence of verbal affection between them translated to increased resentment and disappointment. Positive emotional connection between a parent and child proves vital in maintaining a healthy relationship in the face of
Joy luck only exist among these mothers is because they 've all went through certain tough experience to finally get to where they are today, where they finally have happiness. Unlike June Woo and the other daughters, they were born in America, they did not need to go through what their mothers have went through. Maybe the word joy luck does not exist in the exact form to these daughters but joy luck does certainly exists in a similar form to them. This is because these daughter grew up with the American culture dominating over their Chinese heritage. As a daughter to an Chinese mother that migrated to America, I understand this tale very well.
In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, mother and daughter relationships are put to the test. Four women meet to play a game of Chinese mahjong, keeping a tradition alive. Suyuan Woo, founder of the club, had a daughter named Jing Mei June Woo. Suyuan had two daughters which she expected both to succeed to her standards.
Thesis Statement about theme of literary work- In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, expressions of love and hatred are shown in multiple mother-daughter relationships resulting in negative impacts such as pain, bitterness, and regret because of their differing opinions. Support Point #1- Suyuan Woo guiltily leaves her twin daughters on the ground in China as she walks away in tears.
“Communication is the key to a successful relationship, attentiveness, and consistency. Without it, there is no relationship,” (Bleau). The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan. Set in the twentieth century, this novel depicts the life of four Chinese immigrant women escaping their past and their American-grown daughters. The novel reveals the mothers’ hardship-filled past and motivations alongside with the daughters’ inner conflicts and struggles.
(m2MB) Anne realizes that she needs to stay calm and respect her mother, but she has great difficulty in doing so. Anne acknowledges that she and her mother do not have the expected mother-daughter relationship. In some cases, mothers and daughters do not have the ideal, loving relationship. Instead, they may dislike each other and fight.
Incompatible Interracial relationships are difficult to maintain in the United States because of differences in cultural upbringing as well as racism and xenophobia. The book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan focuses on four Chinese mothers who describe their past hardships and adjustment to the United States as well as their relationships with their American born daughters. The mothers try to save their children from experiencing the same things that they have been through. In the book, there are a few interracial couples such as Rose Hsu and Ted, Waverly Jong and Rich, and Ying Ying St.Clair and her husband Clifford. They all have trouble loving and understanding each other.
The Joy Luck Club In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author not only writes a story focusing and going into depth on the constant clash between the “low-context” American and “high-context” Chinese culture, but also touches on the subject of conflicts in the generation gap. Meaning, that because all of the characters (the four mothers and four daughters) grow up in different educational ways, leading all of them to have both different personalities and characteristics. Love and hope eventually reconciling the conflict. The novel also presents the conflicts with how men treat women throughout their lives. The idea is that the people in United States usually take for granted their roles as either a male or female.
As a whole, while the story was very depressing at times, it still has an underlying tone of family ideals, as the relationship between the mother and daughter still remained despite the arguments they had. In my opinion, I think the author’s message that she wished to convey was that despite any event that may occur, family members will always be there support you. This is shown in how, despite Jing Mei’s failures at becoming a prodigy, her mother still supported her and did not give up hope on helping her daughter becoming a successful person. As such, it strengthens the idea that “family will always be there for you”, no matter what hardships come their way. In addition, it helped to add a sense of togetherness in the short story, as it inadvertently revealed how much Jing’s mother actually loved her, despite her tough exterior.
The daughters statement was clearly just her opinion on her mother passing not with any back up evidence which would of gave the mother a more solid thought on just her passing. So the speaker doesn’t seem so enthusiastic about the way her family judges her value, her worth, or her performance. The mother seems in distress which is also just like a student being graded in school and they don’t meet the standards that are set for them by others. The irony here is that rather than parents mark their children, it is the children and father who is marking her, which is the commonly thought to be the most important figure in the household and family.