The Joy Luck Club American Dream Analysis

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.

In the story, A Pair of Tickets, Suyuan, was not happy because she couldn’t relocate her twins from China while Jing-Mei is denying her Chinese heritage and becoming Americanized. After her death, Jing-Mie at age 30 was struggling to reconnect with her roots and had many questions about her identity. Luckily, she relocated her lost twins sisters and finally discovered her identity; Chinese. Nevertheless, the little girl in the story Volar wants to fit in the society where she was different and having difficulty fitting in. However, she was becoming someone else in a dream abandoning her old identity.

In the novel, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario reveals the struggle for Enrique in his trip to the United States which it is worth it because the love of a mother can not be replaced. As the Author, was describing how Enrique feels leaving his family and girlfriend reveals “ Only his mother can help him. She is his salvation.” In other words, what the author is trying to emphasize that Enrique’s mom will help him be a better person. This means that the trip he is taking is to be with his mother and her love.

Since the beginning of the story Nea believes that she is saving or protecting Sourdi from the expectations of her mother and Mr. Chhay. The mother and the uncle have fix a marriage with an older man named Mr.Chhay. Sourdi is a young girl that has a boyfriend name Duke, But her mom really dosen’t cares what Sourdi thinks or wants. So Sourdi meets Mr.chhay and she feels uncomfortable in the

Immigration involves moving from your home country to another in order to start over and make a better life. In Esperanza Rising Esperanza faces losing everything when her Papa dies and has to immigrate to California for a job, work, and money. Esperanza has her house burnt and Mama and Esperanza is in a bad time and moved to California. After Esperanza faced many challenges as an immigrant, her hardest ones were Not knowing how to do chores and Marta and her friends starting a strike.

In the novel, her mother dies when she was going to visit her cousins in Idaho. Her mother does not drive herself to Idaho because she has a trouble with driving alone. As a result, she takes the bus and unfortunate things happen to her. The bus experiences a tremendous accident which causes her mother dies. At the same time, Sal remarks that “I prayed that we would not be in an accident (I was terrified of cars and buses) and that we would get there by my mother’s birthday-seven-days away and that we would bring her home” (Creech 7).

In the novel Before We Were Free, Julia Alvarez explores the theme of freedom, in more depth, how freedom comes at a cost. The main character, Anita, and her family are forced to leave their country to escape their dictator, Rafael Trujillo, of the Dominican Republic in order to be free. Although, nothing this serious would be executed without a cost. Lucinda, Anita’s older sister, is forced to choose between accepting Turillo’s proposal to be his lover or go to the states and hope for her family to meet her there. Mami says that she doesn’t want her daughter to work as a maid in America, but then Papi cuts her off to say, “Would you prefer she be Mr. Smith’s little querida?(pg.69 p.6)”.

(MIP-1) Najmah has lost her voice and control over her life due to the traumatization after witnessing death of her mother and little brother. (SIP-A) Najmah has lost her voice due traumatization after witnessing the horrific passing of her mother and baby brother Habib. (STEWE-1) Najmah is trying to communicate right after the death of her mother which occurred on page 82 but she cannot since she mentally states,”But I feel as if my tongue has been locked inside my mouth ever since I saw my mother airing the quilts just Before the bombs fell." (Staples 88) Najmah is completely traumatized, and is just speechless.

Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” written in 1989, captures the relationship of a mother and daughter from China that has just relocated to America. So, in the beginning of the short story Tan expresses the mother’s beliefs of America by saying “my mother believed you could be anything you wanted in America” (Tan, Two Kinds, www.rtsd.org). then going into examples such as “You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement and of course, you can be a prodigy, too” (Tan, Two Kinds, www.rtsd.org).

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario tells of a perseverant Honduran mother by the name of Lourdes. She comes to the United States in hopes of landing a job, so that she may send money home to her children in Honduras. Lourdes’s determination pays off and she is hired at many domestic jobs, such as babysitting and house cleaning. Although she is now able to send adequate support to her children, her absence consequently causes emotional turmoil. Enrique yearns for his mother, to the point where he is willing to risk his life to be with her.

The Impact of Dreams Having a dream to work towards alongside someone can greatly impact a relationship. George and Lennie, from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, are two ranch workers who are always moving in search for a job during the Great Depression. The dream that they both share is what makes their dream worth pursuing, but along the way Lennie’s tendency of getting in trouble poses obstacles. Similarly, Jing Mei and Suyuan, characters from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, work towards a dream of Jing Mei becoming a prodigy.

Joy Luck Club Passage Analysis (pg. 64) The book, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan focuses on the complexity of mother-daughter relationships amongst immigrant and first generation families. Through the use of narrative and metaphor to convey Ying Ying St. Clair’s inner thoughts and the hurt and suffering she endures. Furthermore Tan’s style is easily recognizable to many mother’s and daughters because it captures their struggles to understand each other. In the passage, Tan uses narrative and description to explain the distance in the relationship between a mother and a daughter.

Understanding and knowledge of one another is essential yet frustrating when a barrier exists. In Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, she portrays the story of four mothers and daughters using their points of view. One mother-daughter pair is Jing-mei and Suyuan Woo. When Suyuan dies, Jing-mei has to try and fill her place in the Joy Luck Club that includes Suyuan’s friends: An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. Amy Tan uses characterization to point out the character’s pride, lack of understanding, and resentment in order to illuminate the heritage lost between Jing-mei and Suyuan Woo.

The American Dream, coined by James Truslow Adams, famously stated that “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.” Indeed, countless people have been inspired by, and pursued for, the dream of equality, prosperity, and a new beginning. The hired girls in My Antonia and the semplica-girls in “The Semplica-Girl Diaries” are amongst the countless dreamers: immigrating to America in pursuit of prosperity for themselves and their family. However, while the hired girls eventually achieved their dreams, the semplica-girls became items of show, seemingly never able to achieve their dreams. By comparing the two stories, we see that the American Dream does