Complexity In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

With the many variations of each individual’s personality and character traits it is near essential to incorporate those elements in literature. It is imperative that literary compositions include details that expand on the characters’ actions, motivations, and decisions thus furthering their complexities and developing the novel’s theme. The culture in which a particular character adheres to may influence those facets. The theme of a novel is revealed primarily by the impact of culture on a character’s complexities. Furthermore, the way a person’s or character’s complexity is perceived by others may be determined by their value of familial relationships. Evidently in the scene in which An-Mei’s mother carves out a piece of her flesh, originated

The particular way each character behaves contributes to the theme. To exemplify this point, Tan composes, “I saw my mother on the other side of the room. Quiet and sad,” (48). Specifically, this represents An-Mei’s complexity of how she is observant and understanding of the portrayal of her mother’s emotions. From that complexity of understanding and attentiveness it is coherent that the familial relationship is highly evolved in “Scar.” The vignette continues to express the theme of familial relationships through character complexity as Tan pens, “The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing.”(48). It is explicit that An-Mei has her own insightful outlook on family and how the flaws that they bore must be overlooked. To take away from the passage, she understands that a healthy familial relationship is necessary, and it is not possible for it to exist when there is conflict amongst the family members. Ultimately, An-Mei displayed her complexity of the capability to comprehend the situation she, her mother, and Popo are in which aids the development of the familial relationships theme. In brief, a written work should utilize culture to expand a character’s complexities and thus developing a theme.