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Character Development In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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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 both stories, Rose Hsu Jordan’s development transforms her from a timid and passive girl, to an assertive woman who doesn’t allow others to step on her. Nonetheless, this change was brought upon not by an event, but rather, it was brought upon by Rose’s mother. An-Mei is responsible for transforming Rose from a timid and passive woman into one with an actual “voice”.
Rose, an inherently timid and passive person, ends up letting her decisions be made by everybody else but her, making this character completely voiceless. In the beginning of “Without Wood”, Rose says that she “used to believe everything [her] mother said, even when [she] didn’t know what she meant” (Tan, pg. 185). As seen in this quote, Rose never really questioned anything her mother said, which seems …show more content…

After Ted visits the house in order to collect the divorce papers, Rose finds out about his new lover and she feels completely devastated. This new emotion leads something to click inside her head and, as she described, “And then for the first time in months, after being in limbo all that time, everything stopped” (Tan, pg. 194). Something inside Rose changes and she finally allows herself to challenge her husband. Rose realizes that she wasn’t actually seeing things for what they were and was allowing her ex-husband to continue controlling her, seeing as though she was going to simply accept the money and sign the papers. The shock of the affair is so big that Rose begins to see and decides to stand her ground and fight for what she wants in the

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MacFarland even persuaded Rose to get into a college. In one point of the story, when he wrote about his father's death before he met Mr. MacFarland, this writer thinks that Rose was really down in that point of his life and Mr. MacFarland picked the best time in entering his

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She says, “...whenever I said, “You decide,” or “I don’t care”, or “Either way is fine with me,” Ted would say in his impatient voice, “No, you decide.” (Tan 126). Rose also perceives herself as weak. For example, she describes herself as being a “...victim to his hero. I was always in danger and he was always rescuing me.”

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Although her and her children may have noticed this untrue way of viewing their unfortunate lifestyle, Rose Mary remained persistent and cheery. Rose Mary viewed every shift in their lives as an “adventure” and made the better of it. Along with this, Rose Mary is also optimistic when it comes to future opportunities. When the Walls move to Phoenix, Rose Mary’s children quickly begin complaining about moving back to their old home. Rose Mary knows that will not be possible and when her children ask to go home she responds, “We've already been there… and there are all sorts of opportunities here that we don’t even know about.”

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Not only was Rose a romantic interest for Frenchie, but a piece that was needed for Frenchie’s personal growth “she made me feel like I needed to be a better person just through her existing”( Dimaline 32). This quote powerfully demonstrates his feelings about Rose. Her impact on Frenchie’s personal development can branch from his desire to protect or his ability to care for others. At the novel’s beginning, Frenchie lost almost anyone he cared about. Now that Rose came along, he had someone that could connect with him strongly.

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When you think of roses you think of romance, but Ms. Strangeworth was single and didn’t think of romance. The roses were her children she cared for them like a mother would do a child. They represented something bigger to her, we understand family inheritance is special but the

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One of the lessons contained in Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, is a very significant life lesson that all individuals should learn to understand and apply. Even though not specifically taught by one of the characters in the novel, the overall theme and lesson of the book, that we should not judge others, plays a very important role in the story and shapes the relationships within the book to a great extent. Each of the mother/daughter relationships within The Joy Luck Club involves miscommunication and misunderstanding because they are each judging each other without understanding what the other went through. For example, Jing Mei considers her mother forceful and overbearing because she forces her to play the piano although she doesn’t

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I will never . . .” ’ she knelt down and began banging her head on the kitchen floor” even if she knew it was wrong “Oh, Vi, Mommy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, don’t hate me.”’ She staggered to her feet and ran wailing to her room.” Violet began to see the small changes “Rose stopped taking her meds,…she pitched another patient down the stair” she even lied for her mother the second one out of the three lies she has told in her

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She seems to always play the role of a damsel in distress who always needs a knight in shining armor. Sheep people are not very fond of change and they do not like to make rash decisions. This is displayed in Rose, especially when she cannot make any decisions, even for the smallest things, like what to buy for dinner. She is very scared of making the wrong decision so she goes with what is told to her.

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Barry seems to have an internal conflict about the future and how it will play out for his daughter and him, and is fearful about if it that means they won’t be as close anymore. “He was acutely aware of how tenuous her life was, of how much he would suffer if he lost her. For a long time afterward, he thought of her as being intricately constructed of fragile paper.” (3). For a father, Barry is fairly protective of her daughter ever since she was younger, and it seems that seeing her grow up makes it difficult for him to let go of her and let her grow up

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Bi, Zijian Thu. 3/5/2015 English 2B Ms. Freeland 2° WHEN THE DREAM COMES TRUE What is your American Dream? “The Joy Luck Club”, a novel by Amy Tan, talks about how four mother-daughter pairs have fulfilled their American Dreams. Suyuan and Jing-mei was one of the mother-daughter pair who wants to fulfill their dreams in America.

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“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.

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People may think that movies aren't as different as their book counterpart. While that may be true, there are many aspects between the book and the movie that aren't as similar. The book The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan share many similarities and differences with the movie by the same name. The book and the movie possess similar qualities; nevertheless there are many parts where the movie diverged from the book. However, although there are many differences, both movie and book place an emphasis on the same themes.

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Topics discussed in both books Sexuality in the novels The theme of sexuality is incredibly prevalent in both novels. There are multiple definitions of sexuality as stated in Dictionary.com ranging from the “possession of the structural and functional traits of sex” and “recognition of or emphasis upon sexual matters” to “involvement in sexual activity” (Sexuality, 2015). Though for Rose in This One Summer, the topic of sexuality is not as blatantly out there as it is for Gabi. With Rose, the idea of sexuality and sexual activity grows in the background of everything happening at her vacation, whereas with Gabi, the idea of sexuality and sexual activity is incredibly prevalent and is a main theme in the novel.

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After reading Tan’s novels, readers has to come to the conclusion that, in order to achieve a balance between- the world conditions, one cannot only be supportive to the New American ways and rejects the Old Chinese ways. The daughter’s initially could not accept their Chinese tradition after understanding their cultural reconciliation they realize that both the conditions are very important for establishing their life. Similarly, in case of husband and wife relationship, Tan brings out the patriarchal system. In Joy Luck Club and Kitchen God’s Wife novel, Tan typically portrays the male dominating characters of Ted and Wen Fu, while she escorts her female characters Rose and Weili at the end by regaining self-respect from the male dominant society and starting a new life of self-assertiveness. In Joy Luck Club, Rose marries Ted, who typically shows his patriarchal male dominance, while Rose completely becomes an obeying wife, but Tan plots the conditions to become worse that Rose wanted divorce from her husband and she started

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