Task
Characters
Woo Family
Jing-mei (June) Woo - Jing-mei Woo is the newest member of the Joy Luck Club, having taken her mother Suyuan’s place after her death. The other members of the Joy Luck Club give her money to travel to China so that she can find her mother’s long-lost twin daughtersSuyuan Woo - Suyuan Woo was Jing-mei’s mother and the founder of the Joy Luck Club, a group of women who come together once weekly to play mahjongCanning Woo - Canning Woo is Suyuan’s second husband and father of her daughter Jing-mei. Wang Chwun Yu and Wang Chwun Hwa Chwun - Yu and Chwun Hwa are Suyuan’s twin daughters by her first husband, Wang Fuchi; they are the half-sisters of Jing-mei. Lindo Jong - Lindo is a member of the Joy Luck Club. She teaches the power of invisible strength to her daughter Waverly, instilling in her the skills that contribute to Waverly’s talent in chess.Waverly Jong - Waverly is the youngest of Lindo and Tin Jong’s children. Tin Jong - Tin is Lindo’s second husband.Vincent Jong - Vincent is Lindo and Tin Jong’s second child.Winston Jong - Winston was Lindo and Tin Jong first child.
Process
Plot
the Joy Luck Club contains sixteen interwoven stories about conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters. The book hinges on Jing-mei’s trip to China to meet her half-sisters, twins Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa. The half-sisters remained behind in China because Jing-mei’s mother, Suyuan, was forced to leave them on the roadside during her desperate flight from Japan’s invasion of Kweilin during World War II. Jing-mei was born to a different father years later, in America. Suyuan intended to return to China for her other daughters, but failed to find them before her death.
Evaluation
Themes and Symbol
The Challenges of Cultural Translation
Throughout The Joy Luck Club, the various narrators meditate on their inability to translate concepts and sentiments from one culture to another. The incomplete cultural understanding of both the mothers and the daughters owes to their incomplete knowledge of language.
The Power of Storytelling
Because the barriers between the Chinese and the American cultures are exacerbated by imperfect translation of language, the mothers use storytelling to circumvent these barriers and communicate with their daughters.
The Problem of Immigrant Identity
At some point in the novel, each of the major characters expresses anxiety over her inability to reconcile her Chinese heritage with her American surroundings. Indeed, this reconciliation is the very aim of Jing-mei’s journey to China
Suyuan’s Pendant
In Jing-mei’s story “Best Quality,” she discusses the jade pendant her mother, Suyuan, gave her, which she called her “life’s importance.” Over the course of the story, the symbolic meaning of the pendant changes.
Lena’s Vase
In the story “Rice Husband,” a vase in Lena’s home comes to symbolize her marriage. Lena had placed the vase upon a wobbly table; she knew the placement of the vase there was dangerous, but she did nothing to protect the vase from breaking.
Lindo’s Red Candle
When Lindo Jong is married, she and her husband light a red candle with a wick at each end. The name of the bride is marked at one end of the candle, and the name of the groom at the other.
Conclusion
Key facts
FULL TITLE · The Joy Luck Club
AUTHOR · Amy Tan
TYPE OF WORK · Novel
GENRE · Postmodern novel; short story
LANGUAGE · English with occasional Mandarin and Cantonese words and accents
NARRATOR · The Joy Luck Club features seven narrators: Jing-mei Woo (who also tells her mother Suyuan Woo’s story); Lena and Ying-ying St. Clair; An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan; and Lindo and Waverly Jong.
POINT OF VIEW · Point of view in The Joy Luck Club shifts from narrator to narrator. Each narrates in the first person, and sometimes an event is narrated twice so that we get more than one perspective—frequently a mother’s and a daughter’s. The narrators are highly subjective and tend to focus mostly on their own feelings.
SETTING (TIME) · The novel’s events take place within four general time frames: the childhood years of the mother narrators in China; the youthful adult years of the mothers around the time of their immigration to America; the childhood years of the daughter narrators in the United States; and the youthful adult years of the daughters as they interact with their aging mothers.
Credits
created by Dante Bryant