The Stories Of The Joy Luck Club
Written by Amy Tan
By Christopher J. Bradley (c)2003
The Joy Luck Club is the first novel that I have read that attempts to effectively describe Chinese culture. It speaks not only about Chinese culture, but also about American culture, and the impacts of both cultures on Chinese immigrants. I was very impressed with the book. I was impressed because it was historically accurate, culturally accurate, and accurate in terms of the feelings of the characters.
When I was in high school I worked closely with a Chinese man at an engineering firm. He told me many things about China, and New York’s China Town while we ate lunch at his favorite restaurant in Lockport. During the Christmas vacation of my senior year, he hired me to work at a shop that he opened at Summit Park Mall. We sold Chinese souvenir type goods, including large wooden and paper fans, and big silver meditation balls. I still have a set of the meditation balls, I use them to strengthen my hands to practice piano. They remind me of his teachings of Buddha. He explained to me why the ceramic Buddha sold so well in its various forms.
Rick Lee told me that the Buddha was a symbol of good luck. He also told me that the reason that people like him so well, is that he represented contentment. Buddha is fat, he wears a big necklace, and he is usually laughing. These three things are representative of the qualities of life that Chinese people would like to enjoy. “To be fat, is to never be hungry. To wear a necklace, is never to be unsuccessful. To laugh, is to never be unhappy,” he said. He also said that I should buy one, because someday I would understand Buddha’s value. I now regret having missed the opportunity. Just thinking about the Buddha makes me smile.
Rick showed me pictures of his family over one of our lunches. I remember one of the pictures of he and his cousin at a train station. They stood together smiling brightly for the photograph, and I thought about the fact that I hadn’t seen any of my cousins in almost five years. I realized the importance of family to him that afternoon.
Rick couldn’t help also explaining that he was a distant relative of Bruce Lee. At the time, I thought that it was a little bit strange. My mind was changed when we studied China in a World Civilization course at University at Buffalo. I realized how much of an impact ancestry had on the people of China. I no longer doubt that what he said was true from his viewpoint.
The Joy Luck Club seemed to integrate with my personal experience of knowing Rick when I read it. I saw the themes from his statements about the Buddha appear in the text. Almost every one of the characters had some kind of intimate relationship with food. Each of them had concerns about their success. And each of them was concerned with their future happiness.
I would like to clarify one point before proceeding. Many Americans often assume that success leads directly to happiness. I do not believe that this is necessarily the case. I am not a particularly successful person financially, but do find happiness in doing the things that I love to do, or in being with people whose company I can enjoy. I believe that in the novel, Waverly’s character provides an opposing contrast to the experience I have described. Waverly is successful financially, but struggles to find happiness in relating to her mother. Waverly’s intended marriage does not seem to satisfy her, until she receives her mother’s approval.
At the beginning of each section of the book, there is segment of prose that we have refered to in class as a myth. The myths describe the themes of each four chapter section. The myths also help to define the perspective of each of the characters whose stories appear in each section.
The first section of the book, called “Feathers from a thousand li away,” begins with a myth that describes a mother’s journey from China to America. I believe that it connects the first four chapters of the book very well. Jing-Mei Woo, the daughter of Suyuan Woo, is the speaker of the first chapter : “The Joy Luck Club.” She tells a small part of the story of her mother’s life in China. This part of the story is restricted primarily to her mother’s description of Kweilin and her foundation of the first Joy Luck Club just before one of the Japanese invasions brought on by World War II. Suyuan’s story seems to be most connected to this myth, which is about hope, or as described in the myth, good intention.
Before she leaves China, the mother in the myth purchases a swan from a vendor who tells her that the swan is “too beautiful to eat.” While traveling she tells her swan that she intends to have a daughter in America, whose value will be based on an American system that will allow her value as a person to be independant of her “husband’s belch.” She also tells the swan that her daughter “will always be too full to swallow any sorrow.”
When she arrives in America, the swan is taken away from her, and she is only able to hold on to one of its feathers. After they took the swan away from her, “she forgot why she had come, and what she had left behind.” She keeps the feather to remember the good intentions that she had given to the swan.
She kept the feather, and eventually had a daughter. The daughter grew up in an American society, and “swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow.” She wanted to give the feather to her daughter and explain that it stood for all of her good intentions. However, she felt that she would not be able to explain her good intentions properly to her daughter, unless she could tell them to her in “perfect American English.”
I agreed with most of the class discussion related to this myth. It seems very clear that a “husband’s belch” is not a very good standard to live by. I also believe that the swan feather is a good representation for her mother’s good intentions. I remember attempting to fold an origami “swan” when I was about seven years old.
I have checked Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia to make certain that the artform was Japanese. The entry states that a folded crane is a symbol included with a gift that represents the best wishes or “good intentions” of the giver. It is understandable that a paper crane might look something like a paper swan. I think it is interesting that the subtle influence of Japan could be shown in this way through the image of the swan feather.
I do not agree that Coca-Cola is necessarily a better thing to swallow than sorrow. I believe that Amy Tan added Coca-Cola to the idea of sorrow in order to amplify the sadness that I see the mother express in her inability to explain her hopes to her daughter. Coca-Cola is noted for being an unhealthy drink. It has a large amount of caffeine in it, which has been very clearly blamed for causing ulcers. There are certain types of sadness or exhaustion which cause stomach pain. I remember what it felt like to cry as a child and have my stomach muscles tighten.
The other three chapters of “Feathers from a thousand li away” are about the three other members of the San Fransisco Joy Luck Club. This version of The Joy Luck club was started in 1949 by Suyuan with her three friends. She had Lindo, An-Mei, and Ying-Ying at a Baptist church. Their common interests in learning the language and culture of America drew them together. All three chapters are stories about the lives of these three friends of Suyuan Woo. Each of the stories is told from the point of view of a different speaker.
In “Scar,” An-Mei tells the story of how she is burned by a tipped bowl of scalding soup as a young girl. She had been witness to an argument between her mother and family. The family that she lived with consisted of her aunt and uncle, and her grandmother. Her father was dead, and her mother was called a concubine by her aunt. Her mother was the fourth wife of a new man and did not live with her.
An-Mei’s grandmother had a signifigant influence over her. She told her stories designed to keep her safe and to help her understand her place in life. One was about a girl that ended up with a winter melon in her stomach because she refused to say whose child she was carrying. Another was about a disobedient girl whose brains leaked out of her head. Her grandmother often referred to her mother as a ghost. A ghost according to An-Mei was something that they were not permitted to talk about.
After the soup has been spilled on her neck, she was cared for by her grandmother, Popo. Her grandmother explained to her that she would not have been mourned for very much if she had died from the burn. She would have been too young to have paid back the debt that she owed to the family.
An-Mei gained respect for her mother after seeing her care for her grandmother. Before Popo died An-Mei’s mother cut flesh from her arm and put it in a soup. This ceremonial soup was supposed to save a mother from death. Popo died, but An-Mei realized that it took her mother a great deal of courage and love in order to perform this ceremony for Popo.
In “The Red Candle” Lindo Jong talked about the signifigance of promises and about her arranged marriage that she managed to escape by taking advantage of ancestral mysticism. She was arranged to marry a boy when she was two years old by a village matchmaker. From this point in her life on, her mother treated her as if she had already been sold. It seemed that she had recieved some special favors, but that they had been at the expense of her mother’s sadness.
Her family lived next to a river. She mentions her first memories of meeting her arranged husband were on the day that her family caught and gutted fish from the river her father had told her “liked to swallow little children.” When she met her future mother-in-law that day, she gave her a dumpling that she had only helped a very little bit to make. When the river flooded, her family’s house was ruined and they were forced to move south. According to the agreement Lindo had to move in with the family of her future husband.
While she was living in her future husband’s house, she learned to cook and clean. She learned to make a special soup for her mother in law, that would keep her mother in law healthy. Ultimately after her marriage, her mother-in-law was not satisfied with any of these things and demanded that she have her son. Lindo was forced to remain in bed because the woman had thought that she had not been willing to have sex with her husband, when in fact her husband had been unwilling to have sex with her. Huang Tai Tai, the mother-in law, had wanted a grandson.
Lindo had blown out her husband’s end of the wedding candle on their wedding night. The servant that was supposed to have been watching the candle had left the room. Earlier that same night she had come to the realization that she could have her own thoughts, and carefully plan part of her own destiny.
She took advantage of the fact that a servant girl had been pregnant to bring together her escape from the terrible situation that she was in. She claimed that an ancestor had come to her in a dream, and in a panic described the three signs that the ancestor gave to her. Two of them were a flesh eating mole on her husband’s back, and a missing tooth in her mouth. The third sign was that the ancestor had told her in her dream that he had impregnated the girl himself. When Huang Tai Tai found out that the servant girl was pregnant, the family made arrangements to help Lindo out of the unwanted marriage.
“Paper.” Compton’s New Media Encyclopedia (CD-ROM). 1995 ed.
“Chiang Kai-Shek.” Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia (CD-ROM). 1995 ed.
Written by Amy Tan
By Christopher J. Bradley (c)2003
The Joy Luck Club is the first novel that I have read that attempts to effectively describe Chinese culture. It speaks not only about Chinese culture, but also about American culture, and the impacts of both cultures on Chinese immigrants. I was very impressed with the book. I was impressed because it was historically accurate, culturally accurate, and accurate in terms of the feelings of the characters.
When I was in high school I worked closely with a Chinese man at an engineering firm. He told me many things about China, and New York’s China Town while we ate lunch at his favorite restaurant in Lockport. During the Christmas vacation of my senior year, he hired me to work at a shop that he opened at Summit Park Mall. We sold Chinese souvenir type goods, including large wooden and paper fans, and big silver meditation balls. I still have a set of the meditation balls, I use them to strengthen my hands to practice piano. They remind me of his teachings of Buddha. He explained to me why the ceramic Buddha sold so well in its various forms.
Rick Lee told me that the Buddha was a symbol of good luck. He also told me that the reason that people like him so well, is that he represented contentment. Buddha is fat, he wears a big necklace, and he is usually laughing. These three things are representative of the qualities of life that Chinese people would like to enjoy. “To be fat, is to never be hungry. To wear a necklace, is never to be unsuccessful. To laugh, is to never be unhappy,” he said. He also said that I should buy one, because someday I would understand Buddha’s value. I now regret having missed the opportunity. Just thinking about the Buddha makes me smile.
Rick showed me pictures of his family over one of our lunches. I remember one of the pictures of he and his cousin at a train station. They stood together smiling brightly for the photograph, and I thought about the fact that I hadn’t seen any of my cousins in almost five years. I realized the importance of family to him that afternoon.
Rick couldn’t help also explaining that he was a distant relative of Bruce Lee. At the time, I thought that it was a little bit strange. My mind was changed when we studied China in a World Civilization course at University at Buffalo. I realized how much of an impact ancestry had on the people of China. I no longer doubt that what he said was true from his viewpoint.
The Joy Luck Club seemed to integrate with my personal experience of knowing Rick when I read it. I saw the themes from his statements about the Buddha appear in the text. Almost every one of the characters had some kind of intimate relationship with food. Each of them had concerns about their success. And each of them was concerned with their future happiness.
I would like to clarify one point before proceeding. Many Americans often assume that success leads directly to happiness. I do not believe that this is necessarily the case. I am not a particularly successful person financially, but do find happiness in doing the things that I love to do, or in being with people whose company I can enjoy. I believe that in the novel, Waverly’s character provides an opposing contrast to the experience I have described. Waverly is successful financially, but struggles to find happiness in relating to her mother. Waverly’s intended marriage does not seem to satisfy her, until she receives her mother’s approval.
At the beginning of each section of the book, there is segment of prose that we have refered to in class as a myth. The myths describe the themes of each four chapter section. The myths also help to define the perspective of each of the characters whose stories appear in each section.
The first section of the book, called “Feathers from a thousand li away,” begins with a myth that describes a mother’s journey from China to America. I believe that it connects the first four chapters of the book very well. Jing-Mei Woo, the daughter of Suyuan Woo, is the speaker of the first chapter : “The Joy Luck Club.” She tells a small part of the story of her mother’s life in China. This part of the story is restricted primarily to her mother’s description of Kweilin and her foundation of the first Joy Luck Club just before one of the Japanese invasions brought on by World War II. Suyuan’s story seems to be most connected to this myth, which is about hope, or as described in the myth, good intention.
Before she leaves China, the mother in the myth purchases a swan from a vendor who tells her that the swan is “too beautiful to eat.” While traveling she tells her swan that she intends to have a daughter in America, whose value will be based on an American system that will allow her value as a person to be independant of her “husband’s belch.” She also tells the swan that her daughter “will always be too full to swallow any sorrow.”
When she arrives in America, the swan is taken away from her, and she is only able to hold on to one of its feathers. After they took the swan away from her, “she forgot why she had come, and what she had left behind.” She keeps the feather to remember the good intentions that she had given to the swan.
She kept the feather, and eventually had a daughter. The daughter grew up in an American society, and “swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow.” She wanted to give the feather to her daughter and explain that it stood for all of her good intentions. However, she felt that she would not be able to explain her good intentions properly to her daughter, unless she could tell them to her in “perfect American English.”
I agreed with most of the class discussion related to this myth. It seems very clear that a “husband’s belch” is not a very good standard to live by. I also believe that the swan feather is a good representation for her mother’s good intentions. I remember attempting to fold an origami “swan” when I was about seven years old.
I have checked Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia to make certain that the artform was Japanese. The entry states that a folded crane is a symbol included with a gift that represents the best wishes or “good intentions” of the giver. It is understandable that a paper crane might look something like a paper swan. I think it is interesting that the subtle influence of Japan could be shown in this way through the image of the swan feather.
I do not agree that Coca-Cola is necessarily a better thing to swallow than sorrow. I believe that Amy Tan added Coca-Cola to the idea of sorrow in order to amplify the sadness that I see the mother express in her inability to explain her hopes to her daughter. Coca-Cola is noted for being an unhealthy drink. It has a large amount of caffeine in it, which has been very clearly blamed for causing ulcers. There are certain types of sadness or exhaustion which cause stomach pain. I remember what it felt like to cry as a child and have my stomach muscles tighten.
The other three chapters of “Feathers from a thousand li away” are about the three other members of the San Fransisco Joy Luck Club. This version of The Joy Luck club was started in 1949 by Suyuan with her three friends. She had Lindo, An-Mei, and Ying-Ying at a Baptist church. Their common interests in learning the language and culture of America drew them together. All three chapters are stories about the lives of these three friends of Suyuan Woo. Each of the stories is told from the point of view of a different speaker.
In “Scar,” An-Mei tells the story of how she is burned by a tipped bowl of scalding soup as a young girl. She had been witness to an argument between her mother and family. The family that she lived with consisted of her aunt and uncle, and her grandmother. Her father was dead, and her mother was called a concubine by her aunt. Her mother was the fourth wife of a new man and did not live with her.
An-Mei’s grandmother had a signifigant influence over her. She told her stories designed to keep her safe and to help her understand her place in life. One was about a girl that ended up with a winter melon in her stomach because she refused to say whose child she was carrying. Another was about a disobedient girl whose brains leaked out of her head. Her grandmother often referred to her mother as a ghost. A ghost according to An-Mei was something that they were not permitted to talk about.
After the soup has been spilled on her neck, she was cared for by her grandmother, Popo. Her grandmother explained to her that she would not have been mourned for very much if she had died from the burn. She would have been too young to have paid back the debt that she owed to the family.
An-Mei gained respect for her mother after seeing her care for her grandmother. Before Popo died An-Mei’s mother cut flesh from her arm and put it in a soup. This ceremonial soup was supposed to save a mother from death. Popo died, but An-Mei realized that it took her mother a great deal of courage and love in order to perform this ceremony for Popo.
In “The Red Candle” Lindo Jong talked about the signifigance of promises and about her arranged marriage that she managed to escape by taking advantage of ancestral mysticism. She was arranged to marry a boy when she was two years old by a village matchmaker. From this point in her life on, her mother treated her as if she had already been sold. It seemed that she had recieved some special favors, but that they had been at the expense of her mother’s sadness.
Her family lived next to a river. She mentions her first memories of meeting her arranged husband were on the day that her family caught and gutted fish from the river her father had told her “liked to swallow little children.” When she met her future mother-in-law that day, she gave her a dumpling that she had only helped a very little bit to make. When the river flooded, her family’s house was ruined and they were forced to move south. According to the agreement Lindo had to move in with the family of her future husband.
While she was living in her future husband’s house, she learned to cook and clean. She learned to make a special soup for her mother in law, that would keep her mother in law healthy. Ultimately after her marriage, her mother-in-law was not satisfied with any of these things and demanded that she have her son. Lindo was forced to remain in bed because the woman had thought that she had not been willing to have sex with her husband, when in fact her husband had been unwilling to have sex with her. Huang Tai Tai, the mother-in law, had wanted a grandson.
Lindo had blown out her husband’s end of the wedding candle on their wedding night. The servant that was supposed to have been watching the candle had left the room. Earlier that same night she had come to the realization that she could have her own thoughts, and carefully plan part of her own destiny.
She took advantage of the fact that a servant girl had been pregnant to bring together her escape from the terrible situation that she was in. She claimed that an ancestor had come to her in a dream, and in a panic described the three signs that the ancestor gave to her. Two of them were a flesh eating mole on her husband’s back, and a missing tooth in her mouth. The third sign was that the ancestor had told her in her dream that he had impregnated the girl himself. When Huang Tai Tai found out that the servant girl was pregnant, the family made arrangements to help Lindo out of the unwanted marriage.
“Paper.” Compton’s New Media Encyclopedia (CD-ROM). 1995 ed.
“Chiang Kai-Shek.” Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia (CD-ROM). 1995 ed.
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