Literary Analysis #4

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid clichés.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone. Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.

Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan


1. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan contains many stories about Chinese immigrant mothers and their children who are born and raised in America. One of the main characters, Jing-mei Woo, took her mother’s place playing mahjong which was in San Francisco. The club members of this Joy Luck Club all share their stories and pass them on to their American children.

The mothers and children discuss their hard lives from China about their love and future generations. Each mother suffered hardships because of lack of communication between their daughters or sons. The four daughters of the club narrate their adult troubles and careers. Some try to fit in with the American culture and marry white husbands but some try to keep and nourish their Chinese backgrounds. The Joy Luck Club is filled with struggles on how to fit in and solutions to support their daughters. The idea of the club turned out to be a collection of memories—between cultures and generations (which is a theme discussed later).
2. The theme of this novel is the difficulty of Chinese to American language translation. This novel particularly ties in a special relationship with me also due to my American background with immigrated parents. I could feel the frustration and misery of the parents because I know my parents feel the same way. Anyway, both the mothers and daughter of this story can’t communicate very well because the daughters are American born and raised but their mothers or fathers are Chinese born and raised. There’s a large conflict between cultural variations and diversity. There seems to be a large barrier between the mothers and daughters of this story that inhibits one from understanding each other. Many of these leads to distasteful meanings and subtle misunderstandings.
3. Amy Tan’s tone is mature—she uses many tones for each character. One can be silly and one can be developed and established. Tan also incorporates Chinese words to bring out the full cultural effect between the generations.
‘“A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said.’


“A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.”


‘I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents’ wished, but I would never forget myself.’


4. Symbols are used, for example, a Red Candle used by Lindo at her wedding. It’s a Chinese tradition for weddings and it brings success to marriage. Analogies are used (a comparison made between two things to show similarities/differences); there’s many connections between Chinese and American culture in the story. Amy Tan emphasizes them indirectly. Conflict builds the story and the dramatic flow of energy in Joy Luck Club. The conflict is the key to this story and practically any other story out there. This builds tension between the Chinese mothers and American daughter. A sense of dogma is captured in the story as well; many of the Chinese principles and beliefs are rigid, especially in the mothers of the mothers’. Many want to store and preserve the Chinese culture within each generation, which then creates a tough situation for each of the members. Omniscient Point of View is quite important for the readers, in which we the audience, know what the characters are doing and how they feel. The audience knew where the Woo daughters were at however their mother who eventually died before seeing them, didn’t know where they were at and spent a great deal of hard time to look for her two daughter and one step daughter.