Essay - Literature the Joy Luck Club the Purpose of This Paper...

Literature

***** Joy Luck Club

***** purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "The Joy ***** Club" by Amy Tan. Specifically it will discuss how generational differences and cultural gaps between the mothers and daughters lead the characters to struggle between their heritage and individual identities. One ***** the main *****mes of this *****uching novel is the struggle between the mothers and daughters to understand each other. The new generation of immigrants does not ***** their parents' ties to the past and their homeland, and the older generation ***** not underst***** ***** children's disinterest. This struggle continues throughout the *****, and it indicates ***** cultural gaps that exist in many immigrant families today.

Throughout the novel, ***** narrator struggles with her own identity and that of ***** Chinese family. Tan introduces ***** theme very early in the novel. She writes, "In those days, before my m***** told me her Kweilin story, I imagined Joy Luck was a sh*****meful Chinese custom, like ***** secret gat*****ing of the Ku Klux Klan or the tom-tom dances of TV Indians preparing for war" (Tan 31). Later she makes the gap between mo*****r and daughter even clearer. She writes, "My mother ***** I never really understood one another. We translated each other's meaning and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while ***** mother *****d more" (Tan 46). She also notes that they spoke together in two different languages, Ch*****ese and English, adding nuances and meanings to their sentences that may not have been there at all.

***** and her ***** were ***** the only estranged families in the *****. She sees the same thing in the ot***** women of the Joy Luck Club and ***** *****. Tan states, "In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just ***** unm*****dful ***** all the truths and hopes they have brought to America" (***** 51). The women are far removed from ***** Americanized daughters, and they know it. As June joins the *****, ***** fears ***** ***** ***** have no meaning in her life, and that the cus*****ms the women hang on to are old and outmoded.

***** of the four daughters has their own secti*****s of the book, ***** ***** all suffer from the same problems and lack of *****. *****ir families have all suffered much, and yet the ***** ***** n***** ***** to learn from their families or their trials. The mothers all expect much of their daughters, and often the daughters simply can*****t live up to their expectations. June's mother wants her to be a "prodigy," but June has other ideas, and her mot***** does not understand ***** she cannot force her daughter to be someth*****g she is not. Tan writes, "'Why don't you like me the way I am? *****'m ***** a genius! I c*****n't play the piano. And even if ***** could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!' ***** cried" (Tan 200). The Chinese mothers all have