Joy Luck Club and American Culture
Section One (1-2 paragraph summary). Introduce and summarize the main plot of the movie. Describe the main story and characters involved. To do this in 1-2 paragraphs, you will need to be brief and focus on the main events in the movie.

The Joy Luck Club (1993) was based on Amy Tan's 1989 novel and deals with issues of culture, assimilation and generation conflicts between a group of four Chinese mothers and their Americanized daughters. All four women in the club had emigrated from China to the U.S. after World War II, and met after church to play Chinese mahjong every week. In reality, they had little joy or luck, and no expectations, only the hope that their children would have better lives than theirs. An-mei Hsu and her daughter ose were often in conflict over her American husband Ted Jordan, who was wealthy, and the…...

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REFERENCES

Datesman, M.K. et al. (2005). American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture, 3rd Edition. Pearson Longman.

The Joy Luck Club. (1993). Dir: W. Wang. Prod: Hollywood Pictures.

She married a Chinese-American and had several sons and a daughter. Of the four women, she had lived the longest time in America. As a result, she was the most assimilated of the four women. She also had the help of her husband, who had been struggling with assimilation for quite some time.
Lindo is on a quest to reconnect with her lost Chinese identity. On a visit to mainland China, she is treated like a tourist by the locals. She struggles to connect with her native Chinese identity and to pass on these traits to her daughter. She realizes that her daughter is more American, than Chinese and fears that she will not remember her Chinese heritage in a positive way. Lindo's struggle serves the purpose of presenting the struggle that Chinese face with issues such as loss of identity. Not surprisingly, Lindo's daughter shows even more independence and…...

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Bibliography

The Joy Luck Club. Director: Wayne Wang. Hollywood Pictures. 1993.

The reader is poignantly aware of the potential for greater communication and understanding, but only in the reader's mind is the dialogicity between positions uncovered and experienced." (Soulis, 1994, p.6) This potential is never perfectly realized in the narrative of the book, as outwardly experienced, but some internal healing and unity between mother and daughter is clearly achieved at the very end. Although they cannot verbally unite, June sees that she and the twins, together, "we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish." (Tan, 1989, pp.331-332)
orks Cited

Giles, Gretchen. "Amy Tan: Interview." 1994. MetroActive. Sonoma Independent. 30 Nov 2004. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/12.14.95/tan-9550.html

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ballantine, 1989.

Souris, Steven. "Only two kinds of daughters: inter-monologue dialogicity in 'The Joy Luck Club.' - Theory, Culture and Criticism." - Special Issue: Varieties of Ethnic Criticism Melus. Spring 1994.…...

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Works Cited

Giles, Gretchen. "Amy Tan: Interview." 1994. MetroActive. Sonoma Independent. 30 Nov 2004.  http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/12.14.95/tan-9550.html 

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ballantine, 1989.

Souris, Steven. "Only two kinds of daughters: inter-monologue dialogicity in 'The Joy Luck Club.' - Theory, Culture and Criticism." - Special Issue: Varieties of Ethnic Criticism Melus. Spring 1994. 30 Nov 2004.  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2278/is_n2_v19/ai_18616697 

Xu, Frank. "Memory and the ethnic self: reading Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club.' - Special Issue: Varieties of Ethnic Criticism." 30 Nov 2004. Melus. Spring 1994. pp.1-6.  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2278/is_n1_v19/ai_18607679

Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
Multiple meanings, multiple experiences: Multiculturalism and mother-daughter relationships in "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

In the novel "The Joy Luck Club," author Amy Tan delved into the dynamics and nature of relationships between Chinese mothers and second-generation Chinese-American daughters. Illustrating through the relationships of four mother-and-daughter pairs, Tan reflected how multiculturalism had contributed to the strain in the relationships of people exposed to different beliefs, values, and viewpoints in life. The novel centered most particularly on the relationship between Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei "June" Woo, whose antagonistic treatment against each other was the result of misperceptions and misunderstandings from the different cultures they had known and grew up with.

The antagonistic nature and conflict-filled dynamics of Suyuan and June's relationship reflected Tan's objective, which was to portray through their characters how multiculturalism had created a 'gap' between the two characters, straining their relationship until…...

Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Tan's debut novel is arguably one of the most famous works of Asian-American writing. It is one of the few works with an explicitly Asian theme to find mainstream popularity. The novel remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months and was later adapted into a hit movie.

To date, no other Asian-American novel has matched the critical and popular success of The Joy Luck Club, not even by Tan's later works.

My interest in The Joy Luck Club stems from the 16 interlocking tales detailing the lives and struggles of four Chinese mothers and their four American daughters. The novel finds resonance with Chinese- and Asian-American families because of Tan's lyrical reconstructions of the immigrant experience, of poverty/fear/persecution in the homeland and of alienation in America. The parts of the novel set in China, in particular, give The Joy Luck Club the…...

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Works Cited

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ivy Books, 1989.

Henrickson, Shu-Huei. "An Overview of The Joy Luck Club."

Heung, Marina. "Daughter-Text/Mother-Text: Matrilineage in Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club."

Amy Tan biography.

Some passages from Buddha and Confucius were read by children to start the play. The mothers and other Chinese family members (immigrants) were seated in the first three rows, and the women were all given corsages as they came into the auditorium in the Chinese community center. They did not know in advance what the play was about, only that their daughters were involved. The plot of the play involved a young American female student attending the University of Beijing. She befriended two male Chinese students but they were not willing to listen to her interest in starting a movement to promote multi-cultural understanding. The third young man she met, however, was eager to bridge the cultural and barriers and he forged a relationship with her based on making the world a better place.
The dialogue touched the hearts of the Joy Luck Club mothers. They cried at the end,…...

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Works Cited

Coleman, James William. (2001). The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

Dylan, Bob. (1963). The Times They Are a-changin. Columbia Records.

Nelson, Nancy Owen. (1995). Private Voices, Public Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life.

Dallas: University of North Texas Press.

She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, win baby girls" (141) America was a place of infinite opportunity for her children, thus she would drive her daughter to compete. She cannot see that there is no way that Jing can compete with the stuck-up Waverly, and by forcing her daughter to do so, she is only making her unhappy. Jing becomes filled with a sense that if she is not a prodigy at something, she is worthless. "I was so determined not to try, not do be anybody different," that she never even realized the talent she may have had for music (148). To spiter her mother's pride, she half-deliberately fails, and when her mother tries to force her to practice, she says she wishes she was dead, like the twins in…...

However, there are everything from language barriers to misunderstandings and demands between mothers and daughters. In this, it could be the story of any mother and daughter anywhere, because it tells the tale of two different generations with different ideas and different aspirations. The characters reconcile in the end, so as in many myths, the ending is "happy" and gives hope for the future, and teaches a lesson at the same time. It shows that even those with differences can learn to understand and accept each other, and perhaps even appreciate each other's unique differences. June will never be her mother or her mother's friends, but she will have a better understanding of who they are and what they have lived through, which will give her a greater appreciation for their experiences and why they want to hang on to their culture. This film is really the epitome of…...

Amy Tan and the Joy Luck Club
iography

The Joy Luck Club

Generation Gaps in the Joy Luck Club

Cultural Differences

Chinese-American Life

Amy Tan and the Joy Luck Club

On February 19, 1952, Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California, to John Yuehhan, a minister and electrical engineer, and Daisy Tu Ching, a nurse and member of a Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan web site).

Tan's father fled to America to escape the Chinese Civil War and her mother escaped Shanghai prior to the Communist takeover in 1949. Daisy had to escape an abusive husband and lost custody of her first three daughters during her attempts to come to America.

In a recent interview, the best-selling novelist said that when she was growing up, she knew that, deep inside, she wanted to be an artist (Harper Collins). However, she was not encouraged to pursue this dream, and was convinced that she would not make money as an artist.

Her…...

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Bibliography

Amy Tan Interview. Harper Collins Publisher. Sun Valley, Idaho. June 28, 1996.

Amy Tan, Best Selling Novelist." American Academy of Achievement 2002. The Hall of Arts: www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tanObio-1

The Amy Tan website:

www.members.tripod.com/~Rosella/AmyTan

One is virtually provided with the chance to become 'friends' with the narrators as the respective individual realizes that he or she is being told personal things and that it appears that the story-tellers actually go as far as to consider that they are telling their stories to someone that they have a special relationship with.
Amy Tan is putting across averly's personal feelings to readers as she expresses her understanding of her mother's thinking. "My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money" (Tan 132). hen looking at things from the narrator's perspective, it almost feels impossible not to sympathize with averly and not to consider that it would be essential for you, as a reader, to support her by using…...

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Works cited:

Baldwin, James, "Sonny's Blues," (Klett International, 31.01.2000 )

Bierce, Ambrose, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," (Forgotten Books, 1948)

Selvadurai, Shyam, "Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers," (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 07.04.2005 )

Tan, Amy, "The Joy Luck Club," (Penguin 2006)

Sadly, it takes her mother's death to bring June really close to her mother, and close to understanding her culture and beliefs. Tan writes, "I found some old Chinese silk dresses, the kind with little slits up the sides. I rubbed the old silk against my skin, then wrapped them in tissue and decided to take them home with me" (Tan 212). She finally begins to understand some of the things that were important to her mother, but it comes too late for her to share her findings with her mother, or to even tell her she understands.

In conclusion, the generational differences and cultural gaps between mothers and daughters in this novel are largely universal and represent the gaps that grow between immigrant families and their children. Often, the children do not identify with or understand their parents' ties to their homeland, and they do not appreciate their heritage and…...

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References

Discovering the Ethnic Name and the Genealogical Tie in Amy Tan's the 'Joy Luck Club'."

Hamilton, Patricia L. "Feng Shui, Astrology, and the Five Elements: Traditional Chinese Belief in Amy Tan's the 'Joy Luck Club'."

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Thorndike, ME: Thorndike Press, 1989.

In the same way that she discovered her father's 'human' character, June also discovered, albeit already too late, how her mother had once shown her vulnerable, desperate side, which happened when she was about to make the hardest decision in her life, and that was to leave her daughters in order to survive the war. This story made June realize that she was lucky that her mother did not leave her, and cherished her as her daughter despite her longing for her other daughters in China. Her guilt for treating her mother unfairly was mirrored in her confession, when she said, " They'll think I'm responsible, that she died because I didn't appreciate her."

This statement has a ring of truth in it: it was indeed possible that her mother was gradually dying inside due to emotional hurt because June never understood and never tried to understand her. Suyuan's frustration at…...

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Work cited

Tan, A. (1989). The Joy Luck Club. NY: Ivy Books.

American literature has become much more diverse as authors of different cultures that now in live in the United States write about their heritage or life in this country. One of these authors is Amy Tan.
Both of Tan's parents were Chinese immigrants. One of her first successful books, the Kitchen God's Wife, told of the traumatic early life of her mother, Daisy. She had divorced an abusive husband, had lost custody of her three daughters and was forced to leave them behind when escaping Shanghai before the Communist takeover in 1949. Tan's mother also witnessed Tan's grandmother committing suicide. When Tan's mother reached America, she married John Tan. They had three children, Amy and her two brothers. John Tan had earlier left China when the Chinese evolution became too harrowing (Academy of Achievement).

Tragedy struck when Tan's father and oldest brother both died of brain tumors within a year of…...

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References Cited

Academy of Achievement. Amy Tan. Retrieved from website October 13, 2005.

 http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tan.html 

High-Context Cultures, Low-Context Cultures. The Joy Luck Club. Retrieved from website October 14, 2005.

Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston both compose fiction through the lenses of gender and ethnicity. Both authors use symbolism, imagery, and rhetorical strategies to provide unique insight into Asian American experiences and identity. Likewise, both Tan and Kingston show how gender impacts their self-concept and status within the overarching patriarchal society. Their work can and should be read concurrently to best appreciate the gamut, diversity, and breath of the Asian-American female experience. Although Tan and Kingston naturally have different perspectives based on their own personal experiences and also on their different social and political goals, these two authors share much in common in terms of their elucidation of how racism and patriarchy intersect in American society. Amy Tan’s most famous work is likely The Joy Luck Club, which focuses on mother-daughter relationships within the Chinese American subculture. The emphasis on mother-daughter relationships stresses the significance of gender to identity construction.…...

A further stereotype about Asians that cannot be ignored is that regarding the sexuality of the Asian female. "Asian Pacific women have generally been perceived by Hollywood with a mixture of fascination, fear, and contempt....If we are 'good' we are childlike, submissive, silent, and eager for sex or else we are tragic victim types. And if we are not silent, suffering doormats, we are demonized dragon ladies -- cunning, deceitful, sexual provocateurs." (Hagedorn) the pornography industry is highly populated with Asian women fulfilling the male desire for sexual stereotypes. Japanese school girls in short skirts with lollipops and repressed sexual needs are a popular fetish. The subservient Geisha wife in kimonos, pale make-up, and most importantly donning a subservient, unthreatening, submissive sexual attitude is another. Look again and one is certain to find the "dragon lady" as mentioned above: the over-sexed, wild, uninhibited Asian girl looking to please as many…...

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Bibliography

Hagedorn, Jessica. "Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck."

Mura, David. "Fargo and the Asian-American Male."

Shah, Sonia. "Race and Representation: Asian-Americans." 1999.

Gilliam, Frank. "The Local Television News Media's Picture of Children - 2001." Study on Race, Ethnicity and the News. October 2001.

From the Refreshing to the Filling, Salads Can Do It All

Introduction

Salads have long been recognized for their versatility and nourishing qualities in literary works. From their refreshing simplicity to their ability to satisfy hunger, salads have played a diverse role in shaping culinary experiences and cultural narratives. This essay will delve into the literary depictions of salads, exploring their multifaceted benefits and the ways in which they contribute to the broader themes of health, satisfaction, and social well-being.

The Refreshing and Revitalizing

In literature, salads often embody a sense of freshness and vitality. The crisp greens, vibrant colors, and tangy dressings create....