Joy Luck Club - Literary Analysis

A detailed Summary of Joy Luck Club - Literary Analysis

"An A-?!?!? Why isn't it an A+?!? You have to do better or will just end up being an underachiver!!" This is the usual comments many people like me hear from their mothers and fathers. The daughters in the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan go through this kind of treatment to. This book shows many mother daughter relationships. The main characters consist of Lindo, Waverly, An-Mei, Suyuan, and Jing-Mei, also known as June. Lindo is mother to Waverly who is a very talented chess player. Suyuan is mother to Jing-Mei, who is a forced piano player by her mother. The story starts off in a house where the everyone has gotten together to have a party because June is going to China to meet her two long lost sisters. June's mother passed away and now June has to join the Joy Luck Club. As the story goes on the members tell stories of their lives. The tell of the hardships of their lifes, all of them about mother-daughter relationships and how the mothers compared them and expected to much of them. When mothers compare and expect to much from their children disastrous consequences occur.

Jing-Mei, the piano player in The Joy Luck Club, felt the most pressure from her mother, because her mother had to follow behind the word of the prod

Waverly, the chess player, also felt the pressure that her mother put on her. "All day she play chess. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings." (148) Ever since June and Waverly were babies their mothers have been comparing them. Each mother tries to find something good about their daughter to brag about. Although this can go to far. "..Why don't you learn how to play chess yourself!!!" screams Waverly at her mother Lindo. Waverly's mother loves to go out in public and brag about her daughter winning many chess tournaments. She goes through stores saying "this is my child Waverly, she is the chess champion." Waverly really does not like this, she feels very embarrassed. She does not like how her mother brags about her all the time. Her mother feels that through her daughter she can gain points in the Chinese community.

For the mothers this competitive nature was meant to build confidence and secure the success of their daughter, for the weaker and less confident personality, like Jing-Mei's, the inability to come out on top, effected her self-image and her capabilities for her success. It is her childhood failures that molded her adult life, she never won as a child and it became the same when she was an adult.

"In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn't get straight A's. I didn't become class president. I didn't get in to Stanford. I dropped out of college. For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anyt

Some common words found in the essay are:
Waverly Jing-Mei, Luck Club, Lindo Waverly's, Amy Tan, Waverly Suyuan, June Lindo, June Waverly, , June China, Joy Luck, luck club, joy luck club, joy luck, waverly chess, amy tan, play chess, lindo waverly, chess player, piano player, chinese community, daughter rise,

Approximate Word count = 1045
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels