beloved and joy luck club

A detailed Summary of beloved and joy luck club


Motherhood is a journey that women embark upon in life and endure many struggles, hopes, loves, fears and worries, and opportunities. As a mother, the responsibilities come long before the child is brought into the world. A woman is a mother from conception, and must nurture and care for her child from this point forward. As her child grows up, she can only do her best to give every ounce of love and care she has to make her child's life better. Mothers have many responsibilities including protecting and providing for their children. In most recent years our view of motherhood has altered from the "stay-at-home mom," but has altered even more from what a mother was two hundred years ago.

How motherhood is viewed also changes by culture. Ethnic background plays a major part in the role that mothers play. In the novels The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, and Beloved, by Toni Morrison, motherhood is shown from two very extreme situations. In The Joy Luck Club, the story line is about four Chinese mothers who have immigrated to the United States, and their American-raised daughters. The reader witnesses what a role the differences in culture play for the relationships between these mothers and daughters. We see through The Joy Luck Club


Likewise, the Chinese mothers of The Joy Luck Club want to protect their daughters from the hardships that they had to withstand. Suyuan had to leave her children on the side of the road. An-mei had to witness her mother being disrespected and disregarded as only a Fourth-wife. Lindo was forced into and arranged marriage where she had no say in her future, and Ying-Ying was part of a bad marriage and drowned her baby.

that motherhood in the Chinese culture is seen differently than we may be normally used to. In Beloved, the story is set in 1873, a time when slavery still existed in the Southern states and escaped slaves in the "free" North could still be taken back to the plantations in the South. The main character, Sethe, managed to get three of her children out of the South and into Ohio, and also escaped while pregnant to the North. However, to protect her children from being taken back to the South and made slaves, she killed one, and attempted to kill two others. Her actions in the novel cause the reader to question how good of a mother she really is. In both of these novels, common roles are played by the mothers to do what they think is best for their children. Through these novels we are given two views of motherhood, but not before we see the similar goals and responsibilities, including providing for and protecting their children, that the mothers have.

During the beginning of a child's life, the mother is the only one that can provide for all of its basic needs. Later on in their children's life, a mother also wants to provide them with her wisdom and advice. In Beloved Sethe travels to Ohio, having recently given birth to one child, and about to give birth to another. Her goal is to get to her first of thes

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1169
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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