History, Culture and Identity of Mothers and Daughters in...

History, Culture and Identity of Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is a novel that deals with many controversial issues. These issues unfold in her stories about four Chinese mothers and their American raised daughters. The novel begins with the mothers talking about their own childhood’s and the relationship that they had with their mothers. Then it focuses on the daughters and how they were raised, then to the daughters current lives, and finally back to the mothers who finish their stories. Tan uses these mother-daughter relationships to describe conflicts of history, culture, and identity and how each of these themes are intertwined with one another through the mothers and†¦show more content†¦Their roles as women in China were also very different than their daughters’ roles as women in America. They were taught to be obedient and to listen to and respect their parents and their husbands. They do not understand why their daughters would want to disobey them, and their daughters do not und erstand why their mothers expect so much of them. What Jing-Mei doesn’t understand is that her mother just wants the best for her because she loves and cares about her. For example, when Jing-Mei Woo says that she will never be the kind of daughter that her mother, Suyaun wants her to be, her mother replies Only two kinds of daughters†¦Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter! (pg. 153). Suyaun is frustrated because she would have never acted the way Jing-Mei is acting, towards her own mother. Women in China could never act disobedient towards anyone, or else they would be disowned. With all the cultural clashes that the mothers and daughters are facing in The Joy Luck Club, it is hard for the characters to have a sense of identity. The daughters are torn between Chinese and American culture and are trying to figure out who they are. The daughters are also trying to figure out who their mothers are and how that affects them. The mothers have two lives, the ones they live in America and the ones that they left behind inShow MoreRelatedAmericanization in The Joy Luck Club Essay1963 Words   |  8 PagesAmericanization in The Joy Luck Club Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. 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