Cultural differences often cause divides between people. Within social groups people tend to gravitate towards those that share similar traits; so when, within a family unit, there are cultural differences the relationships gain a distance that eventually hinders the intimacy that is usually seen in families. The mother-daughter relationships in The Joy Luck Club exemplify the distance that can be caused by these cultural divides. Amy Tan uses families built of Chinese immigrants and first generation Chinese-American children to display the cultural disparities between China and America and the effects such disparity has on the individuals within those families. Each mother-daughter relationship in The Joy Luck Club exemplifies a characteristic …show more content…
The Woo family focuses on the cultural differences June Woo faces as she explores her mother’s culture in the wake of her mother’s death. The differences she faces are common among first generation Chinese Americans; often “[c]omparative studies have consistently characterized Chinese parents as highly restrictive and controlling, or ‘authoritarian,’ where unquestioned obedience to authority is stressed” while “[a]mong Euro-Americans, an authoritarian parenting style has been associated with mixed consequences for child development” (Gorman 73). These contrasting attitudes on parenting cause conflict in teaching young first generation Chinese Americans as their parents may want to follow a more strict parenting style, yet American culture puts emphasis on individualism, which would hinder the obedience-driven structure of traditional …show more content…
The St. Claire family is used to give a differentiating cultural make up of an immigrant Chinese / Chinese American family as only one parent is a Chinese immigrant while the other is American. This allows for Amy Tan to present cultural rifts and complications within communication. Lena St. Claire is used to represent the complications of language brokering as it appears in cross-cultural scenarios. The experience of language brokering is common among immigrant families as “children often … acquire fluency in English at a faster rate than their parents, [and] are expected to broker for their parents by translating for them” ultimately leading the child to be in a position of power in the parent-child relationship (Chao 271). The power position that is held by the child can “lead to brokers [, the child,] having diminished respect for and [diminished] identification with parents as authority figures and role models” which then can lead to rifts within the parent-child relationship (Chao 275). Amy Tan’s character Lena is put in the language brokering position as her father does not speak any form of Chinese. This ultimately puts Lena in a place of power, giving her leeway to modify her mother’s statements when she is translating (Tan 112). This power in the relationship leads to Lena seeing her mother as “crazy” and ultimately losing, not all but some, respect for her mother (Tan
First of all, the Joy Luck Club had so many conflicts and misunderstandings between almost all of the characters. Most of the conflicts were between Waverly and her mom. Some conflicts were just differences between Waverly and her mother because of the generation gap between the two. Her mom didn’t like the things she would do and she could never see herself doing things that Waverly was doing back when she was a child. There were also cultural and martial conflicts throughout the book also.
The Joy Luck Club is Amy Tan's first novel. It consists of four sections with sixteen short stories. One of the main issues of the novel is the relationship between Chinese mothers and their Chinese – American daughters. ‘‘Your mother is in your bones.’’ (Tan 1998, 30) There is a cultural chasm between them because of the difference in the way they were brought up and different influences of the environment.
Four Chinese mothers have migrated to America. Each hope for their daughter’s success and pray that they will not experience the hardships faced in China. One mother, Suyuan, imparts her knowledge on her daughter through stories. The American culture influences her daughter, Jing Mei, to such a degree that it is hard for Jing Mei to understand her mother's culture and life lessons. Yet it is not until Jing Mei realizes that the key to understanding who her
Amy Chua stirs up a controversial topic of the differences between Chinese and Western parenting styles in the article “Adapted from Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”. One may believe that the Chinese way is too harsh as others may believe Western parents are too lenient. Any parent can relate to one or both parenting styles that Chua is discussing. This article is reaching out to parents who are unaware of the Chinese and Western parenting styles. To give the readers a better understanding of how each parenting style works. This article was based on Chua’s personal experiences as a Chinese parent.
In the Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, focuses on mother-daughter relationships. She examines the lives of four women who emigrated from China, and the lives of four of their American-born daughters. The mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying St. Clair had all experienced some life-changing horror before coming to America, and this has forever tainted their perspective on how they want their children raised. The four daughters: Waverly, Lena, Rose, and Jing-Mei are all Americans. Even though they absorb some of the traditions of Chinese culture they are raised in America and American ideals and values. This inability to communicate and the clash
Communication between generations has always been an issue and with that, a misunderstanding of the past and culture comes along. In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, she shows the stories of four Chinese mothers and their American born daughters. Throughout the novel, the characters encounter both external and internal conflicts in order to contrast the different relationships held by the mothers and daughters with their past and where they came from. The mother-daughter pair of Lindo and Waverly Jong shows the gap between the generations very clearly. Everything is different, from language to name to marriage.
The complexitities of any mother-daughter relationship go much deeper then just their physical features that resemble one another. In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, the stories of eight Chinese women are told. Together this group of women forms four sets of mother and daughter pairs. The trials and triumphs, similarities and differences, of each relationship with their daughter are described, exposing the inner makings of four perfectly matched pairs. Three generations of the Hsu family illustrate how both characteristics and
In the novel The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan, there are several stories that intertwine into one novel. Each of the stories takes place China where the roles and the actions of woman are vastly different compared to American tradition. In the different stories, they all are about different mothers and daughters. Throughout the book, the reader can see the development in each relationship between mother and daughter with their conflicting backgrounds from China to America.
According to Amy Chua in “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, the parenting styles of “Chinese mothers” are much more effective than “Western parents”. Chua writes her title most likely in an attempt to attract attention and cause controversy. She argues that the parenting styles of Chinese mothers may seem as though they don’t care for their children, but that isn’t the case. Chua states that Chinese mothers push their children so they “can be ‘the best’, and that ‘academic achievement reflects successful parenting,’” (Chua 262). She states, on the other hand, that Western parents are too worried about their child’s self-esteem. She argues in her article that Chinese parents can get away with things Western parents can’t such as calling their children “garbage”, their children owe their parents everything, and the parents know what is best for their children and override all of their children’s own wishes. Although Chua raises the point that Chinese mothers tend to have more successful children than Western parent, the children’s mental health, and sometimes physical health, from these extreme acts of parenting can put the child in
The stories "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" by Amy Chua and "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan portray how children are raised in Chinese-American culture and what beliefs predominate in Chinese-American communities. In Chinese-American culture, mothers approach raising their children differently from many other American parents. While there are many similarities among these Chinese parents, variation can still be seen in the level of persistence and determination each individual parent pours into their parenting. These differences in persistence can be what make the difference in the results.
Whether it is wholesome or tough love, the bond of a mother and daughter can never be broken. “The Joy Luck Club” is the epitome of this notion. The anthology contains a series of sixteen vignettes, four of which belonging to one of each of the four members of The Joy Luck Club. These vignettes cover the perspectives of mothers who immigrated to America from China, along with the flip side point of view, taken over by each of their daughters. In the anthology, Tan reflects on her past life and incorporates it into the book, exploring cultural, relationship, and internal conflicts.
The teenage years and transition to adulthood is in itself a very difficult period. Blending or fitting in are omnipresent issues that must be dealt with. For children of immigrants, this difficulty is only intensified through language. Both Amy Tan and Khang Nguyen strategically use narrative anecdotes and employ several rhetorical devices to illustrate this struggle in their works, “Mother Tongue” and “The Happy Days,” respectfully. Amy Tan chooses her childhood home as the primary setting of her work. This allows her to focus primarily on her conversations and interactions with her mother. However, she also gives several anecdotes in which her mother’s background and improper English negatively affected her, outside the home. Through
Because America is such a diverse country, there are many differences between cultures of various immigrant groups. Members of each culture, have their own beliefs and values regarding what they think is right. The cultural diversity allows for each person to have a different view of things. Amy Chua’s essay “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” she describes her way of parenting her two daughters following Chinese values about education. She explains how Western parents are much more lenient than Chinese parents with their children and education. Chua gives examples of how she raised her daughter Lulu and Sophia which lead them to achieve success. She makes comparisons between Western and Chinese parenting styles throughout the essay and concludes that both types of parents want the best for their children, but just approach parenting it in different ways. In the article, “Chinese vs Western Mothers: Q&A with Amy Chua,” Amy Chua is interviewed by Belinda Luscombe where she clarifies how her Chinese method of parenting did not hurt her children the way many readers thought it did. Chua explains that her relationship with her two daughters is very strong and believes there are many effective ways of parenting in addition to the Chinese approach. Chua’s essay shows the Chinese immigrant approach to parenting and gives insight into why so many children of Chinese parents are so successful. Discussing the cultural differences shows the risk of stereotyping groups where feelings
In the movie, the Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, we see many examples of the challenges of intercultural translations. The movie portrays cultural conflict between Chinese culture and the American culture as portrayed by the lives of four mothers and their daughters. The mothers were born and raised in China, adopting the high-content Chinese culture, while their daughters, born and raised in America, adopted the low-context American
Although this misunderstanding might be rooted from the systematic differences in thinking patterns and generation gap, we will focus specifically on the linguistic aspect of the issue. Throughout the movie, there are many unsuccessful attempts of both the mothers and daughters to communicate their ideas to the other, leading to frustration and a mutual lack of sympathy. To better understand the reasons for this conflict in verbal communication, we have to look closely into the differences in fundamental construct of language in China and America. This difference does not necessarily be the difference in language, since both communicating parties are using English. However, it is