In amy tans novel, the joy luck club, each female character experiences different degrees of tragedy, but suyuan woos life appears to the most tragic. In both china and america, suyuan starts the club in order to bring together a community of women to celebrate their happiness and luck in life despite. The joy luck club novel project gutenberg selfpublishing. Rather than focusing on the negative, they focus on. The success of tans book increased publishers willingness to gamble on first books. Suyuan woo was also the founder of the joy luck club, which was started in china and then set back up in america. The members of the joy luck club are four aging aunties who gather regularly in san francisco to play mahjongg, eat chinese food and gossip about their children. As the founding member of both the chinese and the san francisco branches of the joy luck club. In 1944, suyuan was forced to flee china, leaving both her husband who was. The joy luck club is a group of four women from china who meet after they immigrate to america. Being friends doesnt exclude the possibility of competition between the women of the joy luck club. In china, tradition is an overwhelming part of the society and the life of its citizens. The purpose was for some women to be able to relax and be happy even in hard times, which proves that suyuan woo was able to find something good in every situation.
Rather than focusing on the negative, they focus on the positive. The joy luck club consists of four women, one to fill each corner of suyuans mah jong table. One of the women, suyuan woo designed the joy luck club on a club she formed with some women while they were in china during the japanese invasion of world war ii. Suyuan and jing meis relationship in the joy luck club in the joy luck club by amy tan, jingmei and her mother have a very rocky relationship. The joy luck club is a 1989 novel written by amy tan. Suyuan and jingmeis relationship in the joy luck club essay.
Suyuan is the mother of jingmei and the wife of canning woo. The character of suyuan woo in the joy luck club from. Character profile for suyuan woo from the joy luck club. The joy luck club by amy tan acknowledgments the joy luck club eforeward feathers from a thousand li away o the joy luck club. Jingmei and suyuans motherdaughter relationship free essay. The joy luck club 1989 is a bestselling novel written by amy tan.
The mahjongg game and meal provided camaraderie for four women and helped them maintain their hope even after trauma. She lacks her mothers drive and selfconfidence but finds her identity after her mothers death. The book begins in the voice of june jingmei woo, a woman in her thirties, who lives in san francisco. Suyuans death is what sets off the events of the joy luck club. She was forced to leave her twin babies on the road in china. The members have mainly played mahjong and told each others stories over the years. China, where the mothers grew up, contemporary san francisco, where the daughters and mothers live, and america in general. The book has received incredible popular and critical success. Clair, her days are filled with painful memories of life in china. The joy luck club, amy tan the joy luck club is a 1989 novel written by amy tan. Joy luck club analysis about the author what i believe my books are about is relationships and family. The joy luck club chapters 12 summary and analysis.
At the meetings they gossiped while playing and ate a variety of foods. The character of jingmei june woo in the joy luck club. Instead, she struggles to create happiness and success where she finds it lacking. Clair jingmei woo rose hsu jordan waverly jong lena st. Why did suyuan woo have to leave kweilin in the joy luck club. June is the main narrator in the joy luck club, as her vignettes specifically bridge the histories between mothers and daughters, and between childhood memories and presentday events.
The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four. The joy luck club was adapted into a feature film in 1994, for which amy tan was a coscreenwriter with ron bass and a coproducer with bass and wayne wang. As a result, we become familiar with three different times and venues. You could work for the government and get good retirement. I am to replace my mother, whose seat at the mah jong table has been empty since she died two months ago. In the joy luck club, suyuan woo has given jingmei the green jade in the chinese new year which is the last year she has seen her mother. A stunning literary achievement, the joy luck club explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. Her father has asked her to take over her mothers corner of the mah jong table in the joy luck club. The club has been maintained for many years and undergone many changes since its inceptionfor instance, the husbands of the women now attend, and they pool their money to buy stock.
By the beginning of the novel, suyuan has passed away, but her presence throughout the book is incredibly strong and vibrant. Approaching the text it is easy to see that the joy luck club began as a series of short stories which tan has collected and integrated to form a novel because of the elements and qualities that its four sections and various subsec. Mar, 2016 the joy luck club was something suyuan jings mother and three other woman can focus on. Suyuan woo, the founder of the joy luck club, barely escaped wartorn.
The book is set in two phases, one, lives of women in a time where china during and before the second world war was facing hardships. The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided into four sections to create sixteen chapters. Suyuan and jingmeis relationship in the joy luck club. The joy luck club by amy tan has been nine months on the new york times bestseller list. Suyuan innovated this particular version of the club long ago in 1949, the year she arrived in. Why did suyuan woo have to leave kweilin in the joy luck. Therefore, unlike the other mothers and daughters in the novel, who actively narrate their histories through the novel, suyuan is only experienced through stories told by her daughter june, her husband canning, and her three joy luck club friends. The the joy luck club quotes below are all either spoken by jingmei june woo or refer to jingmei june woo. Tan develops a relationship between suyuan and jingmei that is distant in the beginning due to culture differences and miscommunication, but gradually strengthens with time and understanding. Mar 14, 2010 the joy luck club is an informal institution started by suyuan woo upon her arrival in san francisco in 1949. The title of the book, the joy luck club, is taken from suyuan woos establishment of a gathering between women, first in china, and later in san francisco.
The daughters must first reject their mothers in order to become independent individuals, later, the daughters. The women take turns hosting a wonderful banquet every week, where the club members all eat, play mah jong, tell stories and jokes, and just generally liven their. The mother figure, suyuan, who is the founder of the joy luck club, does not take narration in the book. Instead, her daughter, jingmei, narrates four stories including the first and last section which add additional continuity to the book.
Suyuan explains why she organized the original joy luck club in wartorn china and how others reacted. An introduction to amy tans the joy luck club for high school students, which includes relevant biographical background on the author, explanations of various literary devices and techniques, and literary criticism for the novice readerprovided by publisher. The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts divided. Clair i know what static and dynamic characters are im just having a hard time determining if a character is static or dynamic. Structurally, her narratives serve as bridges between the two generations of storytellers, as jingmei speaks both for herself and for her recently deceased mother, suyuan. It is with this mentality that she founds the original joy luck club while awaiting the japanese invasion of china in kweilin. Suyuan woo comes to america without her twin daughters. Despite suffering many misfortunes in her life, suyuan is a willful woman who does not focus on the hardships in life but instead attempts to. An intricately patterned novel whose author thought she was writing a shortstory collection, it is also a motherdaughter saga by a writer whose own mother wanted her to be anything but a writer. They emigrated from their native country, china, remarried, and gave birth to children in america. It is a hard concept for chinese immigrants to become americanized because of there rich and strict traditions however, suyuan woo wanted another chance to have a. The joy luck club is set primarily in modernday san franciscos chinatown, but much of it occurs in the form of flashbacks to the mothers lives in china. She recognizes they are suffering as she is, so she starts the joy luck club.
Jingmei and suyuans motherdaughter relationship free. Anmei hsus mother had to give up a lot for her, including her own life, and anmei eventually lost her youngest son who drowned in the ocean. Which characters in the joy luck club are static and which. Her americanborn daughter, jingmei june woo, works as a copywriter for a small advertising firm. Fight club the joy luck club in amy tans novel, the joy luck club, each female character experiences different degrees of tragedy, but suyuan woos life appears to the most tragic. Overview amy tans the joy luck club is itself a joyful study in luck. The novel highlights the lives of four chinese american immigrant families in san francisco, california who started a club known as the joy luck club, playing the popular chinese. Suyuan woo suyuans story is told through her daughter. The character of suyuan woo in the joy luck club from litcharts. Suyuan started the first joy luck club in kweilin during the second sinojapanese war. Despite suffering many misfortunes in her life, suyuan is a willful woman who does not focus on the hardships in life but instead attempts to create happiness. Character profile for suyuan woo from the joy luck club page 1. Junes mother started the first joy luck club in china during the second world war.
The joy luck club jingmei woo my father has asked me to be the fourth corner at the joy luck club. The joy luck club is an informal institution started by suyuan woo upon her arrival in san francisco in 1949. In a way, jingmei woo is the main character of the joy luck club. Tans answer appears on the books dedication page, emphasizing the novels adherence to truth. Suyuan is naturally a hopeful and forwardlooking woman, and the club reinforced and spread this hope to others. The joy luck club was formed by four women in san francisco.
Your mother was a very strong woman, a good mother. Suyuan woo cannot be helped, my mother said when i was fifteen and had vigorously denied that i. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one. Summary of amy tans the joy luck club 93 words 6 pages. They get together once a month to play mah jong, eat, and tell stories. May 25, 2012 the main characters of the book include suyuan woo, anmei hsu, lindo jong and yingying st. The joy luck club was something suyuan jings mother and three other woman can focus on. One of our first introductions to suyuan is as the founder of the joy luck club or rather, two joy luck clubs. My father thinks she was killed by her own thoughts. Suyuan started this game and joy luck club when she first immigrated to the united.
Suyuan finds three other chinese immigrant women to play mah jongg, cook and. Although lindo and suyuan are best friends, they constantly criticize and attempt to oneup each other. Suyuans daughter june mingna wen replaced her when suyuan died. It is with this mentality that she founds the original joy luck club while. Sensing that the women of these families have also borne unspeakable tragedies, suyuan invites the ladies to form the joy luck club. Readers learn that june assumes that suyuan wanted her to be the best when, really, suyuan simply wanted june to be the best version of herself. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Suyuan woo had to leave behind her twin daughters on the side of the road when the japanese were making their way through china, which is pictured above. The the joy luck club quotes below are all either spoken by suyuan woo or refer to suyuan woo. The original joy luck club was formed in china, by one of the current members, suyuan woo.
Suyuan woo is a strong and willful woman who refuses to focus on her hardships. It focuses on four chinese american immigrant families in san francisco who start a club known as the joy luck club, playing the chinese game of mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods. She also has the most stories in the novel the joy luck club, two kinds, best quality, and a pair of tickets since she represents both herself and her deceased mother, suyuan. Waliyah i feel that this book is great for a book club. The joy luck club is a strong sense of tradition and devotion they have for their country. Clair france nuyen, anmei hsu lisa lu, and suyuan woo kieu chinh, in san francisco.
She had a new idea inside her head, said my father. Clair the twentysix malignant gates o rules of the game. My mother believed you could be anything you wanted in america. From the moment i first started reading it, i knew it was going to be incredible. Clair and their daughters jingmei woo, rose hsu jordan, waverly jong and lena st. The narrator in the joy luck club, jingmei, matures as a woman through her relationship with her mother, suyuan. Her mother, suyuan, has died unexpectedly, and now. Master storyteller amy tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters in this new york times bestseller. Every book on your english syllabus summed up in a quote from the office. The difference between their attitudes doesnt represent conformity versus rebellion, as june believes, but rather optimism versus pessimism. By the beginning of the novel, suyuan has passed away, but her presence throughout the book. Suyuan meets these three other immigrants through the first chinese baptist church in 1949. When the novel opens, a mother, suyuan woo, has died of a cerebral aneurysm, and her husband has asked their thirtysixyearold daughter, jingmei june, to assume her mothers role and take her seat at the next meeting of the joy luck club.
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