Gender Roles In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

1773 Words8 Pages
In The Joy Luck Club, a cultural novel by Amy Tan, the major social issue is focused around the aberration and relationship of Chinese cultured immigrant mothers and their Americanized daughters. The four mothers in this novel all came from horrendous pasts and tried to leave it behind as they traveledto America for a chance at a better life. The Daughter's in the novel live typical American life. To explain the culture and indifference linking the women, Tan uses numerous amounts of literary techniques such as point of view, symbolism, and flashbacks, to describe the issue being presented. Waverly Jong, Lindo Jong's daughter, refers to her past as an ordinary American. Waverly briefly describes her life and how she bonds with the game of chess. She then describes her problems with her mother. Waverly accuses her mother of using her as a token to show off since she was a Chess prodigy (Tan 89-101). Lindo pushed Waverly out of love and expected respect and admiration in return. But, Waverly thought of her mother as a furtive woman with selfish needs. This shows how simplistic and ignorant Waverly really is. Lindo on the other hand…show more content…
The author explains that a Chinese woman is expected to be a good wife for her chosen husband. Girls are promised at an early age to a man. The story "The Red Candle" (page 42) shows an arranged marriage where the author sacrificed her life to fulfill her parents' promise of marriage when she was only two years old. At the wedding the candle is lit at both ends and if neither end goes out it will be a successful marriage. Of course, the woman was the one held responsible for making the marriage a successful one. In an American marriage, each sex is held accountable for the success of a marriage. There are no arranged marriages and no matchmakers as in the Chinese culture. Marriage is expected to be for love not to fulfill promises between
Show More
Related

  • Essay On Gender Roles In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    1148 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, many of the older Chinese women pass on certain attitudes, or aspects of viewpoints about women and their roles to their American daughters. Eight women, each mother-daughter pairs, narrate the novel. Their common getaway is the Joy Luck Club where each of the members play on the Mahjong table, bring foods, and (try) to forget the past, but also make new and better memories together. The Joy Luck Club was formed in San Francisco in the 1940’s by four Chinese

    Read More

More about Gender Roles In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Open Document