The Joy Luck Club: Difference between revisions

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The book centers around four mother-daughter pairs living in San Francisco. The mothers are Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. The daughters are, respectively, Jing-Mei (June) Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All of the mothers immigrated from China during their lives, and much of the book talks about their relationships with their mothers, with the exception of Suyuan Woo. The book is structured in sixteen chapters, each narrated in first person by one of the characters; the first four are told by the mothers, the next eight are told by the daughters, and the last four are told by the mothers, all with the exception of Suyuan Woo, who is dead at the beginning of the novel, so Jing-Mei takes her chapters. Most of each chapter is dedicated to a flashback of the narrator's childhood, usually regarding a particular incident or series of events involving that character's mother.

 

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Or rather, abusive aunt and uncle in young An-Mei's case. Lena thinks she encounters one in the apartment next to her as a child, but it turns out the mother and daughter are only playing.

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The film kept most of the stories (with some changes), but trimmed some parts.

** 4-year-old Bing's death.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]: Lindo's first marriage, to a [[Spoiled Brat]].

** Probably a deconstruction for Rose and Lena. They are not happy with their husbands for the husbands do not understand them and vice-versa. They eventually divorce.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: Lindo's plan of getting out of her first marriage.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: ''Entirely'' unwillingly, on {{spoiler|Suyuan's}} part.

* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Mr. St. Clair could never understand his wife fully because of this, resulting in a marriage run mostly by tolerance than true love. Also a common case between the mothers and daughters.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Waverly's fiance giving her a mink coat.

* [[The Roaring Twenties]]: In the sequences with the mothers' childhoods. More evident in An-mei and Ying-ying's stories, given how they were raised in wealthy families with some Western influence.

[[Category:The Joy Luck Club]]

[[Category:Literature]]