Barriers Between Mothers and Their Daughters
The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989 by Amy Tan, portrays the stories of four Chinese immigrant families living in the city of San Francisco. The novel is structured in a manner that it represents a game of mahjong, four parts are divided into four sections, two sections being told by the mother and two sections told by the daughter, in order to create sixteen chapters with each mother and their respective daughter able to share stories of their lives, in their own point of view. The only expectation is one mother, Suyuan Woo, who dies before the novel begins, her story is known through her daughter Jing-Mei, her husband and what the other members of the Joy Luck Club know about her. Each character faces different challenges throughout their lives, from broken marriages to death of a loved one to miscommunication. Throughout the story, at one point or another, the characters are faced with the …show more content…
The barriers between the mothers and their daughters, is mostly due to the fact that are unable to truly communicate with one another. Even though the daughters know some Chinese and the mothers speak little English, there is the inability to accurately translate the meaning of their words. Before the novel actually begins, there is a parable that talks about a mother talking about having a daughter who “speaks only perfect American English” (Tan 3) and she waits for the day when she can tell her daughter about the feather of a swan she wants to give to her but she is never able to say it in the “perfect American English”, it again shows the cultural and linguistic barrier between the mothers and their daughters. To know the meaning behind their mothers’ words, the daughters need to know the Chinese culture to fully grasp what their mothers are trying to
The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989 by Amy Tan, portrays the stories of four Chinese immigrant families living in the city of San Francisco. The novel is structured in a manner that it represents a game of mahjong, four parts are divided into four sections, two sections being told by the mother and two sections told by the daughter, in order to create sixteen chapters with each mother and their respective daughter able to share stories of their lives, in their own point of view. The only expectation is one mother, Suyuan Woo, who dies before the novel begins, her story is known through her daughter Jing-Mei, her husband and what the other members of the Joy Luck Club know about her. Each character faces different challenges throughout their lives, from broken marriages to death of a loved one to miscommunication. Throughout the story, at one point or another, the characters are faced with the …show more content…
The barriers between the mothers and their daughters, is mostly due to the fact that are unable to truly communicate with one another. Even though the daughters know some Chinese and the mothers speak little English, there is the inability to accurately translate the meaning of their words. Before the novel actually begins, there is a parable that talks about a mother talking about having a daughter who “speaks only perfect American English” (Tan 3) and she waits for the day when she can tell her daughter about the feather of a swan she wants to give to her but she is never able to say it in the “perfect American English”, it again shows the cultural and linguistic barrier between the mothers and their daughters. To know the meaning behind their mothers’ words, the daughters need to know the Chinese culture to fully grasp what their mothers are trying to