What is beautiful, good, or true? How does a person find themselves? For readers to understand Tan 's answers to these questions in Joy Luck, they must first learn about Tan 's life before she became an author.
Amy’s “Tan”gled Life In an interview, author Amy Tan stated, “Writing is an extreme privilege but it 's also a gift. It 's a gift to yourself and it 's a gift of giving a story to someone.” A gift both to and from her, The Joy Luck Club was the post-modern writer 's most well-known work. Although Tan initially struggled to meld together her dual identity as a Chinese American, her childhood experiences inspired her writing career during her adult life, eventually leading her to become one of the most recognized and respected Asian-Americans …show more content…
In the intro of the novel, Suyuan squanders her money to buy a supposedly beautiful swan for her future daughter. The swan is taken away at immigration customs, but she is able to fight enough to keep a feather. Years pass, but Suyuan still harbors the desire to give her child the feather. “For a long time now, the woman wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, ‘This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions’” (Tan, Joy Luck 17). Suyuan’s desire to give her future daughter any token of her love sets the bar for goodness in this opening scene (Eder 55). Later in the novel, the aunties in the Joy Luck Club pool their savings together so their deceased friend’s daughter can meet her half-sisters. This act overwhelms the recipient, Jing-mei. “I am crying now, sobbing and laughing at the same time, seeing but not understanding this loyalty to my mother” (Tan, Joy Luck 40). However, this act of goodness shown by the aunties ' sacrifice of lluxuries is not the only example of selflessness. In Jing-mei’s flashback, she remembers when her superstitious mother gave her the better crab, even though her mother thought the missing leg of the other crab was ominous. “I thought I was doing the right thing, taking the crab with the missing leg. But my mother cried, ‘No! No! Big one, you eat it. I cannot finish’”(Tan, Joy Luck 202). Suyuan pushes the bigger crab to Jing-mei and takes the “unlucky” crab instead. Suyuan’s continued love for her daughter and desire for Jing-mei to have the best is one of her last acts of goodness before her
Amy’s “Tan”gled Life In an interview, author Amy Tan stated, “Writing is an extreme privilege but it 's also a gift. It 's a gift to yourself and it 's a gift of giving a story to someone.” A gift both to and from her, The Joy Luck Club was the post-modern writer 's most well-known work. Although Tan initially struggled to meld together her dual identity as a Chinese American, her childhood experiences inspired her writing career during her adult life, eventually leading her to become one of the most recognized and respected Asian-Americans …show more content…
In the intro of the novel, Suyuan squanders her money to buy a supposedly beautiful swan for her future daughter. The swan is taken away at immigration customs, but she is able to fight enough to keep a feather. Years pass, but Suyuan still harbors the desire to give her child the feather. “For a long time now, the woman wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, ‘This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions’” (Tan, Joy Luck 17). Suyuan’s desire to give her future daughter any token of her love sets the bar for goodness in this opening scene (Eder 55). Later in the novel, the aunties in the Joy Luck Club pool their savings together so their deceased friend’s daughter can meet her half-sisters. This act overwhelms the recipient, Jing-mei. “I am crying now, sobbing and laughing at the same time, seeing but not understanding this loyalty to my mother” (Tan, Joy Luck 40). However, this act of goodness shown by the aunties ' sacrifice of lluxuries is not the only example of selflessness. In Jing-mei’s flashback, she remembers when her superstitious mother gave her the better crab, even though her mother thought the missing leg of the other crab was ominous. “I thought I was doing the right thing, taking the crab with the missing leg. But my mother cried, ‘No! No! Big one, you eat it. I cannot finish’”(Tan, Joy Luck 202). Suyuan pushes the bigger crab to Jing-mei and takes the “unlucky” crab instead. Suyuan’s continued love for her daughter and desire for Jing-mei to have the best is one of her last acts of goodness before her