Symbolism In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

In the first chapter of the Joy Luck Club, Jing-mei’s mother, has died recently. Jing-mei was asked by her father to take over her mother’s corner of the MahJong table in the Joy Luck Club. The Joy Luck Club was revived by Jing-mei’s mother, Syuan, in San Francisco, two years before Jing-mei was born. Jing-mei’s mother picked three other women to join the Joy Luck Club, An-mei, Lindo, and Ying-ying. She picked these three women because they had endured horrible things in China like she had. Jing-mei’s mother organized the Joy Luck Club to lift the spirits of others and herself and wish for future luck. She had the idea to create a gathering for women, who like her had experienced terrible things in China. The idea was that every week one of the women would host a party to raise money and to raise their spirits. During the club meetings, they would serve a huge meal for everyone, play a game of mahjong, eat more, and tell each other stories of the past. The weekly gathering …show more content…
She mentions how her mother would repeatedly tell her the story of the origins of the Joy Luck Club, until one day her mother told her a new ending to the story. When Jing-mei’s mother was a young woman, her first husband moved her and their two babies to the city of Kweilin to keep them away from the Japanese war. One day an army officer told her to leave Kweilin, before the Japanese marched into Kweilin. Suyuan placed everything she owned and her two babies in a wheelbarrow and left Kweilin on her own. She walked for miles, until the wheel of the wheelbarrow broke and she was unable to continue to carry all of her belongings. By the time she had reached Chungking she had lost everything, including her babies, except for three fancy dresses. Suyuan chose to tell Jing-mei the true ending to the Kweilin story because she wanted Jing-mei to know that she has two daughters that she had to leave behind in