Joy Luck Club

             Explore the ways in which Amy Tan portrays mother-daughter relationships. You may focus on one family to illustrate central themes in the novel.
             In the 'Joy Luck Club', Amy Tan explores the central themes in the novel. The central themes in this novel are the lack of communication between the mothers and daughters, cultural differences (between China and America), mothers' critical (attitudes and expectations for daughters) and finally the change in relationships, (increased understandings). Throughout the novel there is always a great sense of tradition, with this comes many beliefs and superstitions. Mothers in each case always bring these superstitions and beliefs around.
             One of the main themes in this novel is communication. There is a great lack of communication in nearly every single account. With this lack of communication between mother and daughter comes a great deal of misunderstandings. Since most of the mothers do not know English they cannot communicate with their husbands and daughters or sons easily. Therefore they cannot grasp the full meaning of what the mother is trying to say and people end up saying things for them.
             I have noticed a communication problem in many of the stories. I have chosen to talk about Waverly and Lindo. Waverly's conflict with Lindo arose from Waverly's misunderstandings of her mother's pride in her achievements. Waverly wanted chess to be her domain. She felt that Lindo invaded her sphere by hovering over her while she practiced chess. She did not like the way Lindo showed her off because she felt that Lindo was stealing some of her 'wind,' so to speak. At the time, Waverly did not understand that her mother's pride functioned as an invisible support.
             The lack of communication is also due to the difference in language, Chinese and English. This creates a barrier and effects how they communicate to a great extent. With the daughter being bro...

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Joy Luck Club. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 09:35, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/85474.html