The Joy Luck Club is a novel first published by Amy Tan in 1989. The 4 mothers depicted in the book all shared painful and heartbreaking memories at the time. the days in China during the Japanese occupation. All four fled to America at some point in their lives in hopes of starting a new life and forgetting the past. In 1949, the four mothers first met at a Baptist church and later played Mah Jong. They created a club for them to come together to play Mah Jong and feast on food together, which would later be known as "The Joy Luck Club". Because they are the first generation of Chinese immigrants, four of them remain strangers to this brand new society due to their lack of fluency in English. Unlike them, their children are well educated in America and speak rich English fluently. Throughout their lives, the 4 mothers strive to ensure ethnic continuity within their own microcultural structure of their families through the reminiscence of the past and the tales that they still remember. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essayIn a New York Times article where editors embark on a journey to study discrimination against native-born Americans Asia with Jennifer Lee, professor of sociology at Columbia University and author of "The Asian-American Achievement Paradox" and Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of public policy and political science at the University of California at Riverside and director of the National Asian-American Survey. In the article, Asians were seen as "illiterate, undesirable, full of 'filth and disease,' and unassimilable" as well as "marginal members of the human race," leading them to be seen as "invisible and insignificant in society. But through Amy Tan's portrayal of the 4 mother-daughter pairs, the book challenges these misogynistic stereotypes and shows how the 4 mother-daughter pairs do not conform to traditional expectations of them, but rather discover their true identities and their value. in America, the country where the great American dream is located. The Quest for Identity One of the major aspects the book revolves around is the quest for identity. Amy Tan presented the journey of discovery as arduous and fraught with peril. The 8 main characters have all arrived at some point in their lives, where they must define themselves in the midst of great personal losses or interpersonal conflicts. It was through these harsh and painful memories that they discovered the meaning of their lives and learned to fight for their rights in a patriarchal society. In The Scar, An-Mei's mother was portrayed as a dishonorable widow who chose to become the mother of a wealthy merchant. modest fourth concubine rather than remain a widow forever. She was exiled from her family and An-Mei learned not to grow up to be like her mother. It wasn't until later in Magpies that we discovered that An-Mei's mother was forced into marriage rather than by her own will. In patriarchal society, she therefore does not have the right to express herself as a modest widow. Despite her innocence, her beloved family members and others chose to believe the words of the wealthy merchant's second concubine. In the same chapter, she told An-Mei about the same turtle she saw in her mind. “Your tears do not erase your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that's why youmust learn to swallow your own tears. » While living with the rich merchant may seem wonderful, the pain and suffering she goes through are less known to others. Just like the quote, she learned to “swallow” her own tears. All her life, she lives in poverty. No one is there to share her grief and she is lonely. Her submissive nature allowed her to live her life despite the mistreatment she faced. She didn't fight for her rights even though her status is as low as that of a servant, she even chose to remain silent when the second wife bounces his son on her own lap, telling him that she is his only mother and that he will grow up. own this house and take care of it in its old age. Ultimately, she chose to end her life. But in her death, she taught An-Mei what is most important. She taught her to follow her instincts, to fight for what she wants and to express herself. In fact, the first step she takes to achieve what she wants is when she decides to leave her uncle's house and follow her mother in hopes of a better life. When An-Mei's aunt told her, "A girl is only as good as what she follows!" An-Mei, you think you can see something new, riding on a new cart. But in front of you, it's just the same old mule's ass. Your life is what you see in front of you. It is obvious that she was treated poorly when she shared the same roof with her uncle. Her life there was never happy, she even mentioned that it was a place "full of dark riddles and suffering that I could never understand." So we can conclude that after the heartbreaking loss of her mother, An-Mei finally found her true identity. Later in her life we ​​can see how she passed this thought on to her daughter. At the end of Half and Half, Rose exclaimed, "I think about Bing, how I knew he was in danger, how I let this happen." I think about my marriage, how I saw the signs, I really did. But I just let it happen. Ever since Rose's brother Bing died while she was supposed to care for him, she has lived with guilt and self-blame. As an adult, she is still unable to shake off the dark memory of the past. She knew that when Bing died, she watched him get closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, but she did nothing to stop that from happening. Because of this accident, Rose lost confidence in her destiny, she lost her identity and stopped formulating her own personal opinions. Early in her relationship with her husband, Rose enjoyed playing the role of victim to her husband's hero. She refused to make important decisions because making decisions made her confused. She is an easy person and as her mother says, a person who “lacks wood”. Later, Ted lost a court case because of his professional misconduct. From then on, Ted lost his curiosity and desire for his own identity because he was no longer sure of himself. He begins to force Rose to make every insignificant decision in their lives. And he finally got tired of Rose's constant indecision and deferral of opinion and wanted a divorce. Once again, she was aware of the collapse of their marriage but she did nothing. She was so caught up in Bing's accident. She even pointed out that “the Chinese had Chinese opinions. Americans had American views. And in almost every case, the American version was much better. It was only later that I discovered that there was a serious flaw in the American version. There were too many choices so it was easy to get lost and choose the wrong thing. » She thinks.