Cultural Significance “The Joy Luck Club and My Life” Culture significance is one of the key elements in The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. What I mean by cultural significance is that the book shows the historic, social and spiritual value for past and present generations of mothers and daughters. The novel is about four Chinese mothers who have migrated from China to the United States, all the mothers migrated for different reasons, some were looking for a better life for their daughters and others wanted to run from the wars occurring near their homes. The mothers who grew up in China talk a lot about the Chinese culture and tell about the lives of their daughters and how migrating to the United States their daughters will have a better life.
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This is especially true for the mothers because they have more Chinese background than their daughters. The mothers have more obedience than the daughters in the book because that’s how growing up in China was. They had to be obedient otherwise there was a price to pay.In the book Suyuan Woo and her daughter jing-mei (June) Woo are arguing Suyuan says ,“Only two kinds of daughters…Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!” (142). Suyuan wants her daughter to learn this concept and act according to it. She wants her daughter to follow rules according to the way she grew up in China but, they aren’t in China anymore so Jing-mei(June) feels otherwise. the concept of obedience in Chinese means. One of the mothers complains about not being ableto teach her daughter “about the Chinese character…how to obey parents and listen yourmother’s mind.” (254) Another mother talk about herself and being obedient: “I was an obedientwife; just as they taught me.” (61) Other examples of Chinese culture are brought up with theidea of obedience, such as listening to the elders. Most of the daughters are told to obey theirparents because they are elderly and they know the best from experiences. Therefore, in China,most of the mother-daughter relations are based on this idea.. The conflict is that, in America,obedience is not so much important because people are taught to have their own ideas, ways ofliving and …show more content…
author talks at least a bit about the relation between destiny and the zodiac signs of differentcharacters. She then tells what actually happened. In most cases, the reader finds out that theinformation based on birth date is true. The characters of the novel experience these in their livesas if they are normal events happening every day. They are not surprised or amazed by any ofthis. Even more, they base their lives on fortunetelling. In one of the stories, this is brought up indetail because both the mother and the daughter have the same zodiac sign which means theyhave the same personalities. The mother explains a conflict between her and her daughter: “Shewill fight me because this is the nature of two tigers.” (248). The reader ends up thinking; “It isnormal that Chinese people believe in their birth dates being signs of their futures”. The final and the most important concept if marriage in China. First of all, there are manydifferences between males and females. The mothers have experienced this split more becausethey were raised in China. But their daughters do not know about this because in Americaeveryone is equal. In China, there are different reasons for why men marry and why womenmarry. Men marry to show their wealth and power because they can have more than one wife.The more wives they have, the wealthier they look. Therefore there is no love in any of themarriages in China. “Wu Tsing had asked her to be his concubine, not for love, but because ofthe
This is especially true for the mothers because they have more Chinese background than their daughters. The mothers have more obedience than the daughters in the book because that’s how growing up in China was. They had to be obedient otherwise there was a price to pay.In the book Suyuan Woo and her daughter jing-mei (June) Woo are arguing Suyuan says ,“Only two kinds of daughters…Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!” (142). Suyuan wants her daughter to learn this concept and act according to it. She wants her daughter to follow rules according to the way she grew up in China but, they aren’t in China anymore so Jing-mei(June) feels otherwise. the concept of obedience in Chinese means. One of the mothers complains about not being ableto teach her daughter “about the Chinese character…how to obey parents and listen yourmother’s mind.” (254) Another mother talk about herself and being obedient: “I was an obedientwife; just as they taught me.” (61) Other examples of Chinese culture are brought up with theidea of obedience, such as listening to the elders. Most of the daughters are told to obey theirparents because they are elderly and they know the best from experiences. Therefore, in China,most of the mother-daughter relations are based on this idea.. The conflict is that, in America,obedience is not so much important because people are taught to have their own ideas, ways ofliving and …show more content…
author talks at least a bit about the relation between destiny and the zodiac signs of differentcharacters. She then tells what actually happened. In most cases, the reader finds out that theinformation based on birth date is true. The characters of the novel experience these in their livesas if they are normal events happening every day. They are not surprised or amazed by any ofthis. Even more, they base their lives on fortunetelling. In one of the stories, this is brought up indetail because both the mother and the daughter have the same zodiac sign which means theyhave the same personalities. The mother explains a conflict between her and her daughter: “Shewill fight me because this is the nature of two tigers.” (248). The reader ends up thinking; “It isnormal that Chinese people believe in their birth dates being signs of their futures”. The final and the most important concept if marriage in China. First of all, there are manydifferences between males and females. The mothers have experienced this split more becausethey were raised in China. But their daughters do not know about this because in Americaeveryone is equal. In China, there are different reasons for why men marry and why womenmarry. Men marry to show their wealth and power because they can have more than one wife.The more wives they have, the wealthier they look. Therefore there is no love in any of themarriages in China. “Wu Tsing had asked her to be his concubine, not for love, but because ofthe