The Joy Luck Club versus Moveable Feast - Essay Example

Published in the year 1989, The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan as a first person narrative of the tales of four women from the mainland China and their Asian-American daughters; the immigrants had moved into the US from China (Tan 20). A Moveable Feast, on the other hand, is Ernest Hemingway’s autobiographic novel that provides a detailed expose of his experiences as a young person in Paris in the 1920’s, especially his internship as a young writer. Both writers expose some certain cultural aspects that inform the contextual setting of their works; significant cultural similarities and differences emerge in the two texts, especially with regards to interactions in the family, friendships, and in marriage.

Cultural differences and similarities between the French culture, which is presented in Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, and the American culture, which is presented in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, have a great influence on social relationships, especially in families, friendships, and marriages.In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the writer highlights some of the conflicts that ensue between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters, thus pointing to the cultural gap between the mothers and their daughters.

A Moveable Feast narrates everything from the weather and Boulevards to places such as cafes in Paris (Hemingway 5), and people; it is an intricate tale of love and loss, and the passing of time in Paris. The main similarity between the American culture and the French culture as portrayed in The Joy Luck Club and A Moveable Feast is that both the Americans and the French place value on autonomy and personal happiness. The novels reveal a great deal of instances where the characters are closely engaged in fun and merry-making, experiences, which are not only gratifying, but also memorable due to their extrinsic nature; individuals in both cultures enjoy freedom of will and choice, and there are no restrictions to life whatsoever.

Personal happiness and freedoms are cultural ideals that are highly valued in both the French culture and the American culture, and friendships, family, and marriages in those cultures are strongly embedded in these notions.Nonetheless, stark differences between the American culture and the French culture are also revealed in the two novels; for instance, whereas the French culture as presented in A Moveable Feast reveals high tolerance on loose morals and manners of others, the American culture is very strict on morality.

The French culture does not impose a lot of restrictions on social interactions between friends, family and within the marriage as does the American culture, thus, individuals in the French culture can be unfaithful to their spouses or polygamous, an aspect that is not tolerated in the American culture. Ultimately, the French culture is very eccentric and conservative compared to the American culture, which is more liberal and universal. In this regard, whereas the French will have very particular notions or perspectives on many aspects of social interactions, the Americans are liberal and extremely open minded on many issues; for instance, the French will insist on a proper full-course meal at all times, while the Americans may just do with a burger for a meal.

Work CitedTan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. London: Penguin Books, 1989. Print.Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribner, 1964. Print.