Identity in Joy Luck Club by Army Tan - Article Example

Identity in Joy Luck Club Summary In his Novel, Army Tan creates a story about Chinese mothers (Suyuan,, Ying ying, Ann and Lindo) and daughters. (Wavely, Lena, Jane and Rose) The story accounts for the pain and suffering during their life as Chinese-American. Suyuan woo the teller of the story gave the experience of the daughters during their stay in America. The mother talks about their daughters who were born and grew up in America. As a result their Chinese heritage became eroded by the American culture heritage. The daughters clearly show a gap in culture between the Chinese heritage and American culture. The mothers wanted their daughter to follow the Chinese tradition, daughters followed America tradition and even some of the daughters got married to American men (Evans, 2010). The mothers tried to tell the daughters the story about the Chinese ancestors but the daughter could not follow them and the daughters thought their mothers are backward and do not know what they are saying. As much as the mother tried to show love to their daughter, the daughter usually responded negatively. In the novel the Joy Luck Club, the mothers express concern over their daughter’s inability to learn the Chinese culture; this is because the daughters were born and raised in America so they only learn to embrace the American heritage. Cultural differences The cultural clashes which takes place in the story in the Joy Luck Club makes us understand make us to really understand the Chinese culture and how serious the culture is. The author is able to bring out a distinct difference between the Chinese culture and the American culture (Tan, 2006). The culture in America involved control of the individual, responsibility of one individual, one is able to express his/her thoughts, success, freedom, and one is able to be independence and the happiness. Chinese culture that follows Confucianism, the element involved here include modesty by one individual, hardworking, high level of discipline, to be respectful, to do thing in order, submission and corporation (Tan, 2006).. In Joy Luck Club the culture example depicts the culture gap that was caused by the daughter and the culture difference brought the conflict between the mothers and their daughters (Tan, 2006). The mothers are trying to instil the spirit of Chinese culture to their daughter but are hard for them to follow the Chinese culture as it look inferior compared to American culture, which looked modern and superior (Tan, 2006). Marriage The most important element in Chinese culture exemplified in story in Joy Luck Club is marriage, obedient, and the relationship between the date of birth and fate. The aspect of obedient is brought when the author said that two kinds of daughter exist, the daughters who are obedient and the daughter who are not obedient and those who are not obedient do as their minds tells them (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). The mother wanted their daughters to follow the Chinese culture because they are experience with the culture. This was portrayed in the story when one of the mothers lamented how she was not able to teach Chinese to her daughter. The other mother says how she was obedient when she was a wife because she was taught to be obedient. Aspect on how to respect your elders is also brought out in the novel. The daughter did not obey their parents who are elder to them (In Champion & In Austin, 2002). Marriage is the most coveted concept in Chinese culture and there is always gender difference. The mother of the daughter being raised in china experienced this conflict. Their daughters being born in America were oblivious about this. To the daughters, being either a male or a female had no big deal (Evans, 2010). To them a male or a female has no big deal, they are both equal. In Chinese culture a clear reason is seen why men marry and why women marry. To the Chinese culture for men to show power and wealth they must marry. Men can even marry many wives to show how wealthy they are. To women they marry so they can give birth to sons and to serve their husbands (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). In Chinese heritage marriage is not considered as love but it is meant for position. Besides women marrying to be wives the can be concubines of a man and thus their values are measured. In China women cannot marry again and the only way for a woman to avoid married is to commit suicide. A candle symbolises the destiny of a woman in Chinese culture. One of the mother (Lindo Jong) explain the symbolism behind the candle she say a candle represent a bond in marriage and its worth is more than just a Catholic promise of never to divorce (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). The author interpreted this that a Chinese woman can neither divorce nor remarry if even if her husband passes away. This culture of marriage bring a big different in the concept of relationship between a man and a woman in America as compares to China. Birthdate and fate Aspect of relationship between the birthdate and fate spells one destiny in Chinese. According to Joy Luck Club, the birth date i.e. the second, minute, hour, month and the year the person is given birth give a clear definition about a person’s destiny and personality. Some Chinese people called the matchmaker as told in one of the stories “the village matchmaker” in Joy Luck Club, which is their profession is based on birth date (Hubel, 2002). Collectiveness Chinese culture foster collectivism, they do not support individual modest at all. The Chinese upholds the value of working as group and as a family. Lindo grew up in the Chinese culture where family and group is the main architecture in the society. In Chinese culture and individual is not referred to herself or himself as an “I” they do not referred to them as “we” (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). Lindo pays great respect to family and group as she lived in the Chinese culture and knows what it really means. For her she interpreted Waiverly success to be the success of the family but Waively does not see this owing to her Americans culture. Lindo sees waiverly as unworthy girl in the family, who puts her interest to herself. Everybody in the family did everything possible they could to help Waiverly (Evans, 2010). A perfect example is Waiverly’s brother who sacrifices her bedroom for Waively to use and he decided to be sleeping in the living room and which was very noisy because it directly faces the city (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). To her brother, Waiverly needed a room that is free from noise to accomplish her goal, so he put Waiverly interest before his interest. Waiverly received a very important person treatment in the family. Positive self-perception The culture of positive self-perception is widely spread in America and it tends to be biased on self-overview (Bloom, 2009). Waiverly positive view is only for her. Being a champion and not just a champion a national champion at 10 years of age she boosted to it on her herself. That in America that is allowed, she felt very proud about herself and she expected her mother to follow suit and praise her. The self-esteem in her made her mother feels very bad. As Chinese culture foster collectivism and Waiverly so that as an individual achievement (Bloom, 2009). Language barrier In the book Joy Luck Club, language barrier is also a major conflict between the Chinese mother and the American born daughters. The Chinese dialects of the American daughter were different from the Chinese dialects of the Chinese mother. The parable in story “Feather from a Thousand” in the vignette shows that language barrier exists between the mothers and the daughters (Tan & 3M Company, 2007). The novel talks about swam feather, a woman had to take a long period of time before passing it to her daughter. The mother symbolizes her love to the daughter and the intention was good to her daughter by waiting for so long before telling the daughter how worthless the features might look (Evans, 2010). The mother simply was waiting until that time she would be able to communicate her daughter language, which is American language. The feather was a symbol for Chinese culture, it starts the story of a mother who did whatever means to make sure her daughter get the freedom and opportunity she needed (Bloom, 2009). Conclusion As the girls clear culture huddles and the language barrier issues that was a reality between them and their mother, they had different perspectives on Chinese culture and their mother as well. They recognize their mothers important in influence their life direction and their identity as well. It was now a matter of too little too late as they tried to forge a relationship with their mothers (In Champion & in Austin, 2002). The story tells us the importance of healthy relationship between mothers and daughter as it provide a good understanding in the new future. The mothers finally tell their daughter it was not on their wish for them to follow Chinese culture but what they really wanted was for them to reconcile the American culture and the Chinese culture. The daughter realized that they needed to appreciate their mother culture and follow their mother’s culture to streamline their American culture. They realize that had they listens and follow their mothers advice, they would deal with anything that comes in life. References Bloom, H. (2009). Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club. New York: Blooms Literary Criticism. Evans, R. C. (2010). The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press. Hubel, T. (2002). Literature and racial ambiguity. Amsterdam [u.a.: Rodopi. In Champion, L., & In Austin, R. (2002). Contemporary American women fiction writers: An A-to-Z guide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Tan, A. (2006). The joy luck club. London: Penguin Books. Tan, A., & 3M Company. (2007). The Joy Luck Club. S.l.: Penguin Group US. Read More