I am currently reading The Joy
Luck Club by Amy Tan. This story is about the relationship of four Chinese
mothers to their Chinese-American daughters. The Chinese mothers are refugees
from China during the Chinese-Japanese war. Thus, I believe that the characters
are aware of the economic and social forces that affects their lives. As far as
I know, the Chinese mothers and their daughters are friends all their lives,
and there is very little class difference amongst them. When one seemed to get
better in terms of wealth over the other, they seem to equate it by putting the
money they collected through mah jong
in stock or other business.
There is, however, a social
generational gap between the mothers and the daughters especially since the
daughters were born and raised in America. They were raised speaking only in
English, which has a huge effect on the bond they ought to share to their
mothers.
In my project I plan to write the
body paragraphs in this manner:
Explain how the mothers’
unfortunate lives during the Chinese-Japanese war influenced their decision of
cutting their daughters out of their miserable Chinese way of living.
(economical force)
Explain how the way the daughters
were raised stretched the distance between their mothers. (social force)
The mother-daughter realization
and hope that their relationship will be peaceful, especially Jing-mei’s (June’s)
resolution (and regret that she never understood her mother while she was
alive) after meeting her half-sisters and speaking of their mother, Suyuan, to
the daughters she left on the roadside in China. (economic and social forces)
I have yet to formulate a
concrete argument for I haven’t finished reading the novel. I hope, though,
that my plan is a start to help me form an argument.
Work Cited:
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New
York :Putnam's, 1989. Print.
Hi Regina. I am also reading The Joy Luck Club. I had forgot about the money tied into playing mah jong.I think this will help you on your topic of economic forces. I think you should go through the book and find some supporting quotes and write them down. What if you made a list of the social and economic quotes? I think this last project may be a little more difficult for us since we have the whole book and not just a chapter to think about. It is an interesting book so far though and I still have to finish it as well. What if you start writing your introduction paragraph and thesis. This usually helps me get started on thinking about the ideas I will write about in the body paragraphs. I am sure you will find a lot of social differences between the moms and the daughters, since they grew up in different countries and around different external influences. I think you are off to a good start. Good Luck Regina! I cannot wait to read your completed project and see the argument you came up with and the supporting quotes. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete