The Joy Luck Club Essay

Words: 734
Pages: 3

The Joy Luck Club contains numerous lessons that are conveyed through storytelling that shifts from narrator to narrator. Each is narrated in the first person and sometimes an event is narrated twice so that the audience can get more than one perspective. It shifts from past to present as each character- a mother and daughter reflects on her past and relates it to her present life. This movie expands on the understanding of Chinese culture and provides a realistic depiction of Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters who are taught lessons that a person not be judged because one can never understand their experiences, winning is not everything, and that the American Dream is an illusion. It is told by Jing-Mei Woo (who also tells her mother Suyuan Woo’s story); Lena and Ying-Ying St. Clair; An-Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan; and Lindo and Waverly Jong.
In every mother-daughter relationship there will always be disagreements and miscommunication. The Joy Luck Club is about these mothers trying to instill an understanding of their heritage to their American-born daughters and an attempt to
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Waverly became a chess prodigy because she loved the game, and worked at it because she liked it so much. However, when her parents’ ego is inflated, and they push Waverly to be bigger and better, the game becomes less fun, and is a chore to her. Her parents ruined the fun that she had by making it into a harsh competition where Waverly has to always come out on top. When Waverly is finally fed up and done with it she asks her mother a question that humiliates her, and causes a rift between them, but also shows the problem with their situation. Before her mother used her talent to brag about, the game of chess was all hers, and something she loved to do. But, by bragging about her talent and using her, her mother ruined the fun of the game for her, and Waverly did not know how to tell her mother