In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, it tells of four Chinese women drawn together in San Francisco to play mah jong, and tell stories of the past. These four women and their families all lived in Chinatown and belong to the First Chinese Baptist Church. They were not necessarily religious, but found they could improve their home China. This is how the woo’s, the Hsu’s, the Jong’s and the St Clair’s met in 1949. The first member of the Joy Luck Club to die was Suyuan Woo. Her daughter, Jing-mei June Woo, is asked to sit in and take her mother’s place at playing mah jong.

Memories of the past are shared by the three women left, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St Clair. June Woo learns of the real secret her mother carried to her grave from her mother’s friends. The twin baby girls, her half sisters, Suyuan pushed in a Wheelbarrow as she escaped from the Japanese. Due to sickness, Suyuan can no longer carry her babies, and is forced to leave them on the side of the road. She lives her whole life not knowing if they are alive or dead. In the book, the Woo’s left for America to build a better life for themselves.

Suyuan Woo wanted to have a daughter like herself, and no one would look down on her. It was important that she speak perfect English and hopefully not share in the same tragedies and sorrows she had known. The movie brought this concept out very vividly. You were able to imagine the time and place and the emotions of the characters. Their anger in the early years, how women and children were treated as possessions. The book spoke of Rose Hsu Jordan, daughter of An-mei Hsu, who had seven brothers and sisters. A very tragic time in her life when her brother Bing drowns at age 1 while she was in charge of watching him.

The movie does not touch upon this tragic event and brings out the rich family Rose marries into, and the instant rejection from her boyfriends mother. Rose unhappiness in her marriage with Tod, is similar to the unhappiness her mother had throughout her life. Lindo Jong was a special character in the book , referring to promises she made to her mother as a young girl, and keeping them throughout her life. She was actually abandoned by her family and Lindo was sent to live with her future husband’s family. She never complained because she would never dishonor her mother.

The movie did an excellent job of showing us the culture during that time in China and how the matchmaker arranged the marriages at an early age. She is a very smart girl and figures out how she could get out of this marriage and still keep her promise to her mother. She puts the blame on the matchmaker and is released from the marriage. When speaking of strong characters in the book, one would have to include Waverly Jong, daughter of Lindo Jong. She was a bright child who became a famous chess player, which made her mother very proud. The movie brought out her unhappiness in her life and the unhappy relationship with her mother.

The two shared similar lives even though they lived in different countries and different times. Ying-ying St Clair, according to the book, was married at an early age and referred to her husband as a bad man. In fact she tried so hard to forget him she forgets his name. She tells of taking her baby before it was born because of the hate she has for her husband. The movie tells the story a little different in reference to her baby. After her husband comes home with his mistress and causes her shame, she drowns her tiny infant while bathing him. A tragic and emotional part in the movie.

Lena St Clair, daughter of Lindo St Clair, may not have had such a tragic relationship with her husband as did her mother; but she was unable to find happiness in her marriage. The book and movie were similar in showing us the relationship she had with Harold. They were business partners also, but he made more money than she. They shared everything right down the middle and kept a running journal. They also decided not to have children which goes along with their relationship. In the final conclusion, the twin baby girls did live and reunited with their half sister, June Woo, in China.

This story actually includes three generations of mothers and daughters sharing same or similar tragedies and unhappiness. Mothers protecting their children, wanting their daughters to know their worth. The influence of mothers on their daughters every day life, showing respect was very important. The cultural rules these women were raised with for so many years in China had a life time effect on their lives. They wanted things different for their daughters in America, but they still compared life as it should be in China. I was touched by the strength and courage these women had whether they lived in China or America.

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, is a book that compiles stories of the lives of Chinese women that were raised in China and became American citizens. These women formed the “Joy Luck Club,” which was a small group that discussed their homeland and troubles, but still enjoying the treasures of food and each other’s company. Each section of the book is written from the point of view of the character. The book continues on with the stories of these women’s daughters, telling stories of their lives being raised by mothers who were immigrants, and dissolving into American society.

Chinese mothers try to pass on their values, instincts, and intuitiveness on to the second generation. Great fortune has come to the members of the Joy Luck Club through their hardships, and they only want their daughters to understand what it takes to succeed in life. The Joy Luck Club ladies were all friends who over time have formed blissful lives for themselves in America. All of the daughters in this book were raised with high expectations, even the mothers while they were in China. This is contrary to an overall idea that girls in China were not a great commodity to their parents.

Each member of the Joy Luck Club was a mother that only wanted their own daughters to understand why they should be respectful of their Chinese culture and grateful for their American opportunities. Waverly Jong, daughter of Lindo, was raised in Chinatown and her mother taught many lessons to “raise them out of circumstances. ” (Tan, 90) Lindo thought the best combination was ” American circumstances and Chinese character. ” (259) The women of the Joy Luck Club were competitive amongst each other when it came to their children’s successes.

Jei-Mei (June) Woo’s mother wanted her to be a chess prodigy like Waverly Jong, or become a Chinese Shirley Temple. Jei-Mei’s mother, Suyuan, wanted her daughter to be a Chinese version of the epitome of American culture and the “perfect child” during the 1950s. Chinese mothers even go to great extents to instill their values into their children. The family of An-mei Hsu in China and Lena St. Clair’s mother, Ying-Ying, both would make up stories to make a moral to a story, to put fear into their daughters and detour them from trouble.

Avoiding trouble is also an instinct for the Chinese. Their natural instincts tell them when something will not go well. Lena St. Clair remembers when her mother kept having a feeling to rearrange furniture, only to find out she was pregnant. Lena herself thought that she “sawwith my Chinese eyesdevils dancingand things that Caucasian girls at school did not. ” (106) An-Mei Hsu has visions of her mother during a period of illness. A Chinese woman would be insulted if one were to think for a moment that these visions were ludicrous.

These Chinese women take great pride in their traditions and their pupils of wisdom, their children. Being the daughter of a proud Chinese mother is no easy life. All the daughters were under pressure to become exactly what their mothers expected of them. At times, these high desires may have done more harms than good. After great pressure to become a prodigy or a piano playing princess, Jing-mei Woo shouted to her mother, “Why don’t you like me the way I am! ” (146) This is an obvious example of the classic “American rebellion” coming out of the second generation of Chinese immigrants.

Lena St. Clair would translate notes from school (written in English) incorrectly to her mother, and of course, to her advantage. Later in life, another daughter of the Joy Luck Club, Waverly, disgusted her mother when she decided to marry a Caucasian man. However, through it all, I believe the daughters took to heart the efforts and good intentions that their mothers tried to instill. After Jing-mei’s mother died, as a memento to her mother, she has the piano that she once felt slave to, tuned. She carefully examined the piano’s parts and looked at some Shumann music that she had once played.

She discovered that the selection “Pleading Child” was just a part of another selection she had never played as a child, “Perfectly Content. ” (155) The mothers in the Joy Luck Club continue their mission to have near perfection in the lives of their daughters. In a typical Chinese mother way, Ying-Ying St. Clair criticizes her daughter even after she is grown and has a successful career. Ying-Ying says her guestroom has “walls close in like a coffin. ” (275) She thinks her daughter’s life, as an architect, is modern and foolish.

A Chinese mother is not easily pleased. Nevertheless, this is admitted so. A second generation’s life should be different, far different from times in China when a girl was told she should “stand still” simply because she was a statuesque future wife for some wealthy man (70). Though the struggles of the two generations may be different, Ying-Ying saw that in these two faces was “the same happiness, the same sadness, the same good fortune, and the same faults. ” (159) Each mother in the Joy Luck Club saw their daughter differently when they were grown.

An-mei Hsu said that no matter how much she raised her daughter to be more American, the more she became Chinese, desiring nothing and swallowing other people’s pride. At the beginning of the book, all of the surviving members give Jing-Mei (June) money to go to China to discover the homeland and recite the legacy of her mother to others. The mothers of the Joy Luck Club want nothing more than to not be forgotten. Their persona is made of their beliefs, fables, and instincts. It is this tradition that they want to be eternal.