Caitlyn Fahy Fahy 1
Honors English III
Mrs. Muessig
October 14, 2008
The Joy Luck Club

A child’s decision between choosing their independence over their heritage acts as a major conflict in Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club. This theme involves four Chinese women and their daughters and their frustration towards the boundary each have put up against their families. The young daughters, all born in America, are frustrated when they are bothered by their mothers to live the Chinese traditional way and when they can understand their mothers broken English. All these daughters want to do is live their America lives independently. The mothers are impatient with the girls for not understanding the meaning behind the Joy Luck Club and their ignorant attitudes towards learning the language. Is there a boundary between the American lifestyle and Chinese traditions?
When Jing-mei learns of her mothers reasoning behind creating the Joy Luck Club she actually starts to think about how she lives her life. She never wanted to please her family before with learning about her parents past. Yet ever since her mother pasted away she starts take in her mothers stories and tries to uphold what her mother wanted for her child. Before when Jing-mei had heard her mothers stories she hated how she would add in a Chinese saying never once realizing why her mother couldn’t speak in English. She assumed that her mother was dumb and couldn’t learn proper English and that put up a wall between her and her mother. Never once did Jing-mei think that maybe her mother said Chinese to learn about her heritage or that those words could only express what the Chinese felt unlike the Americans. As soon as Jing-mei was confronted by her aunts she then understood everything. She could understand the stress of her mother to hand down the Chinese tradition so that from generation to generation the stories would never be lost. This was sort of the break in the wall between her and her mother.
When it came to letting the Chinese traditions rule your independent American life, Lindo knew all about it. Her mother insisted on trying Lindo’s marriage the only way she knew which was using the red candle. This was a Chinese tradition which you had to light he grooms side and the brides side of the candle. If the candle stayed lit then the marriage would last long. But when