The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Amy Tan poured her soul and delicately wrote The Joy Luck Club to express her ideas and views on earlier life in America. The Joy Luck Club, "Second Nature," "Lost Sister," and "My Polish Grandma," all shares a similar theme. Conflicts that divide people of different cultures are seen throughout these works.

The Joy Luck club expresses this theme, showing the four families and how they adjusted to a new culture. The parents moved to America, facing discrimination of all sorts. An-Mei Hsu lived in Ningpo before she came to America. Suyuan had come to America from China in 1949 and Jing-Mei Woo, her daughter, was born in America. They were in search of the American Dream. They had new jobs that were better than their previous ones. They had new life styles and their lives changed entirely. Most had married more than once (which was shameful by China's standards). Some mothers had more than one child, which is forbidden in China, since you're only aloud to have one. The daughters were forced into things they didn't want. In the end, Jing-Mei finally realized what part of her is Chinese; it's her family, it's within her blood, she's also part American.

Diana Chang's "Second Nature" talks about how she's Chinese and foreign to being American. She feels and dreams Chinese. She becomes someone else entirely. She grows up and becomes American.

Cathy Song speaks about the life in China in; "Lost Sister." She tells of a sister that lives in America. Cathy said that her lost sister had diluted her name, for now she is American not Chinese. American life is much easier to become entangled in; therefore you need China, not America.

Edward Field's "My Polish Grandma" also relates to this theme. In the story, Grandpa was the first to reach America and he earned enough money for his family to come. It told about how hard it was for their Jewish family to come here. The problems they encountered and how money was always the solution. Everybody grew up in a new way. The family is scattered over the earth and they forget why they wanted to come to America.

The characters all had their hardships in their conflicts that divided them of different cultures. These works were all well written and truly expressed this theme. The writers really knew what they were talking about because they made it so real.

Source: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Book.