The Joy Luck Club: Finding True Identity

Finding True Identity Women who immigrated to America during the 1950s and 1960s to escape the communist revolution struggled to transition from Chinese to American culture, while still establishing their own identity. The Joy Luck Club describes the relationships between recently immigrated Chinese mothers and their culturally confused daughters. Because the daughters of the novel are genetically Chinese and have been raised in Chinese households, they struggle to fully adjust in the modern American society. Amy Tan in her novel The Joy Luck Club explores how the women of the Chinese culture deal with strict cultural pressure while trying to promote the idea of finding one’s true identity. The nature of the harsh Chinese culture created
When the characters immigrate to America from China, they still possess Chinese beliefs. Living in China, the mother’s identities were based on who one marries, what number wife one was, and family social status, differentiating from America, where one’s identity is defined by fads and trends. Throughout the novel, the mothers and daughters both struggle to understand what it means to be Chinese living in America. The daughters find it difficult to understand who they truly are when they are living by Chinese culture at home, living by American culture at school, and trying to meet their mother’s lofty expectations. Not able to understand their daughter’s desires to fit in with their American schoolmates, the mothers are still trying to fully perceive their new, partially American selves. The daughters had to modify their habits and behaviors based on their surroundings. These frequent adaptations hindered their ability to find their
Like her mother, Waverly possesses a fierce, competitive nature. The Chinese beliefs and culture of Waverly’s mother influenced Waverly to develop differently than her schoolmates. As a child, Waverly wanted to get as far away from the Chinese culture as she could in order to fit in with the American public. Waverly began to establish herself the American way by following the fads and join in on the most recent trend. Her mother expresses her annoyance by saying, “My daughter did not look pleased when I told her this, that she didn’t look Chinese… ten years ago, she would have clapped her hands… But now she wants to be Chinese, it is so fashionable. And I know it is too late… she followed my Chinese ways until she learned how to walk out the door by herself and go to school”(Tan 253). Waverly was affected by her mother’s pressure to succeed and oppressive Chinese beliefs. Waverly struggled to form a personal identity, causing her to act more like an American, of which her mother did not approve. Her mother was upset that she finally appreciated her Chinese culture, but only because it was the most recent trend. In conclusion, Amy Tan illustrates how trying to discover one’s true identity can become troublesome for the women of the Chinese culture because of the severe cultural stress placed on them in her novel The Joy Luck Club.