Mother and Daughter Relationships Exposed in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Clu

Relationships Between Mothers and Daughters Exposed in The Joy Luck Club  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club is one that is truly amazing and a joy to read. There are a number of issues at work in the novel, the most obvious one is the exploration of relationships between mothers and daughters. Unfortunately, for these four sets of mothers and daughters, there is not only a generational gap between them, but a cultural one as well. Tan reveals these rifts, and their love for one another, in much the same way William Faulkner or Toni Morrison let us glimpse their characters lives instead of telling us their stories. This quality, along with the important generational/cultural gap make this somewhat autobiographical work of fiction one that people will be reading for years to come. In the second half of this century, it has become important for people to explore and get back in touch with their culture. We see the result of this in the popularity of writers such as Morrison and Tan. What makes Tan's work important is that it is not just for Asia n-American people, but that people of all ethnicities can enjoy it, finding pieces of themselves within. Also, I think this work helps bring a greater understanding of the Chinese culture, for both Asian-Americans and non-Asian people. And what could be better than that? While Tan is a creative and talented author in her own right, there are writers that have come before who have kind of paved the way for writers such as Tan through their own writing. Faulkner is one such writer, who focused many of his novels such as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, on the family dynamic and are examples of books that have been written in a "decentered, multiple monologue mode" (S... ...n Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1997. 85-7. Schell, Orville. Critical Extract. Asian-American Women Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1997. 82-3. Shear, Walter. "Generational differences and the diaspora in The Joy Luck Club." Women Writers. 34.3 (Spring 1993): 193. Expanded Academic Index. Souris, Stephen. "'Only Two Kinds of Daughters:'" Inter- Monologue Dialogicity in The Joy Luck Club." Melus 19.2 (Summer 1994):99-123. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ivy Books, 1989. Willard, Nancy. Critical Extract. Asian-American Women Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1997. 84-5. Xu, Ben. "Memory and the Ethnic Self: Reading Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club." Melus 19.1 (Spring 1994): 3-17.