FREE ESSAY ON THE JOY LCUK CLUB

THE JOY LCUK CLUB

Essay
It is true that all people are created different, and thus no two cultures will ever be
the same. Throughout Asian American literature there seems to be a struggle between the
Asian culture and American culture. More specifically, there is a struggle between Asian
women and their Asian American daughters, and what it means to be feminine, and how a
woman should act.
The main struggle is between how the American woman should act and how the Asian woman
should act. However, the behavior of the Asian woman seems to be dominant through out the
story because although the daughters and the mothers may not get along all of the time,
the mothers to receive a lot of respect from their daughters. Therefore, the mothers
opinion on how they should act, which is behaving like the Asian woman, is most evident.
This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story
Waiting for Mr. Kim, written by Carol Roh-Spaulding.
These two stories have very different meanings, however they are similar in the aspect
that they are all Asian women with Asian American daughters trying to get their daughters
to keep and use their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are
expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.
In The Joy Luck Club, the novel traces the fate of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei
Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu
Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters
go through, they become women. The mothers all fled China in the 1940's and they all
retain much of their heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female,
but more importantly what it means to be an Asian female.
In the short story Waiting for Mr. Kim, the main female character Gracie understands what
it means to be an Asian female, but she does question the meaning because of her sisters.
Her sisters ran away from home before their marriage could be arranged and eloped. This
is totally against Asian culture, and it causes Gracie to question her heritage and her
Asian femininity. In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females
that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the
whole is better than the good of the individual, and finding things out for yourself.
In the chapter Scar the characteristic of honor and respect is first noticed. In this
chapter An-mei finds out how her mother basically deserted her, her mother did leave for
a good reason, which was to maintain the honor of her family, but either way her mother
left her. Her grandmother had to raise her, and she learned much about the Asian woman
from her. An-mei was showing some disrespect towards on of her aunts, and her aunt told
her that she was being disrespectful. Her grandmother then interjected and said, When you
lose your face, An-mei...it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you
can get it back is to fall in after it. She was talking about A-mei's mother, and how she
left because she had disrespected the family and she was dishonorable to the family name.
The only way for her mother to regain respect and honor was to leave and do it on her
own, which is a characteristic of an Asian woman. 
Another feminine characteristic that comes from that scene is being able to do things on
your own. However, this is an American influence. This characteristic comes from the
chapter Rules of the Game. This is a peculiar chapter in the book because it is a chapter
where the woman is not seen as inferior to the man. Waverly's brother, Vincent, received
a chess set for Christmas. However, Waverly is the one who took full use of the chess
set. She was a natural, she would beat her brothers in chess, which would normally be
looked down upon in Asian culture, but she was encouraged. She was even given lessons in
chess, and she was a national champion. Unlike An-mei's mother, Waverly was bringing
honor to the family name. When Waverly is encouraged to excel in chess she learns
something from her mother. Her mother said in her broken English, This American
rules...Every time people come out from a foreign country, must know rules. You not know,
judge say, Too bad, go back. They not telling you why so you can use their way to go
forward. They say, Don't know why, you find out yourself. This is an American custom,
more than an Asian one. She is explaining that in order to succeed as an Asian female in
the United States, then there are certain things that you will have to find out on your
own.
Also in this chapter was the theme/characteristic of inner strength. Waverly says she six
when her mother taught her the art of invisible strength. Waverly was walking by the
candy store when she was a young child, and she was begging her mother to take her
inside. Her mother refused to take her inside, which angered Waverly. Then her mother
went on to explain, Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South
blow with wind-poom!-North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen. This means that
the strongest way to win an argument is to keep to yourself, which Waverly used in her
chess matches. Waverly goes on to say, A little knowledge withheld is a great advantage
one should store for future use. Another example of invisible strength, inner strength,
is the The Moon Lady. Ying-ying's mother was telling her how a woman should act when she
said, A boy can run and chase dragonflies...But a girl should stand still. The girl would
have a better chance catching the dragonfly than the boy, she would catch the dragonfly
with inner strength, rather than muscle like the boy. 
The chapter, The Moon Lady, has another characteristic of what it is to be female, which
is the good of the whole is more important than the good of the individual. They were all
on their way to see the Moon Lady, and if you see the Moon Lady, you receive one wish
from her. Ying-ying asked what a secret wish was, and the answer was that is was on that
you cannot ask. Ying-ying was young as this point, so she asked why. Amah's response to
Ying-ying was, This is because...because if you ask it...it is no longer a wish but a
selfish desire...Haven't I taught you-that it is wrong to think of our own needs? A girl
can never ask, only listen. Here she is telling that by making a wish for herself she is
being selfish and forgetting that she is not the important one, but the good of the whole
is the important one. Amah is also hinting at obedience when she tells her daughter that
she is not to ask questions, but just listen to the men and go along with it.
Arranged marriages are a very tough thing to go through. Marrying someone because one has
to has to be hard because one is not marrying out of love. This is exactly the case in
Waiting for Mr. Kim. Gracie two twin sisters have already run away from to and eloped
with two men. Their marriages were not arranged because they left before their father
could arrange them. Now, with her sisters gone, Gracie is the only remaining daughter,
and she is somewhat frowned upon because she was the third daughter. She did not really
like the two men that her father was thinking of arranging the marriage with, but it did
not matter. It did not matter because as her mother told her, Girls don't choose. The
girls just sit there and look pretty while their fathers choose for them, they have to
comply with their father's decision. They are obedient, and at the same time respectful
of the decision that is made. 
Another characteristic that appears in this story is that women made to think that they
are second class compared to men. When her Mr. Kang, Gracie's father, would walk, he
would sometimes reach back to hold Mrs. Kang's hand, but she would pull away. Not only
would she pull away, but she would stay behind as she cleaned her purse or took forever
with her coat, just to have it the way she had learned it, her husband a few places
ahead, women behind. Her mother not only believes that this is how women should act and
it is a part of their femininity, but she is passing this way of thinking onto her
daughter. Her mother is relaying the message to her daughter that no matter what you need
to show your husband respect and let him know that he is in charge.
Both of these stories have displayed that there are certain characteristics of females
and they are inner strength, the good of the whole is better than the good of the
individual, find things out for oneself, honor and respect, and obedience. All of these
characteristics have displayed not only what it means to be feminine, but also what it
means to be female. It is not so much an Asian female, but it is because that is how
their mothers were raised and that is how their mothers will raise them. There are really
no American females for the daughters, or mothers, to see and mimic. The only way of life
that the mothers know is the Asian way of life, therefore that is the only way that can
be passed down onto their daughters. Sometimes that is hard for the daughters to
understand because the daughters have grown up in American culture, and they know what it
is like to be an American woman. No matter how one views this situation, these stories
focus on what it means to an Asian female, but more generally what the mothers know best
on how to teach their daughters on how to be female.