History, Culture and Self Discovery in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club Essay

History, Culture and Self Discovery in Amy Tans Joy sh atomic number 18 Club In the novel The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, the relationship between history, culture and identity is illustrated by means of the narrations of septette women. In these stories the women discuss events of their past and the reader is adequate to see how it affects them subsequent in life. In addition, they as well as discuss how they have been shaped by cultural expectations. These two things affect both the mothers and daughters in the novel. The best utilization of how personal history affects the growing or sack of an identity is through the stories of Ying-Ying St. Clair. The events in Ying-Yings early life foreshadow ones that happen later(prenominal) in her life. For example, when Ying-Ying was a sm both child she fell overboard a boat and was lost in the water. Even her name means trenchant reflection which foreshadows her future loss of identity (Tan). Later, she immigrated to the United States and ended up being stuck on Angel Island Immigration Station for three weeks, lost in a sea of immigration categories(Tan 107). Throughout her life she was able to see things before they happened, but this did not allow her to prevent the loss of her sense of self. During Ying-Yings first marriage she plays the role of an obedient married woman so well that she becomes one and puts it above everything else. Later in the playscript when she looks back on it she states, I became a stranger to myself(Tan 280). After all this the man is unfaithful to her and leaves her for an opera singer. It is to this event that she attributes the loss of the golden facial expression of her tiger sprit. Long after this, when St. Clair began courting her, she saw this as a sign that she would also lose the other half of h... ...es she wants to keep the planetary house and is in control of her life again. Many of the characters in the novel are struggling to find themselves. Personal histo ry is an obvious contributor to the development of the characters senses of self. The events that occur in a characters past bewitch their attitudes toward themselves and the way they treat their daughters. The two cultures that meet in the families portrayed also influence these attitudes. It is only when the characters take both these factors into account can they attempt to discover their true selves.Work CitedTan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York random House, 1989.Sources ConsultedDo, Thuan Thi. Chinese-American Women in American Culture. 1992 http//www.ics.uci.edu/tdo/ea/chinese.html Jokinen, Anniina. Anniinas Amy Tan Page. 1996 http//www.luminarium.org/contemporary/amytan/