The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
1.
In presenting the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their Americanborn daughters in The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan uses “cradling” a formal literary
device that can be thought of as a story within a story. What does she accomplish
by organizing her novel this way? How is this book of seemingly separate stories
unified into a whole?
2.
Throughout The Joy Luck Club, characters think and communicate using stories.
Why might they choose to use stories instead of direct statements? As stories
seem a less efficient way of relaying information, do the characters show stories
to have some power that normal speech lacks?
3.
Over the course of The Joy Luck Club, the mothers find themselves learning as
much from their daughters as their daughters are learning from them. Discuss
what lessons the mothers might have to learn from their daughters. How might
the very activity of narrating their stories lead them not just to the sharing of
insights but the discovery of new ones?
4.
What is the significance of the parable at the beginning of each section in the
novel?
5.
Which one character seems to be the main protagonist of the novel and why?
What/who is her antagonist? On a larger scale, what/who is the protagonist of the
novel? What/who is the antagonist?
6.
How do language barriers affect the characters and their relationships? How does
Tan use language to develop her novel? The final section is titled “American
Translations.” What is the significance of this title? How are the daughters in The
Joy Luck Club American translations of their mothers?
7.
Explain Tan’s use of flashback as a method of exposition and characterization?
What other purposes do the flashbacks in the novel serve?
8.
Explain how the novel is autobiographical. Trace the autobiographical influences
on the novel. What did Tan take form her own life and use in the book? How did
she change these elements? To what purpose did she use them? Why is this book
“fiction,” rather than a memoir or autobiography?