The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
The novel spans from the 1920s through the 1980s,
following two generations of women.
Mothers, born and raised in China, find themselves
in San Francisco raising their own daughters.
Both mothers and daughters must navigate diverse
worlds, with different languages, cultures, and habits.
About the author
• Born from Chinese immigrant parents John and Daisy. Her parents
wanted Amy to become a doctor or concert pianist, but Amy had other
ideas.
• At the age of 15 both her brother and father died due to cancer. Amy’s
mother took her Switzerland to escape the poor health curse.
• Amy began her writing career by becoming a freelance writer for
AT&T, IBM, and Northern Telecom, as well as Wells Fargo
Bank, Big Eight management consulting firms.
About the author
• Amy wrote not only a variety of literary works, but also operas and
Emmy awarded television shows.
• Amy continually struggled with her relationship with her mother
Daisy throughout her early adult life.
• Daisy did not live long enough to witness many of Amy’s
accomplishments. Daisy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and
passed in 1999.
The Joy Luck Club
Character List
Role
Jing-Mei-Woo/ June
Narrator
Suyuan Woo
June’s mother
Auntie Ying
Member of the Joy Luck Club
Auntie An-mei
Member of the Joy Luck Club
Auntie Lin
Member of the Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club
• The Plot Points:
• June’s death of her mother
• June becomes the “fourth corner” and takes her
mother’s seat that faces “east”.
• June shares mother’s story from Kwelin.
• June’s aunts explain that Suyuan wrote to her “lost
daughters” before she died.
• https://maps.google.com/
Characterization
Textual Evidence
S.
“I’m not in school
anymore, though” (27).
Inference
June is embarrassed that she
has dropped out of school.
T.
When I failed to become a
concert pianist…she finally
explained that I was lateblooming, like Einstein”(28).
June feels that she did not
meet her mother’s
expectations.
E.
June has been chosen to replace
her mother in the chair facing
whose seat at the mah jong table
has been empty since she died two “East”.
A. “I am to replace my mother,
months ago” (5).
L.
Literary Analysis
Demonstrating June’s
internal conflict with
her mother.
“ My mother and I never really
understood one another. We
translated each other’s meanings
and I seemed to hear less than what
was said, while my mother heard
no more” (27).
Literary Analysis
Simile
Metaphor
“When I saw the hills, I laughed and
shuddered at the same time. The peaks looked
like giant fried fish heads trying to jump out of
a vat of oil. Behind each hill, I could see
shadows of another fish, and then another and
another. And then the clouds would move just
a little and the hills would suddenly become
monstrous elephants marching slowly toward
me!”(8).
Today’s TargeTs 2/10/2014
You will be able:
• Collaborate with group members to create an
effective lesson plan for JLC
-vocabulary/lesson plan/works cited
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
• Paper Revisions
• “Best Quality” – read for tomorrow if you haven’t
done so!
Today’s TargeTs 2/11/2014
You will be able:
Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC:
Demonstrate your understanding of the text along
with strong presentation skills including:
Developed speaking and listening skills
 Solid eye contact
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
• Paper Revisions due Friday
• “Red Candle” due Thursday
Today’s TargeTs 2/12/2014
You will be able:
Demonstrate understanding and validity of
“Folding Won Tons In”
Develop and establish connections between poem
and JLC
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
• Paper Revisions due Friday
• “Red Candle” due tomorrow
Today’s TargeTs 2/13/2014
You will be able:
Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC:
Demonstrate your understanding of the text along
with strong presentation skills including:
Developed speaking and listening skills
 Solid eye contact
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
• Paper Revisions due tomorrow
Today’s TargeTs 2/14/2014
You will be able:
Analyze “Best Quality” & “Red Candle” - determine
important plot elements and use of symbolism
Demonstrate understanding and validity of
“Women”
Develop and establish connections between poem
and JLC
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
Read/Finish “Women”/ “Rules of the Game” –
presentation TUESDAY
Based on your commenTs…
You should be
taking notes
everyday…
it will benefit
you!!!!!!!!!!
The crab/The pendant
 June’s mother tells her that the feistiest crabs are of the best quality;
even beggars would reject a crab that has died before being
cooked/broken leg
 The cooking of the crabs (225-226)
 Suyuan explains that she did not eat the legless crab because it had died
before she cooked it.
 She teases June for choosing the worse of the two remaining crabs, because anyone
else would have taken the better one—the “best quality” available.
 June’s way of thinking differed from that of most people – her mother
points this out. June chooses the worse of the two remaining crabs
because she wants her mother to enjoy the better one – everyone else
 gives June a jade pendant, telling her that it is her “life’s importance.”
 She advises June not to worry about Waverly, whose words always “move
sideways” like a crab.
 She has the choice to move in a different direction – be a different person
The crab/The pendant
• a missing leg on a crab is a bad sign on the Chinese New year
• connection between a crab’s movement and the way Waverly conducts
her life, always looking sideways out of the corner of her eye at
potential competitors/insulting
• June thinks that the pendant is given by her mother out of sympathy
due to Waverly’s insults and attitude.
• June’s mom has worn the pendant against her skin, thus if June wears
it she can embrace the connection and retain some of who her mother
is/was
• June’s mom had high expectations/originally saw lack of ambition
• Humility = selflessness.
• At times, this is the “best quality” one can have…
The pendent
At first, June sees it as unstylish/different than
the others she sees
=Represents the cultural differences between
herself and her mother.
After Suyuan’s death, june begins to see it as a
symbol of her mother’s love and concern.
**with this she also begins to understand her
mother’s actions in general – why she gave it to her
While June used to interpret many of her mother’s
words as meaningless she now sees them as
manifesting a deep maternal wisdom and love.
The red candle
• If the candle burns all night without either end extinguishing
prematurely, custom says that the marriage will be successful and
happy.
• The candle has a symbolic meaning—the success of the marriage—within
the Chinese culture, but within the story it also functions as a symbol
of traditional Chinese culture itself – marriage beliefs
• Lindo desperately does not want to marry, but she cannot go against
the promises her parents made to her husband’s family.
• By blowing out the flame, Lindo takes control of her own fate –
rebellion to gain self control
• by playing upon the traditional beliefs and superstitions that Lindo
convinces her mother-in-law to annul the marriage. Her act of
blowing out the candle would have been meaningless without an
underlying, pre-established network of belief.
• Thus the candle = a symbol of tradition &
the use of tradition in claiming one’s own
identity and power.
Today’s TargeTs 2/18/2014
You will be able:
Demonstrate understanding and validity of
“The Gift”
Develop and establish connections between poem
and JLC
Homework:
• “Rules of the Game” presentation and reading due
tomorrow
• Poem Packet Questions due Friday!
• “Magpies” you are still teaching on Thursday!
Today’s TargeTs 2/18/2014
You will be able:
Demonstrate understanding and validity of
“The Gift”
Develop and establish connections between poem
and JLC
Homework:
• “Rules of the Game” presentation and reading due
tomorrow
• Poem Packet Questions due Friday!
• “Magpies” you are still teaching on Thursday!
Today’s TargeTs 2/19/2014
You will be able:
Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC:
Demonstrate your understanding of the text along
with strong teaching skills including:
Developed speaking and listening skills
 Solid eye contact
Homework:
• Group Presentations – “Magpies tomorrow”
• Those of you on the field trip, “The Gift” with
annotations are due tomorrow!!
• Packets are due FRIDAY! (one per group)**
Today’s TargeTs 2/20/2014
You will be able:
Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC:
Demonstrate your understanding of the text along
with strong presentation/teaching skills including:
Developed speaking and listening skills
 Solid eye contact
Homework:
• Group Presentations – be checking your calendar
• Poetry packet due tomorrow!
Today’s TargeTs 2/21/2014
You will be able:
Analyze “Rules of the Game” & “Magpies” - determine
important plot elements and use of symbolism
Collaborate with group members to demonstrate your
understanding and validity of
“Women” &“The Gift”
Develop and establish connections between poem and
JLC
Homework:
Calendars…
“Pair of tickets”
Graded discussion
Rules of the game
The universal struggle between children and parents
over issues of independence—the struggle over when
a child should obey and admit her parent’s wisdom
Versus
when a parent should let go and allow the child to
discover life
• Like the little girl in the parable: Waverly attempts to
defy her mother.
• She clashes with Lindo because she misunderstands her
mother’s pride
• Waverly wants chess to be strictly her own
achievement, part of her own separate identity
• She feels invaded, as though her mother is somehow
taking credit (invisible support)
Rules of the game
• Red Candle & Rules:
Waverly uses the wind as a metaphor for this invisible
strength, thus aligning herself with the same element
her mother had identified with when facing her
arranged marriage in China.
When she lashes out at her mother, Waverly breaks
her own rule. She essentially puts herself “in check”
by revealing her secret weakness, her insecurities
about her mother and her need to believe that her
chess talent is hers alone.
Magpies
• Protecting a child from the same suffers
• An-mei’s mother teaches her two different lessons. The first, which she
teaches through the story of the turtle, is to swallow her tears and
suppress her bitterness. The second, which she teaches by crushing a
pearl from Second Wife’s necklace, is to see beyond appearances.
• This second lesson: as it teaches her to be on guard against deceit.
An-mei in turn passes this lesson on to her daughter Rose, so that Rose
sees through manipulative ways
• An-mei remarks that only after her own mother’s suicide did she learn
“to shout”—to assert herself
• An-mei’s mother sacrifices herself for the sake of her child.
• When she sees that her declining status in Wu Tsing’s household would
mean a lower status for An-mei as an adult, she commits suicide,
forcing Wu Tsing to promise to give An-mei a respected rank in his
household and removing her from Second Wife’s clutches.
Today’s TargeTs 2/24/2014
You will be able:
Demonstrate your understanding of the JLC and
verbally share developed connections between the
novel and poems:
 “Folding Wont Tons In”
 “Women”
 “The Gift”
Homework:
“A Pair of Tickets” due tomorrow!
Test Thursday!
Today’s TargeTs 2/26/2014
You will be able:
Demonstrate your understanding of the JLC and verbally
share developed connections between the novel and
poems
Analyze “A Pair of Tickets” - determine important plot
elements and use of symbolism
Details for the coming days…
Homework:
Test moved…
In class essay
JLC questions
Won
tons,
women,
&
the
gift
WON TONS:
• The metaphor of misshapen flowers suggests that the speaker’s skills at
making won tons are not as strong as his mother’s. The won tons are
imperfect, hence misshapen.
• Appealing to sight and touch
• His attempt at making won-ton soup while living on his own for the first
time…living in a NY apartment passed down through the family that was
filled with many of his memories.
• Chang “folded” the memories of his family’s customs and culture, his
anxiety, and his new independence into those won tons: thus he nourished
himself. They represented that he cherished his past, kept his focus on the
present, and stirred hope for his future by creating something for himself –
even though it was only dinner at this point
WOMEN:
• Tone: a positive portrayal showcasing the strength of women
• Military metaphor: how hard the women worked to reach their goals along
with the importance of their efforts
• “we” = the women’s children & future generations
• Alice walker – the author – dedicated the poem to her mother: describing
her mother’s generation who wanted educational opportunities for their
children. The women knew that education could be a key aspect to their
children’s success in American society.
Won tons, women, & the gift
continued
THE GIFT:
• The speaker recalls an incident from his childhood that is similar
to him removing the splinter from his wife’s hand
• He remembers the tenderness more than the pain
• Love transforms the operation – the metal splinter is imagined as
a gift (“when he’s given something to keep, I kissed my father”)
planted in the boy’s hand by his father. Something that seemed
“evil” allowed him to perform the same operation on his wife
years later – a lesson learned.
“a pair of TickeTs”
• June learns a lesson about the nature of Chinese American identity.
• June wants to reject her Chinese identity in her adolescence because she wanted
to be absolutely American. Now, traveling to China to meet her sisters for the
first time, she worries that she is not Chinese enough.
• She fears a bit of the language barrier, but also the cultural one. She fears that
she did not appreciate her mother enough, while her sisters, who will now never
know Suyuan as adults, have honored Suyuan in their hearts for all these years.
• Yet, June comes to recognize the Chinese heritage that lies deep within herself;
she happily perceives that the American culture she has embraced for so long
does not preempt/prevent a Chinese consciousness as well. Seeing her sisters for
the first time makes her realize that her identity need not be “proven” to anyone
• When June sees that the sisters together resemble Suyuan, the novel comes to
its true conclusion. The real challenge for June has been not to find these longlost sisters, but to find her inner Chinese identity, and to use that as a bridge to
her mother.
•
In finding her sisters, June accomplishes both! Wohoo!
• This achievement serves as a hopeful example for the other characters in the
book, as they continue to struggle for closer mother-daughter bonds despite gaps
in age, language, and culture.
Today’s TargeTs 2/28/2014
You will be able:
Determine important plot elements and use of symbolism in
JLC
Understand expectations and format for JLC in-class essay
Comma Rule #5…
Homework:
Test Monday
In-class essay Tuesday
Notes online
jlc recap