Joy Luck Club Relates Amy Tan to the Book

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Imagine if the book The Joy Luck Club was identical to the life of the author Amy Tan’s life growing up in a completely different country than your parents, battling the trials and struggles. Although it was not the case that they were exactly the same, there were many similarities between the lives of the characters and the author Tan. There are many correlations that will be made in regards to the characters and situations in the book and how they relate to each other discussed with in this paper. Similarities will be talked about, along with how Tan incorporates her own life into the creating and making of the book The Joy Luck Club. One similarity that the mothers and daughters in the book shared with Tan and her family is that all of the parents had high expectations and goals for their children. Also, when all of the daughters were growing up, there was some sort of family secret kept away from them. Another parallel between the author and the characters in the book is that both of them had lost something that was meaningful to them. The parents, mainly the mothers, pushed their daughters to the highest possible point of their ability to achieve successful lives. The daughters in the stories thought their mothers were very pushy about some things and they did not like it. However, what they did not realize is the intention their mother had for them to be in a better, more independent situation then they were. Jing-Mei Woo was one of the daughters in chapter eight titled Two Kinds and it stated, “I hated the tests, something inside of me began to die”. (Page 141) When Jing-Mei’s mother saw other people excelling, she thought it was necessary for her daughter to do the same thing. She had been put on a pedestal in her mind as a type of prodigy. But even though Jing-Mei was not pleased fulfilling her mother’s requests, she was hesitant about questioning her mom
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