The Joy Luck Club Book

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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The Joy Luck Club revolves around the lives of four Chinese mothers who have made a life in San Francisco's Chinatown.

The story begins with a metaphor of a Chinese woman who buys a duck who has stretched itself into a swan. This woman wants to take this swan to American, but the immigration officials won't permit her to do so. Unfortunately she is only permitted to keep a feather of this swan. Her hope is to eventually present this single feather to her future daughter, who is to be born in America. This feather will only be presented to her daughter once she learns to speak perfect English. Four subsections follow this metaphor, each part relaying a story about the relationship each Chinese mother has with her Americanized daughter.

The first story is about Suyuan and her daughter, June. June has just been asked to take her mothers place in the Joy Luck Club, a ladies group that promotes that Chinese culture and form friendships of Chinese women who left the homes to come to America.

When June attends the club, she learns of an underlying thread that each woman has endured much suffering and unhappiness in their native homeland of China. The club provides each of these women a safe haven where they can bond with each other. While attending this club June learns that her mother had twin daughters, that she was forced to abandon during the war. At the same time June finds out that Suyuan tried her whole life to find her children left in China. After her mother passed away, the two daughters were found. The ladies of the club pool together their money to send June to China so she could meet her half-sisters, fulfilling her mother's years of searching.

Now the story...