1. The Joy luck club
By Amy Tan

2. UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
Historical Context:
Historical context refers to the events and situations during the time a piece of literature was written or published.

3. UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
Social Context:
This refers to the way a society would view the events or characters in a story. This can relate to past or present societies.

4. UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
Cultural Context:
This includes behaviors, ideas, and beliefs shared by individuals within a particular group of people.
It can be based around age, ethnicity, or social standing.
Culture is learned and it includes language,values, social norms, and customs related to that particular group.

5. Setting The stories of the daughters take place in San Francisco.
The stories told about the mothers are told from different parts of China. Including: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.
The stories of the women date back to the 1910s when the mothers were born up to the 1980s when the daughters are grown

6. Point of View
Point of view in The Joy Luck Club shifts from narrator to narrator.

7. Conflict
Mother vs. Daughter: Each daughter struggled with her mother’s expectations and criticalness.
Daughters vs. Culture: The mothers where not allowed to marry again after their husbands left or died without adding shame to their families. Yet the daughters were all going through divorces, remarriages, not wanting to be married at all
Mother vs. Religion: each mother had her superstitions. They believed in God and yet they did not know doctrine.
Mother vs. American Culture: Each mother had to cope with the changes that they saw in America and the affect America had on them

8. Plot Each Character had their own plot.
The plot was divided into stories and put in a random order. Therefore each action, climax, and denouement came at different times. Some at the beginning, some at the middle, and end.

9. Major themes Ancient Chinese Culture vs. Modern American Culture
Religious beliefs vs. superstitions
Mother/Daughter mirrored characteristics

10. Style Vocabulary/diction:
Dialog is used to express tension between characters and the difficulty of language barriers
Note the strong dialect of the mothers speech:
“A mother is best. Mother see inside of you.” –An-Mei
“Aii, so much money, so much.

11. Syntax Sentence Structure
When the daughters are speaking they use long sentences, with several commas and sometimes run- ons. This is to point out the fluency of their English.
When the mothers speak they have short, choppy sentences and sometimes fragments which emphasizes their basic English-speaking skills.

12. History of Joy Luck Club
Suyuan Woo founded the club
It began in China as a way for women to come together and celebrate life during the Japanese attacks
The San Francisco chapter is made of four Chinese ladies who came to America to start new lives and escape their suppressive pasts.

13. History Continued
The club’s activities include a large meal and then a competitive game of mah jong – a game of dice and tiles.
Stories are told around the table during the game which is ultimately what the book is about – a compilation of all the women’s life stories.

14. Maj Jong A traditional Chinese tile game with many variations
Often associated with gambling and serious competition
The literal translation of "Mah Jong" is "flax/hemp" "sparrow clattering."
this is sound the tiles make when they are being shuffled.

15. The Game Mah Jong is played by four people
A full game consists of 16 hands of play, falling within 4 rounds
The rounds are named after the four directions: East, South, West, and North

16. The Tiles

17. The Tiles
A complete set contains 144 tiles. The tiles fall into four categories:
Suits
Honor
Flowers
Seasons

18. The Suits There are three suits:
the dots (also called circles or balls)
the bamboos (also called bams or sticks)
the characters (also called characks, cracks, or wan).

19. Suit Tiles: Characters

20. Suit Tiles: Bamboo

21. Suit Tiles: Dots

22. Characters Mothers Suyuan Woo Daughters An-mei Hsu June Woo Lindo Jong
Ying-ying St. Clair
Daughters
June Woo
Rose Hsu Jordan
Waverly Jong
Lena St. Clair

23. Suyuan Woo Sits at the East of the table This is where things begin
She is the founder of the Joy Luck Club
She wants only the best for her daughter be sometimes becomes overly critical
When the Japanese attack she is forced from her home and wanders for days with her twins strapped on her back
She must leave them on the street, and never see them again
She dies at the beginning of the book leaving her daughter to take her place in the club and to find her lost twins.

24. June-Mei Woo Daughter of Suyuan Woo
Her mother pushed her to be a child prodigy at the piano when she was little but she never wanted to be anything but normal
She has no desire to be married or finish school
June becomes an advertising agent
June and Waverly are in constant competition

25. Auntie An-Mei Sits at the south
When she was younger her mother was tricked into being a concubine for a rich man after her father died.
In her unhappiness, her mother commits suicide
An-mei too becomes overly critical and controlling of her daughter

26. Rose Hsu Jordan Daughter of An-Mei
When she was young the family took a trip to the beach and Rose was left in charge of watching her brothers
Her youngest brother drowned and she forever lives in the memory of the guilt
When she was an adult her husband, Ted, left her for another woman.
Instead of keeping silent like her culture required, she stood up for herself and hired a lawyer in order to keep the house.

27. Lindo Jong Sits in the west
Was forced into an arranged marriage that was decided at her birth
Her mother-in-law despised her because she wouldn’t have a son.
She found out a way to get out of the marriage by tricking the family into thinking the contract was not valid.
She went to America
She is a very proud woman and is not happy when her daughter is embarrassed by her.

28. Waverly Jong Lindo Jong’s Daughter
Waverly was a child prodigy of chess
She won many tournaments and her mother became obsessed with her success.
Fed up with her mother’s bragging Waverly quits
As an adult Waverly’s husband left her with a young daughter and she has now met a new man in the same law firm.
Rich, her fiancé, doesn’t make a good impression on the strict Chinese family, but is accepted anyway.
Waverly is resentful at her mother’s ability to only look at the negative.

29. Ying-Ying St Clair Sits in the North
Ying-ying was a spoiled child, spunky and full of life.
When she becomes sixteen she believes that she can see the future.
She marries a man who is significantly older than she who leaves her for a dancer.
In her hurt she shuts herself off from love
She comes to America where she meets her second husband and has Lena

30. Lena St. Clair
Her mother tells her that if she doesn’t eat all of her rice her husband will be pock faced. To keep away from a boy down the street she quits eating so that he would be so sick he would die.
The boy died of measles.
Lena became anorexic
Later she married a man from her same architecture business who added up all the bills and tallied up who spent what. This caused many disagreements between the two.

31. SECTIONS OF THE STORY

32. Section one
Feathers from a Thousand Li Away

33. The Joy Luck Club Story of Suyuan (told by Jing-Mei)
Explains the Joy Luck Club
Sets up the narrator’s purpose for the search for her sisters
Establishes the significance of Mah Jong and the “balance of the table”

34. Scar

35. Scar
Story of An-Mei
Lives with her Grandmother Popo until Popo’s death
Leaves to live with her mother and her extensive family
Tradition of soup
Traditions centered around death
Loyalty to family

36. Red Candle Story of Lindo as a young woman
Arranged marriage that fails
Tradition of lighting marriage candle
Leaves marriage to make her own life
Loyalty to family
Importance of keeping promise to parents

37. The moon lady
Story of Ying-Ying when she is a young child from a wealthy family
Falls off of boat and nearly drowns
Rescued by another boat and encounters the Moon Lady at the festival
Loses her innocence when she finds out the Moon Lady’s secret
Experiences at the festival
Tradition of fishing/water

38. Section 2
Twenty-six Malignant Gates

39. rules of the game Story of Waverly Lindo’s daughter
During her childhood she becomes a child prodigy learning how to play chess
Development of the relationship between mom & daughter
Mother’s push for excellence and the daughter’s struggle for power

40. Voice from the wall Story of Lena daughter of Ying-Ying
See mom/daughter relationship in comparison to the “American” family next door
Introduced to mother’s problems
See the daughter’s attitudes/issues which develop from the relationship

41. Half and Half Story of Rose daughter of An-Mei
Discusses divorce and beliefs concerning divorce
Death of her brother and her feeling of responsibility
Development of her “complex”
Role of religion/balance

42. Two kinds Story of Rose daughter of An-Mei
Discusses divorce and beliefs concerning divorce
Death of her brother and her feeling of responsibility
Development of her “complex”
Role of religion/balance

43. SECtion 3
American Translation

44. Rice husband Story of Lena daughter of Ying-Ying “Chunwang chihan”
Superstition
Value of marriage/relationships
Rice bowl and her “future husband”
Emotional voids

45. Four directions Story of Waverly daughter of Lindo
Daughter’s embarrassment because of her mom
BUT, still concerned about her mom’s opinion concerning marriage/relationship
Significance of birth sign/year

46. without wood Story of Rose, An-Mei’s daughter “Old Mr. Chou”
Death of her brother and her inability to make decisions or bear responsibility
Effects on her marriage
Symbolism of the garden

47. best quality Story of Jing-Mei daughter of Suyuan
Symbolism of the jade pendant from her mother
Significance of the crab dinner
Competition of daughters passed on to their relationship

48. section 4
Queen Mother of the Western Skies

49. Magpies Story of An-Mei mother of Rose
Daughter’s inability to make a decision
Relationship with her mother and extended family
Her mother’s inability to cope with her situation
Story of the turtle and birds

50. waiting between the trees
Story of Ying Ying St. Clair, mother of Lena Forced to marry a “bad man”
Unwanted pregnancy/death of the child
Significance of birth year
Her daughter’s lack of understanding
Significance of the “spirit”

51. double face Story of Lindo, mother of Waverly
Chinese face vs. American face
Two cultures shared by same family
Meeting An-Mei and her husband
Significance of the mirror

52. A pair of tickets Story of Suyuan and Jing-Mei
Daughter goes to meet the sisters in China accompanied by her father
Jing-Mei learns about the two sisters
Names
Relationship in family
Jing-Mei comes to appreciate her mother and her heritage