1. Discuss the significance of the novel within the tradition of Chinese-American fiction. 2. Analyze the conflicts between any two of these pairs of characters: Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei Woo An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair Clifford St. […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsStudy Help Full Glossary for The Joy Luck Club
AIDS Waverly says that because Jing-mei’s hairdresser is gay, he could have AIDS. He is cutting hair, “which is like cutting a living tissue.” There has not been a single reported case of anyone contracting AIDS through a haircut; this scene is proof that Waverly can be prejudiced, misinformed, and […]
Read more Study Help Full Glossary for The Joy Luck ClubSummary and Analysis Sonnet 25
Summary In Sonnet 25, which has as its theme mortality versus immortality, the poet contrasts himself with those “who are in favor with their stars,” implying that, though he is not numbered among those famous, fortunate people, their fame will not last, while his love will. Therefore, he is happy […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 25Critical Essays Modern Chinese History
China’s history is both rich and turbulent. This is especially true in the twentieth century, a time marked by violent social, political, and economic upheaval in China. During the first decade of the century, Chinese students, merchants, and others who were dissatisfied with Manchu rule began to rebel. On February […]
Read more Critical Essays Modern Chinese HistorySummary and Analysis Sonnet 24
Summary When the poet writes in Sonnet 24 of finding “where your true image pictured lies,” he focuses on a meaning of “true” in the sense of genuine as opposed to counterfeit. The young man’s beauty is often cast as a shape or appearance. Paintings, pictures, visual images, forms, shadows, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 24Critical Essays The Fairy Tale
According to J.R.R. Tolkien, the “cauldron of story” has always been bubbling. Many stories persist in human memory, beginning long before the invention of printing and passed down through many generations to the present. This heritage, preserved chiefly through the “oral tradition,” is the soup in the cauldron of Tolkien’s […]
Read more Critical Essays The Fairy TaleCritical Essays Tan’s Women in The Joy Luck Club
The novel traces the fate of four mothers — Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair — and their four daughters — Jing-mei “June” Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All four mothers fled China in the 1940s and retain much of their […]
Read more Critical Essays Tan’s Women in The Joy Luck ClubAmy Tan Biography
Amy Tan, whose Chinese name, An-mei, means “blessing from America,” was born in 1952 in Oakland, California, the middle child and only daughter of John and Daisy Tan, who came to America from China in the late 1940s. Besides Amy, the Tans also had two sons — Peter, born in […]
Read more Amy Tan BiographySummary and Analysis Jing-Mei Woo: A Pair of Tickets
Jing-mei is on a train to China, traveling with her seventy-two-year-old father, Canning Woo. As the train enters Shenzhen, China, Jing-mei begins to “feel Chinese.” Their first stop will be Guangzhou. Like her father, Jing-mei is weeping for joy. After her mother’s death, a letter arrived from China from her […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Jing-Mei Woo: A Pair of TicketsSummary and Analysis Lindo Jong: Double Face
Waverly wants to go to China for her honeymoon but is afraid that she will blend in so well that she will not be allowed to return to America. Her mother reassures her that there is no chance that she will be mistaken for a Chinese citizen. Waverly is American. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Lindo Jong: Double Face