When she was a child, Lena St. Clair often wondered about a beggar whom her grandfather had sentenced to die in the worst possible way. She imagines all sorts of gruesome torture. Appalled by her interest in violence, her mother said that the way he died didn’t matter. Lena thinks […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Lena St. Clair: The Voice from the WallSummary and Analysis Waverly Jong: Rules of the Game
Waverly Jong, the narrator of this section, explains that she was six years old when her mother taught her “the art of invisible strength,” a strategy for winning arguments and gaining respect from others in games. Waverly and her two brothers live on Waverly Place in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Waverly Jong: Rules of the GameSummary and Analysis Part II: The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates
A mother cautions her seven-year-old daughter not to ride her bicycle around the corner. When the daughter protests, her mother explains that the child will fall, will cry out — and will be out of earshot. It is all written in a book called The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, the mother […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part II: The Twenty-Six Malignant GatesSummary and Analysis Ying-ying St. Clair: The Moon Lady
The drama in which the Moon Lady is a major character concerns the loss and reclamation of cultural and individual identities. Four-year-old Ying-ying, who has fallen overboard, is desperate to be “found” — to once again be reunited with her family — and with herself. She feels as though she […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Ying-ying St. Clair: The Moon LadySummary and Analysis Lindo Jong: The Red Candle
Like earlier chapters, this one also deals with the theme of sacrifice and filial obligations. Earlier, An-mei’s mother sacrificially mutilated herself for her mother; here, Lindo submits her life to her parents’ plans for her future: “I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents’ promise,” the chapter begins. Lindo […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Lindo Jong: The Red CandleSummary and Analysis An-mei Hsu: Scar
To June Woo, the mothers who treasure the evenings that they spend together at the Joy Luck Club seem little more than elderly, middle-class women in their “slacks, bright print blouses, and different versions of sturdy walking shoes.” Yet we know now that the life of June’s mother, Suyuan, was […]
Read more Summary and Analysis An-mei Hsu: ScarSummary and Analysis Jing-mei Woo: The Joy Luck Club
“Before I wrote The Joy Luck Club,” Tan said in an interview, “my mother told me, ‘I might die soon. And if I die, what will you remember?”‘ Tan’s answer appears on the book’s dedication page, emphasizing the novel’s adherence to truth. How much of the story is real? “All […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Jing-mei Woo: The Joy Luck ClubSummary and Analysis Part I: Feathers from a Thousand Li Away
A brief parable introduces one of the novel’s primary themes: transformation. An old woman remembers purchasing an unusual “swan” in a Shanghai market; the swan had originally been a duck, but it stretched its neck so long — trying to become a goose — that it eventually looked exactly like […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part I: Feathers from a Thousand Li AwayCharacter List – Page 2
The Mothers Suyuan Woo The central event in Suyuan’s life is the loss of her twin baby daughters. In a desperate attempt to save her babies from the Japanese troops advancing through China, Suyuan leaves them by the side of the road. Soon after, she meets her second husband, Canning […]
Read more Character List – Page 2About The Joy Luck Club
It was not until the 1976 publication of Maxine Hong Kingston’s mystical memoir of her San Francisco childhood, The Woman Warrior, that Asian-American writers broke into mainstream American literature. Even so, ten more years had to pass until another Asian-American writer achieved fame and fortune. The Joy Luck Club, Amy […]
Read more About The Joy Luck Club