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 Sonnet 4
Summary The themes of narcissism and usury (meant here as a form of use) are most developed in this sonnet, with its references to wills and testaments. The terms “unthrifty,” “legacy,” “bequest,” and “free” (which in line 4 means to be generous), imply that nature’s generosity should be matched by […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 4Summary and Analysis The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife
Summary Dr. Adams hires two American Indians to cut some logs that broke free from a shipment bobbing downstream toward a large sawmill company. They are glad to make some extra money and are in a good mood, good-naturedly teasing the doctor about stealing the logs. The doctor becomes furious […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Doctor and the Doctor’s WifeSummary and Analysis Sonnet 3
Summary Drawing on farming imagery, the poet focuses entirely on the young man’s future, with both positive and negative outcomes. However, the starting point for these possible futures is “Now,” when the youth should “form another,” that is, father a child. The sonnet begins with the image of a mirror […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 3Summary 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 Indian Camp
Summary One night, Dr. Adams is summoned to help an American Indian woman who has been in painful labor for two days. The doctor takes his young son, Nick, and his brother, George, to the American Indian camp on the other side of a northern Michigan lake. There, the doctor […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Indian CampSummary and Analysis Sonnet 2
Summary Sonnet 2 continues the argument and plea from Sonnet 1, this time through the imagery of military, winter, and commerce. Time again is the great enemy, besieging the youth’s brow, digging trenches — wrinkles — in his face, and ravaging his good looks. Beauty is conceived of as a […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 2Summary 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 3
“Indian Camp” Dr. Adams A general practitioner and emergency surgeon who lives near a lake on the northern peninsula of Michigan. Using makeshift surgical instruments, he delivers a baby boy to an American Indian woman who has been in excruciating labor for two days. Uncle George Dr. Adams’ brother; he […]
Read more Character List – Page 3Summary and Analysis Sonnet 1
Summary Shakespeare begins his sonnets by introducing four of his most important themes — immortality, time, procreation, and selfishness — which are interrelated in this first sonnet both thematically and through the use of images associated with business or commerce. The sonnet’s first four lines relate all of these important […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 1