The Joy Luck Club Essay

     The bond between a mother and a daughter is unbreakable. Daughters tend to forget that mothers know best. Mothers tend to forget their daughters are still learning to grow up. However, there might be reasons behind all of this. Miscommunication and misunderstanding between a mother and daughter is much of a result if cultural and generational differences.

     In the book, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, these differences are clearly portrayed. Linda Jong becomes upset when her daughter, Waverly, wants to be American no mater how hard she tries to teach Waverly to be Chinese. This is an example of cultural differences because Lindo wants Waverly to be Chinese when Waverly has something else in mind

     Jing-Mei's, also known as June's, mom dies. She is forced to take her mom's spot in the Joy Luck Club. She feels like she can't quite fill her mom's shoes. This is simply because they're different. Her mother lacked affection and had high expectations as well as rare emotions towards her. This is an example of generational differences because growing up June's mom Suyuan forgot June was still learning. This makes it hard for June to fill her shoes. 

     When Waverly becomes a chess prodigy, Suyuan wants June to become a piano prodigy as well or a Chinese Shirley Temple. Suyuan expected June to be the best, better than girls on the television. However, this is not what June wanted. This is an example of cultural and generational differences. This is because Suyuan wanted June to be good at something because she was Chinese and other Chinese girls were good at things. It's generational differences because it's not what June, at that age, wanted.

     Mothers and daughters miscommunicate as a result of cultural and generational differences. Mothers usually want one thing for their daughters and it's usually influenced by where they come from. Daughters want something different from their mothers and it's usually influenced by people around them and the generation they live in. Mothers and daughters may argue and drive eachother crazy, but they share a live greater than all. That's what makes a mother-daughter bond special.

Diction Handouts

Low or informal diction:

Example of Jargon: awash

Elevated language or formal diction:

1.a).phosphorescent: of or relating to a type of light that glows softly in the dark and that does not produce heat

• "Before I could form a guess, a faint flash of glowing light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the naked body of an, flickered.."

b).cadaverous: looking very thin & pale; resembling a corpse

•"...a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish pale glow." 

c).elusive: hard to find or capture; hard to understand, define, or remember 

•"...flickered in the sleeping water with the incomprehensible, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky." 

2. Elevated language makes the text & time more formal. Paraphrasing the passage makes the passage shorter and less formal.

Abstract & concrete diction:

4.a).saw

b).climbed 

c).clutched 

d).stare

5.The authors chose to leave the captain, ship, & crew nameless to creat a mysterious tone, where the reader can look for, create, or ponder the names.

Denotation & connotation: 

6. The Denotation of the title "The Secret Sharer" is that the sharer is secretive in a sense that the person says, or in this case, shares something that is not mean for everyone to hear or see.

Chart:

Word: 

1.cadaverous:

Denotation- looking very thing or pale

Connotation- 

2.darkling:

D-in the dark

C- someone or something that is dark

3.pale:

D-light skinned

C-

4.phosphorescence:

D-luminescence that is caused by the absorption of radiations

C-

5.ghastly:

D-very shocking or horrible

C-

6.headless:

D-having no head

C-mindless or can't think 

7.fishlike:

D-acting or feeling like the characteristics of a fish

C-something or something underwater