A Study On The Mental Growth Of The Four Daughters In The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is one of the masterpieces of Amy Tan,a famous Chinese American writer.This novel mainly tells the story among four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters.As the second generation of Chinese American women,the four daughters have all experienced cross-cultural marriage and mental struggle and growth.At last,they chose to grow up and realized that only by striving for their own status can they get a happy life of their own.This novel has been studied from the perspective of racial identity,post-colonialism and cultural conflicts between China and the United States,and the characters in the novel are also analyzed from the perspective of the mother-daughter relationship and identity construction.The purpose of this study is to analyze the mental growth of the four daughters in the novel The Joy Luck Club from the perspective of functional stylistics.The study combines quantitative methods and qualitative methods in the analysis of both the mental states of the four daughters at each stage and the mental change they have experienced.Quantitative methods here mainly refer to the calculation of the prominent process types and verbs,and qualitative methods are employed in the identification of the foregrounded linguistic features and the analysis of the characters’ mental states.The data of the study is typical monologues of each four daughters.First of all,according to the different stages of each daughter’s life,the author divides their mental states into different periods.Then the mental states of the four daughters in different stages will be analyzed by employing the transitivity system of ideational function and modality system of interpersonal function.It is found that different process types,process verbs,modal verbs and modal adjuncts are used to depict the mental growth of the four daughters.For Jing-Mei Woo,the relational,material and mental process constitute foregrounded transitivity processes,“be” and “know” are the major verbs in the foregrounded processes.And the medium possibility modal verb “could” and modal adjunct “never” are foregrounded,too.These foregrounded features like “could be” and “never know”present her rebellious mentality and strangeness with Chinese culture.As for RoseHsu Jordan,the material process and mental process constitute the foregrounded transitivity processes.Major foregrounded verbs include “fight” and “decide”,and the medium inclination modal verb “would” is also foregrounded.The foregrounded feature “wouldn’t fight” denotes her obedience and inferior position in marriage.Besides,material and mental process constitute the foregrounded transitivity processes for Waverly Jong.Major foregrounded verbs are “attack”,“criticize” and “lose”,and the medium inclination modal verb “would” is foregrounded,too.The foregrounded features “would attack”,“would criticize”and “would lose” show her fear for her mother’s strong character and the fear of breaking her marriage.In Lena St.Clair’s inner monologue,material process is the foregrounded transitivity process.The major foregrounded verbs are “got married” and “break”,and the high modal verb “should” is also foregrounded.The major foregrounded feature “shouldn’t have got married” indicates her despair and resistance to unfair marriage.Finally,a diachronic analysis of the mental states of the four daughters at different stages shows that Jing-Mei Woo and Waverly Jong grow from misunderstanding and boredom to understanding after the death of their mothers.Rose Hsu Jordan and Lena St.Clair,they grow from obedience and timidity to maturity and independence after experiencing the betrayal and unfairness of their marriage.The study of the mental growth of the four daughters in the novel from the perspective of functional stylistics can not only help readers better understand the characters and themes of the novel,but also further verify the effectiveness of functional stylistics in the interpretation of literary works.