An Individualist Feminism Study On The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is the first novel and the masterpiece of the Chinese-American woman writer Amy Tan. It is praised high just after it is published and has remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months long. It is adapted into a film called the same name, which has far-reaching in bringing the Chinese American culture to wide readers.According to the data of CNKI, there are more than 30 papers referring to this novel, which are mainly focus on the mother-daughter relationship and the Chinese-American cultural conflictions. Critics intend to believe that, the mothers and daughters'different life experiences reflect the different living situations and emotions of the two generations. Because of the great gap of generation and culture, they love each other but they still hurt each other. These criticisms deeply research the mother-daughter relationship and the culture conflictions, but no one apply the method of individualist feminism, which the author will apply in this paper. This thesis will analyze the characters and the life attitude of the mothers and the daughters in the novel from the perspective of individualist feminism, which is divided into four parts.Chapter One is the literature review, which will discuss the novel's writer Amy Tan's life experience and her other novels, and the main content of this novel. In this novel, the writer describes the life experiences of two generations, which includes the CBC mothers and the ABC daughters. As the first-generation immigrants, the mothers cherish the Chinese traditions in their bones though they leave China. But their daughters, who have Chinese looks, are gradually transformed into an American way of thinking. Because of the reason above, the great gap between mothers and daughters becomes deeper and deeper, which make them hurt each other though they still love each other. And finally, the mothers'optimism, wisdom and courage affect the daughters a lot and make them find their values and pursue their life positively.Chapter Two discusses the method applied in this thesis, which is called individualist feminism. The individualist feminism is one of the feminist ideas. It is based upon two main principles:self-ownership and equal treatment under the law. And individualist feminism believes that women have right to pursue their personalities and properties.Chapter Three is the body, which is divided into two parts. The former half explores the characters and life attitude of the mothers from the perspective of feminism. Suyuan Woo's optimism makes her move on her life without considering the past sufferings. An-mei Hsu's courage makes her overcome all the difficulties in her life. Lindo Jong's applies her wisdom to get rid of an unhappy marriage and to gain her new life in America. Ying-ying St. Clare finds her own value through a process of lost and searching. The latter half explores how the mothers encourage their daughters to get rid of the negative emotions, to find their own values and to respect their self-worth and finally face their life positively and independently.Chapter Four is the conclusion. The author gets the conclusion that the mothers and daughters'characters and life attitude in The Joy Luck Club reflects the fundamental sprits of the individualist feminism, which is the respect for the female personality and rights to pursue the happiness.