Growth In Harmony: Amy Tan's Harmonious Ethical View In Initiation Story The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan is one of the most famous Chinese American female writers, undoubtedly she is an immensely popular writer of dazzling talent in the literary world. In 1989, her first novel The Joy Luck Club was highly praised by the critics and the readers after its publishing. Many critics have done researches on this novel from different perspectives, but few from the Bildungsroman and Ethical approach.The research of Initiation Story is mainly on social ideology, theme and ethical value reflected from the works; The ethical literary criticism, which focuses on the scrutinizing of the text and the author's ethical tendency revealed through the details in the works. At the same time it is advocated to direct realistic behaviour in people's daily life from the ethical theme in the works. The four second-generation Chinese American girls'growing-up process will be the frame of this thesis, and in the light of ethical literary criticism, this thesis analyzes the conflicts and the causes of disharmony and its reconciliation from the perspective of ethics.This thesis has five parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to Amy Tan and her work The Joy Luck Club, the critical reviews of this novel and the significance of the study.The first chapter is from the definition of Bildungsroman, the general characteristics and plot pattern of American initiation story to analyze The Joy Luck Club. The thesis is mainly emphasizes on Amy Tan's harmonious ethical view in the growth process of the four daughters who were brought up in America, their growing-up process went through puzzlement to epiphany and then self-discovery.The second chapter presents two kinds of conflicts in the novel, one is between the mothers and the daughters, the other is between the daughters and their husbands. Both conflicts caused the daughters lost themselves. Next, the thesis analyzes the two conflicts from the differences between Chinese and American family, marital and social ethical values.The third chapter explores the details that the daughters out of confusion to have a new self-identity through their mothers'guide in their growth process. Those details reveal the daughters finally understand their mothers and know more about themselves which indicates the reconciliation of the conflicts and shows us Amy Tan's harmonious ethical view.The last part is a brief conclusion of the previous three chapters.