Feminist Themes And Their Symbolic Elucidation In The Joy Luck Club

In the past thirty years, a number of Chinese-American intellectualshave found their way into mainstream American culture. They come fromdifferent walks of life. Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, is one ofthem.The Joy Luck Club is Amy Tan’s masterpiece that started out as abestseller, and has ended up as a piece of classical literature. It soldnumerous copies and won so many awards in and outside the UnitedStates. It was turned into a Hollywood movie, which attracted audiencesin Anglo-American countries and in any place where there is a Chinesepopulation. So this novel merits a careful study by students and critics.This thesis analyzes the interaction between two different valuesystems–one American and the other Chinese--internalized by twogenerations of Chinese-American women depicted in The Joy Luck Club.As Confucianism is a dominant influence on the Chinese culture, thisthesis mainly focuses on this value system. On the other hand, as thebook is mainly about women, feminism is singled out as an epitome ofAmerican values. The thesis examines the novel closely to show how theconflict between Confucian concepts of women and feminist views onwomen affects the life of Chinese-Americans living in the United States.Furthermore, it also indicates how effectively symbols are used by theauthor to convey the messages hidden between the lines related to thisconflict. In other words, the thesis first elaborates on several importantfeminist subthemes addressed in the novel and then reveals how skillfullysymbolism is used by Amy Tan to enhance those literary themes. Asuggestion for future research in this area is given in the concluding partof the thesis.