An Interpretation Of The Identity Crises In The Joy Luck Club From The Perspective Of The Post-Colonial Feminism

Amy Tan is a remarkable Chinese American writer in the 20 th century American literature. And The Joy Luck Club is one of her best novels and it has caused an upsurge of Chinese American literature since it was published. And it also made great contributions to gradually leading Chinese American literature into mainstream. The novel consists of 16 monologues by the mothers and daughters themselves respectively. This kind of writing skills more truthfully represents unceasing conflicts between mothers and daughters because of their differences in culture, class and race. Mothers in this novel are deeply influenced by the Eastern culture, which means they not just remain the Chinese tradition and customs in daily life, but in their personality they also inherit the great Chinese virtues, such as respecting the aged and taking good care of children, being dutiful to their own parents and so on. On the contrary, the new generation is growing on the western land where the native advocate the individual independence and human rights. Though there exist so many differences in their lives and thoughts, they are experiencing similar process, losing themselves and reconstructing their own identities.So in this thesis I will analyze the struggles and stresses coming from the western society and the patriarchy society. Postcolonial theory focuses on the differences made by western hegemony and western culture. And feminism mainly emphasizes the women’s unequal treatment and miserable experience caused by man’s superiority and the resistance to regain their real self.