喜福会赏析 Discovering the ethnic name and the genealogical tie in the Joy Luck Club.doc

Discovering the ethnic name and the genealogical tie in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club - Articles - Zenobia Mistri In researching recent ideas in American Studies and ethnic literature, I have been struck by the work of William Boelhower and Werner Sollors, among others. In this essay, I would like to apply some of these ideas to thematic and structural elements in the ethnic American short story sequence as it relates to Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club. Using Boelhower and Sollorss work, I propose to examine the tale of The Joy Luck Clubs June/Jing mei Woo, who becomes the axis for this short story cycle. June Woos story acts a leitmotif in these tales of Chinese mothers and their American daughters who are unable to understand their mothers and their twin heritage. Boelhowers Through a Glass Darkly: An Ethnic Semiosis in American Literature provides a semiotic analysis of ethnicity that can be useful in understanding ethnic literature and is appropriate for this story sequence. Examining The Joy Luck Club using these approaches augments our understanding of this Chinese American story cycle and, in turn, permits the reader to see how ethnic semiosis can augment discussions of writers from different cultures. Amy Tans short story sequence, The Joy Luck Club, focuses on four Chinese mothers and their American daughters who are at odds with their mothers, their inheritance, and the power of their mothers wisdom and strength. Interestingly, none of these mothers longs for her daughter to be Chinese following nothing but Chinese ways, for each woman has come to America with the intent of making a better life in which her family would know the fabled American successes. Each mother has her own powerful story of overcoming odds, of having learned the lesson of becoming strong through seeing her own mother suffer or by suffering herself. Each mother feels the anguish of the cultural separation between herself and her daughter. Each mother wants her daughter to know the power and a