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Big Ideas In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

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One of the main big ideas in the novel is relationships between mother and daughter. In the novel, all of the main characters are four mothers and four daughters, and in the plot, all of the characters show a relationship and a connection between each other. For example, when Rose Hsu saw her brother, Bing, fell down on a cliff in the beach, her mother, An-mei, punishes her by going back to the beach and finding him. The next day, Rose and An-mei couldn’t find him at the beach, which means that Bing is dead. Then, Rose learns her lesson from her mother which is to have fate in trying everything. An-mei also said, “You must think for yourself, what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying,” (130) and she meant that Rose should …show more content…
In the novel, all of the main characters are Chinese, but only the mothers stick to their Chinese roots while the daughters show a bit Chinese but adhere to the American roots. One example that represents the big idea is when Waverly Jong wants to go to China for her honeymoon, but she is worried that she doesn’t look Chinese because she’s been living like an American for the rest of her life. Her mother, Lindo, knows that Waverly won’t look like the Chinese people because she looks like an American, when she knows that she is Chinese. Now, Waverly wants to be Chinese but she can’t be like Chinese people because even though Lindo taught her how to be Chinese, it didn’t work out and she is still American in the inside. According to Lindo, “It’s my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?” (254). She doesn’t understand that because transitioning from one culture to the next is hard for Waverly. Also, combining both cultures is hard, even when one daughter gets used to the American style, like Waverly. Overall, all of the characters have a problem combining their cultures, but some of the mothers have kept their traditions while the daughters explore their American

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