The Joy Luck Club

1. The Joy Luck Club

2. The Joy Luck ClubAmy Tan The novel spans from the 1920s through the 1980s, following two generations of women. Mothers, born and raised in China, find themselves in San Francisco raising their own daughters. Both mothers and daughters must navigate diverse worlds, with different languages, cultures, and habits.

3. About the author • Born from Chinese immigrant parents John and Daisy. Her parents wanted Amy to become a doctor or concert pianist, but Amy had other ideas. • At the age of 15 both her brother and father died due to cancer. Amy’s mother took her Switzerland to escape the poor health curse. • Amy began her writing career by becoming a freelance writer for AT&T,  IBM, and Northern Telecom,  as well as Wells Fargo Bank,  Big  Eight management consulting firms.

4. About the author • Amy wrote not only a variety of literary works, but also operas and Emmy awarded television shows. • Amy continually struggled with her relationship with her mother Daisy throughout her early adult life. • Daisy did not live long enough to witness many of Amy’s accomplishments. Daisy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and passed in 1999.

5. The Joy Luck Club

6. The Joy Luck Club • The Plot Points: • June’s death of her mother • June becomes the “fourth corner” and takes her mother’s seat that faces “east”. • June shares mother’s story from Kwelin. • June’s aunts explain that Suyuan wrote to her “lost daughters” before she died. • https://maps.google.com/

7. Characterization

8. Literary Analysis “ My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other’s meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard no more” (27). Demonstrating June’s internal conflict with her mother.

9. Literary Analysis “When I saw the hills, I laughed and shuddered at the same time. The peaks looked like giant fried fish heads trying to jump out of a vat of oil. Behind each hill, I could see shadows of another fish, and then another and another. And then the clouds would move just a little and the hills would suddenly become monstrous elephants marching slowly toward me!”(8). Simile Metaphor

10. Today’s Targets 2/10/2014 You will be able: • Collaborate with group members to create an effective lesson plan for JLC -vocabulary/lesson plan/works cited Homework: • Group Presentations – be checking your calendar • Paper Revisions • “Best Quality” – read for tomorrow if you haven’t done so!

11. Today’s Targets 2/11/2014 You will be able: Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC: • Demonstrate your understanding of the text along with strong presentation skills including: • Developed speaking and listening skills • Solid eye contact Homework: • Group Presentations – be checking your calendar • Paper Revisions due Friday • “Red Candle” due Thursday

12. Today’s Targets 2/12/2014 You will be able: • Demonstrate understanding and validity of “Folding Won Tons In” • Develop and establish connections between poem and JLC Homework: • Group Presentations – be checking your calendar • Paper Revisions due Friday • “Red Candle” due tomorrow

13. Today’s Targets 2/13/2014 You will be able: Educate classmates on assigned chapter from JLC: • Demonstrate your understanding of the text along with strong presentation skills including: • Developed speaking and listening skills • Solid eye contact Homework: • Group Presentations – be checking your calendar • Paper Revisions due tomorrow

14. Today’s Targets 2/14/2014 You will be able: • Analyze “Best Quality” & “Red Candle” - determine important plot elements and use of symbolism • Demonstrate understanding and validity of “Women” • Develop and establish connections between poem and JLC Homework: • Group Presentations – be checking your calendar Read/Finish “Women”/ “Rules of the Game” – presentation TUESDAY

15. Based on your comments… You should be taking notes everyday… it will benefit you!!!!!!!!!!

16. The crab/The pendant • June’s mother tells her that the feistiest crabs are of the best quality; even beggars would reject a crab that has died before being cooked/broken leg • The cooking of the crabs (225-226) • Suyuanexplains that she did not eat the legless crab because it had died before she cooked it. • She teases June for choosing the worse of the two remaining crabs, because anyone else would have taken the better one—the “best quality” available. • June’s way of thinking differed from that of most people – her mother points this out. June chooses the worse of the two remaining crabs because she wants her mother to enjoy the better one – everyone else • gives June a jade pendant, telling her that it is her “life’s importance.” • She advises June not to worry about Waverly, whose words always “move sideways” like a crab. • She has the choice to move in a different direction – be a different person

17. The crab/The pendant • a missing leg on a crab is a bad sign on the Chinese New year • connection between a crab’s movement and the way Waverly conducts her life, always looking sideways out of the corner of her eye at potential competitors/insulting • June thinks that the pendant is given by her mother out of sympathy due to Waverly’s insults and attitude. • June’s mom has worn the pendant against her skin, thus if June wears it she can embrace the connection and retain some of who her mother is/was • June’s mom had high expectations/originally saw lack of ambition • Humility = selflessness. • At times, this is the “best quality” one can have…

18. The pendent • At first, June sees it as unstylish/different than the others she sees =Represents the cultural differences between herself and her mother. • After Suyuan’sdeath, june begins to see it as a symbol of her mother’s love and concern. **with this she also begins to understand her mother’s actions in general – why she gave it to her • While June used to interpret many of her mother’s words as meaningless she now sees them as manifesting a deep maternal wisdom and love.

19. The red candle • If the candle burns all night without either end extinguishing prematurely, custom says that the marriage will be successful and happy. • The candle has a symbolic meaning—the success of the marriage—within the Chinese culture, but within the story it also functions as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture itself– marriage beliefs • Lindodesperately does not want to marry, but she cannot go against the promises her parents made to her husband’s family. • By blowing out the flame, Lindo takes control of her own fate – rebellion to gain self control • by playing upon the traditional beliefs and superstitions that Lindo convinces her mother-in-law to annul the marriage. Her act of blowing out the candle would have been meaningless without an underlying, pre-established network of belief. • Thus the candle= a symbol of tradition & the use of tradition in claiming one’s own identity and power.