Introduction
The Joy Luck Club, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1989, presents the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters. Each […]
The Joy Luck Club
Plot Summary
The Joy Luck Club consists of sixteen interlocking stories about the lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four American-born daughters. In 1949, the […]
Characters
A Jing-Mei Woo Jing-Mei, daughter of Suyuan Woo, takes her mother’s place in the Joy Luck Club when her mother dies. Jing-Mei searches for her […]
Themes
A Choices and Consequences The Joy Luck Club presents the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters. All of their lives, the […]
Construction
A Structure In presenting the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters in The Joy Luck Club, Tan uses “cradling,” a formal […]
Historical Perspective
A Historical China While The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989, it is set in pre-World War II China and contemporary San Francisco. The […]
Compare and Contrast
1930s and 1940s: The Japanese occupied China. Full war erupted in 1945 in Beijing between the Chinese and Japanese. After the war, civil war breaks […]