The Joy Luck Club is a novel first published by Amy Tan in 1989. The 4 mothers portrayed in the book all shared painful memories and heartbroken in the past were the days in China during the Japanese occupation. All four fled to America at some point in their lives seeking the hope of starting a new life and forgetting the past. In 1949 the four mothers met for the first time in a Baptist church and later played Mah Jong. They founded a club to gather to play Mah Jong and feast together, which is later known as "The Joy Luck Club". As they represent the first generation of immigrants from China, 4 of them remain culturally alien to this new society due to their inability to speak English. In stark contrast to them, their children are well educated in America and are proficient in speaking fluent English. Throughout their lives, the 4 mothers do their best to ensure ethnic continuity within the microcultural structure of their families through remembrance of the past and the stories they still remember. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn a New York Times article in which the editors embark on a journey to study discrimination against Asian-Americans with Jennifer Lee, a sociology professor at Columbia University and author of “The Asian-American Achievement Paradox,” and Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside, and director of the National Asian-American Survey. In the article, Asians were perceived as “illiterate, undesirable, full of 'filth and disease' and unassimilable” as well as “marginal members of the human race,” leading them to be seen as “invisible and insignificant in society.” But through Amy Tan's portrayal of the 4 mother-daughter pairs, the book challenges these misogynistic stereotypes and shows how the 4 mother-daughter pairs do not conform to the traditional expectations held for them, but instead, discover their true identity and dignity in America, the land where the great American dream is found. The search for identity One of the main aspects on which the book revolves is the search for identity. Amy Tan portrayed the journey of discovery as arduous and fraught with danger. The 8 main characters have all arrived at a crucial point in their lives, where they must define themselves in the midst of great personal loss or interpersonal conflict. It is through these harsh and painful memories that they discovered the meaning of their lives and learned to fight for their rights in a patriarchal society. In Scar, An-Mei's mother was portrayed as a dishonorable widow who chose to become the bride of a wealthy merchant. humble fourth concubine rather than remain a widow forever. She was exiled from her family and An-Mei was taught not to grow up to be like her mother. Only later in Magpies do we find out that An-Mei's mother was forced into marriage rather than of her own free will. In patriarchal society, therefore, she has no right to speak for herself as a humble widow. Despite his innocence, his beloved family members and others chose to believe the words of the rich merchant's second concubine. In the same chapter, he told An-Mei about the same turtle he saw in his mind. “'Now you see,' said the tortoise, slipping back into the pond, 'why there is no use in crying. Your tears don't wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that's why you have to learn to swallow your own tears.' ” Although living with the rich merchant may seem like itwonderful, the pain and suffering he is going through is less known to others. Just like the quote, he learned to “swallow” his tears. All his life he lives in misery. No one is there to share her pain and she is lonely. Her submissive nature led her to continue her life despite the mistreatment she was facing. She did not fight for her rights even though her status is as lowly as that of a servant, she chose to remain silent when the second wife bounces her son on her lap, telling him that she is his only mother and that he will grow up . own this house and take care of her in her old age. Ultimately, he chose to end his life. But in his death he taught An-Mei what is most important. He taught her to follow her instincts, he taught her to fight for what she wants and to speak for herself. In fact, the first step he took to pursue what he wants is when he decides to leave his uncle's house and follow his mother in the hope of a better life. When An-Mei's aunt told her that “A girl is no better than what follows! An-Mei, you think you can see something new, riding a new chariot. But in front of you there is only the ass of the usual mule. Your life is what you see in front of you.” It is evident that she was treated badly when she shared the same roof with her uncle. His life there was never happy, he even said it was a place “full of dark puzzles and suffering that I could never understand”. Thus, we can conclude that after the heartbreaking loss of her mother, An-Mei finally found her true identity. Later in his life, we can see how he passed this thought on to his daughter. At the end of Half and Half, Rose exclaimed: “I think about Bing, how I knew he was in danger, how I let it happen. I think about my marriage, how I had seen the signs of it, really. But I let it happen." Ever since Rose's brother, Bing, died while she was supposed to be caring for him, she has lived with guilt and self-blame. As an adult, she is still unable to let go of the dark memory of the past. She knew that when Bing died, she watched him get closer and closer to the edge of the cliff, but she did nothing to stop this from happening. Because of this incident, Rose lost faith in her fate and destiny, lost her identity and stops formulating her own personal opinions. At the beginning of her relationship with her husband, Rose liked to play the role of the victim of her husband's hero. She has refused to make important decisions because making decisions confuses her. He is a weak person and, just like his mother said, a “woodless” person. Later, Ted lost a lawsuit due to his negligence. From that point on, Ted lost his curiosity and desire to identify his own identity because he was no longer sure of himself. He begins to force Rose to make every trivial decision in their lives. And finally he was tired of Rose's constant indecision and postponing opinions and wanted a divorce. Once again, he was aware that their marriage was falling apart but did nothing. She was so caught up in the Bing incident. He also pointed out that “the Chinese had Chinese opinions. The American people had American opinions. And in almost every case the American version was significantly better. Only later did I discover that there was a serious flaw in the American version. There were too many choices, so it was easy to get confused and choose the wrong thing.” She believes that given the wide variety of choices available, the chances of making a wrong decision are much higher. So, in his mind, he thinks that not making any decisions is better than making one. He was too afraid to take it on.