CHARACTER FILE

THE JOY LUCK CLUB

1. Discuss the following themes from the novel:

It is important for a woman to develop her

individual identity so she has the strength
to survive hard times.
Because they operate from different
perspectives, it is frequently difficult for
Americanized daughters to communicate
with their Chinese mothers, though they
share a great bond.
The way things appear to be is often
different from the way they really are.
As they grow older, the daughters
appreciate their mothers and begin to see
how similar they are to their mothers.
Discuss these additional generalizations about life from the
story:

Life's rules must be discovered for

oneself; they cannot be taught
• greed will always make you feel hungry
for more
• •
• it is important to listen to your elders
• •
• Fear of what will happen is the greatest
torture of all
• •
• Tears are useless; they just feed another
person's joy
• •
• Do not listen to something meaningless
• •
• many bad things, which we cannot fully
prevent or control, happen in life.
 Part I
• _ It is possible in life to become more
than what is hoped for.
• •
• 1. A parable is a tale which illustrates a
lesson or moral. What lesson does the
story of the swan teach?
• The bird stretched its neck hoping to be a
goose, but instead became a swan. The
story expresses the idea that it is possible
in life to become more than what is hoped
for
• 2. In what ways does the parable at the
beginning of this chapter help to support
the following theme:
• It is important for a woman to develop her
individual identity so she has the strength
to survive hard times.
• Answers will vary. Example: The old woman
wants to give her daughter a feather from the
• swan so her daughter will understand how to
develop her spirit or identity to be able to
• survive hard times. When the bird became a
swan, it al so became too beautiful to eat. The
old woman wants to teach her daughter how to
survive in the world by becoming someone who
• cannot be crushed by life's hardships.
• 3. Some critics believe the swan feather
stands for something larger than itself.
What do you think the swan feather might
represent in this story?
• The swan feather represents a person's
ability to develop a strong identity so she
can survive hard times.
 Part II
• _ Mothers are often unable to
communicate life's dangers to their
daughters.
• •
 Part III
• _ Appearances are not important; the
quality underneath is what counts.
• •
 Part IV
• _ It is important to be aware of evil
without losing hope or laughter.
 SUYUAN WOO
• Where does Suyuan meet her husband,
Canning?
• In a hospital in China
 SUYUAN WOO
• She died just like a rabbit Suyuan's
stroke occurred in her brain, killing her
instantly, just as one would club a rabbit in
the head — without warning. She had no
symptoms. One moment she was alive;
the next, she was dead.
 SUYUAN WOO
• 6. List three of the five elements Suyuan
believes comprise each person. In what
way does too much of each element
impact a person's life'
• "Too much fire and you had a bad temper"
• "Too little wood and you bent too quickly ..
• "Too much water and you flowed in too
many directions ... " (Pg. 31)
 SUYUAN WOO
• 1. Why does Suyuan begin the first Joy Luck
Club in Kweilin?
• Suyuan is a young mother of twin daughters,
whose husband is an officer in the Kuomintang.
• The Japanese invasion of China creates many
hardships for the women. To help combat their
• despair; Suyuan begins the Joy Luck Club. The
club consists of thee young women including
• herself who meet once a week to raise
money and to raise their spirits.
 SUYUAN WOO
• 3. Why do the women name their parties
"Joy Luck"?
• The women call the club "Joy" because
each week they are permitted to think only
good thoughts . They call it "Luck"
because each week they hope to be lucky.
 SUYUAN WOO
• 5. Why does the San Francisco Joy Luck Club
play the stock market?
• When they first began the Club, they played
mah-jong for money, but the same women won
• each week. They won because of their skill, not
because of luck. The club members then
decided to invest money in the stock market,
so each member has a chance to have good
luck.
 Jing-mei Woo
• 9. How does Jing-mei Woo know which seat at
the mah jong table was her mother's place?
• The mah jong table has four places, North,
South, East and West. jing-mei knows her
mother would sit on the East corner of the table
because her mother believed the East is where
things begin. It is the direction from which the
sun rises and where the wind originates.
 Jing-mei Woo
• Jing-mei drops out of college, and her
mother wants her to go back, to school.
Jing-mei does not want to argue with her
mother about this, so she tells her she will
look into going back to school. Her mother
misinterprets her daughter's comment to
mean she is going back to school to get a
doctorate.
 JING-MEI WOO
• Feelings of shame, as she considers the
women's dress and customs strange and
outdated;
• To June Woo, the mothers who treasure the
evenings that they spend together at the Joy
Luck Club seem little more than elderly, middle-
class women in their "slacks, bright print
blouses, and different versions of sturdy walking
shoes." Yet we know now that the life of June's
mother, Suyuan, was repeatedly torn by tragedy.
 Jing-mei Woo
• - discovers the true meaning of a jade
pendant, which her mother called "life's
importance"
 Jing-mei Woo
• - Jing-mei finally finds her identity, and
her heritage, when she
travels to China to meet her twin half
sisters.
 Jing-mei Woo
• Why doesn’t Jing-mei’s piano teacher, Mr.
Chong, insist that she play the correct
notes? He is deaf
 Jing-mei Woo
• What is the name of the pendant that
Suyuan gives to Jing-mei?
• Her “life’s importance”
 Jing-mei Woo
• What does Jing-mei eat for her first meal
in China?
• Hamburgers, french fries, and apple pie
 AN-MEI HSU
• In a similar fashion, this chapter illustrates
that the same is true of An-mei, the
woman who sits in the south corner of the
mah jong game, the woman characterized
by June Woo as a "short bent woman in
her seventies, with a heavy bosom and
thin, shapeless legs." An-mei suffered
tragedies of her own, just as did her own
mother (not the "fallen woman" )
 Popo
• Popo: house in Ningpo
• Popo wants An-mei to also think of her
mother as dead because she brought
great disgrace to the family by becoming a
number-three concubine.
 AN-MEI HSU
• What does An-mei’s mother tell her to do
rather than cry?
• Swallow her tears and suppress her grief
 AN-MEI HSU
• What is deceptive about the necklace that
Second Wife gives to An-mei?
• It is glass, not pearl
 AN-MEI HSU
• What does An-mei use as a prop to keep
her kitchen table from wobbling?
• A white leatherette Bible
 AN-MEI HSU
• 10. What does the story of Auntie An-mei's
trip to China reveal about Communist
China'
• An-mei brings gifts of clothes Jar her
relatives in China, but they are not
interested in her choice of gifts.
 AN-MEI HSU
• Her relatives want money. Before she
leaves China, An-mei and her husband
are out nine thousand dollars.
 AN-MEI HSU
• This story reveals that Communist China
is very poor, but more important, the
people are more interested in what An-mei
can give them than they are in enjoying
her company.
 AN-MEI HSU
• To An-mei, her mother looks strange, "like
the missionary ladies." Her face is a dark
shadow when An-mei first sees her; she
seems insolent and bossy, and her foreign
clothes and high-heeled shoes suggest
evil, suggest a woman worthy of contempt
— exactly as Popo and Auntie described
her in their many tales about her to An-
mei.
 AN-MEI HSU
• However, the woman's tenderness toward
little An-mei and her uncontrolled wailing
at the memory of An-mei's being
accidentally burned belie her Western —
thus, suspect — appearance.
 AN-MEI HSU
• - severs part of her own flesh to enrich the
soup
 AN-MEI HSU
• In this scene, An-mei realizes that if one is
to discover one's identity, one's heritage,
one must metaphorically "peel off your
skin, and that of your mother, and her
mother before her. Until then, there is
nothing." Nothing, that is, except the scar.
 AN-MEI HSU
• An-mei herself bears a scar, a reminder of
the day that her mother came to Popo's
house and cried out, begging An-mei to
come with her. Popo had damned her own
daughter — and at that moment, a pot of
dark boiling soup spilled on tiny An-mei.
 AN-MEI HSU
• The little girl almost died; she would have,
in fact, if Popo hadn't revealed the love
that she carried in her heart — but could
not demonstrate — for An-mei's mother.
Gently, she warned An-mei that if she did
not get well, her mother would forget her.
An-mei immediately began her recovery.
 AN-MEI HSU
• Each of the daughters in this novel will, in
individual ways, undergo this process of
healing the divisiveness that separates
them from their mothers.
 ROSE
• What material element does An-mei say is
lacking symbolically in Rose’s character?
• Rose's mother describes her as without
wood, meaning that she bends in all
directions and cannot stand alone.
 ROSE
• What is the name of Rose Hsu Jordan’s
youngest brother? Bing
 ROSE
• How do Rose and An-mei return to the
beach to look for Rose’s drowned brother?
An-mei drives them in the family car, even
though, to Rose’s knowledge, she has
never driven before
 LINDO JONG
• How does the red candle predict the
success of Lindo and Tyan-yu’s marriage?
• If it burns from both ends without going
out, it will presage a happy marriage
 LINDO JONG
• What happens to the candle?
• Lindo blows it out, but the servant lights it
again out of fear that she will be punished
for negligence
 LINDO JONG
• The candle was a marriage bond
that . . . meant I couldn't divorce and I
couldn't ever remarry, even if Tyan-yu
died.
 LINDO JONG
• The traditional Asian value placed on
marriage is illustrated in the customs
surrounding its dissolution. When one
partner dies, for example, widowers and
widows must often wait a prescribed time
before remarrying; they must also wear
mourning clothing and perform ceremonial
duties for the dead.
 LINDO JONG
• While many cultures permit divorce, in
some societies divorce is uncommon
because it requires the repayment of
dowries or other monetary or material
exchanges in order to prevent the violation
of religious laws. In pre-revolutionary
China, women were never allowed to
remarry, even if their husbands died.
 LINDO JONG
• She realized that the loveless marriage
would not destroy her because only she
could access her true identity. The twenty-
four-carat bracelets symbolize Lindo's true
worth, genuine and inviolate.
 LINDO JONG
• When An-mei asks Lindo, "Did you ever
think you would be so powerful that you
could determine some one else's fortune?"
she is referring to the fact that Lindo
worked in a fortune cookie factory.
 LINDO JONG
• What distressed Lindo about her recent
trip to China?
• She realized that people could recognize
her as an American.
 LINDO JONG
• What does Lindo call Waverly’s
psychiatrist?
• A “psyche-atricks”
 WAVERLY
• AIDS Waverly says that because Jing-
mei's hairdresser is gay, he could have
AIDS. He is cutting hair, "which is like
cutting a living tissue." There has not been
a single reported case of anyone
contracting AIDS through a haircut; this
scene is proof that Waverly can be
prejudiced, misinformed, and even cruel.
 WAVERLY
• IRS the popular name for the Internal
Revenue Service. Empowered by the U.S.
government to collect taxes, the IRS has
traditionally triggered fear because of its
power to examine tax records, impose
fines, and seize property to pay off tax
money owed. Tan likens Mrs. Jong to the
IRS to humorously illustrate how much
Waverly fears her.
 WAVERLY
• About whom did Waverly say, "I could
see the yellow lights shining from our
flat like two tiger's eyes in the night"?
her mother, Lindo
 WAVERLY
• Waverly interprets Lindo's remark
about which of Rich's features as an
insult? his freckles
 WAVERLY
• Waverly is afraid to go to China for her
honeymoon with Rich because she is
afraid she will blend in so well that she
won't be allowed to return to America.
 WAVERLY
• What is the source of Waverly’s first chess
set?
• Her brother receives it as a gift at a church
Christmas party.
• What gift from Rich does Waverly show to
her mother? A mink coat
 YING-YING ST. CLAIR
• The Moon Lady becomes visible on one
day only, and on that day she can fulfill
one secret. Ying-ying's wish was to be
found.
 YING-YING ST. CLAIR
• What does Ying-ying’s Amah teach her
that girls should do?
• They should never ask questions or make
requests, but only listen
 YING-YING ST. CLAIR
• What does Ying-ying say is wrong with the
St. Clairs’ apartment?
• Not balanced
 YING-YING ST. CLAIR
• What is Ying-ying’s first step in trying to
make Lena realize the problems with her
marriage and do something about them?
• She knocks over the rickety coffee table
that Lena’s husband had made in his
student days, shattering the vase that had
been sitting on top of it
 LENA
• baby boomers people born between 1946 and
1964. Raised during the affluent post-World War
II period, many of these people have high
expectations for material success. Some of
them, however, like Lena, have dis­covered that
material success does not ensure happiness;
they find their lives empty and unsatisfying.
Others, like Harold, are very satisfied with the
fruits of their labors — he is proud of his fine
house and his Jaguar automobile. A baby
boomer herself, Tan is especially sensitive to
this dichotomy.
 LENA
• What does Ying-ying say when Lena fails
to eat every last grain of rice in her bowl?
She tells Lena that every grain of rice she
fails to eat will become a pock mark on the
face of her future husband
 LENA
• Who says, "I saw these things with my
Chinese eyes, the part of me I got from
my mother?"
 LENA
• Lena and her successful but miserly
husband Harold have an argument
about which of them should pay for their
cat's flea treatment