Shailee

The Joy Luck Club

By: Amy Tan Critics' Thoughts "Powerful...full of magic...you won't be doing anything of importance until you have finished this novel." Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Beautifully written...a jewel of a book." The New York Times Book Review

Significant Quotes from the Book "I . . . looked in the mirror. . . . I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind. . . . And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my face and covered these thoughts up. But underneath the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents’ wishes, but I would never forget myself." --taken from Lindo Jong’s narrative, “The Red Candle”.

"That rare mesmerizing novel one always seeks but seldom finds...a pure joy to read." Chicago Tribune

"Her wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into the darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything. I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body. . . . But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore. And now I must tell her everything about my past. It is the only way to . . . pull her to where she can be saved." --take from Ying-ying St. Clair’s second narrative, “Waiting Between the Trees”.

"Wonderful...a significant lesson in what storytelling has to do with memory and inheritance." San Francisco Chronicle

". . . . I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix? I taught [my daughter] how American circumstances work. If you are born poor here, it’s no lasting shame. . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you. She learned these things, but I couldn’t teach her about Chinese character . . . How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. . . . Why Chinese thinking is best." -- from the passage “Double Face”.

Videos

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** Explanations-

Quote 1: Lindo is talking about what will come to be something important that joins herself to her daughter Waverly. In this quotes she tells about how she came to recognize her inner strength which is something her daughter will later inherit. The strength ends up being the power to withstand hardships that are forced upon her. As this quote is being said she is standing face to face with a mirror looking into it before she is getting ready to marry a man who she does not love but has to marry under all circumstances.

Quote 2: Ying-ying sees how unhappy her daughter is with her marriage and hates that she didn't learn from Chinese ways. Now, Ying-ying knows in order to save her daughter and her life is to tell her story, the story of how her fate and other people’s wills led to agony. Even though Ying-ying thinks her daughter and herself share the same body she still believes that her daughter just jumped away like a "slippery fish". Unlike most mother-daughter relationships and seeing a reflection of yourself in your daughter, Ying-ying looks at her daughter and sees a "bottomless pond".

Quote 3: Lindo questions her desire for her daughter to live with mixed cultures and she fears that they cannot mix. But really, both cultures are mixed within. Either way, the challenge of trying to put the two together is hard for not just Waverly, Lindo's daughter, but the other daughters of the book as well.

Video 1: This is the trailer for the movie. I picked to put this in my wiki because not only is it based right off the book, but you can see the book in action. Also I think it shows a good preview of the book.

Video 2: I really thought this interview with Amy Tan showed why the book is the way it is. It states much reasoning for it all and why Amy Tan wrote it. Not only is she Chinese, but she went through these same type of things as well.Video 2: