American Dream: Joy Luck Club
American Dream: Joy Luck Club
The American Dream represents diverse aspects of the millions of people in the United States. Being different for every individual person, the dream has no way of really being categorized or labeled under a single thought or idea neither can it be considered good nor bad. Amy Tan underlies her book Joy Luck Club with the American Dream message, how it is different for each person, how it disappoints them and also how the dream allowed them to find their true selves and realize truly who they really are.
On the very first page of the book, the story of the swan introduces this theme of the American Dream. The mothers that immigrated to America: Lindo, Suyuan, Ying Ying, and An Mei all wanted better lives for their daughters, wanted them to “speak only perfect American English” (1), wanted them to marry well and wanted them to be proud. They wanted freedom for their daughters and wanted them to be successful without all the restrictions of arranged marriages like the one An-Mei had, forced marriages like the one Ying Ying had or even restrictions on living your life in peace like Suyan had when she was stuck at home during the . This freedom and this success was the mother’s image of the American dream and why they moved out of their comfort zone, half way across the world to fulfill this dream. During the life of the different characters in America you can see the mothers guiding their daughters life so they that in the future they will be successful. Jing Mei explains that her “mother believed that [she] could be anything you wanted to be in American” (132) and decided that her daughter, Jing Mei should become a piano prodigy. After that decision Jing Mei was forced to practice two hours a day and expected to turn out great. I can totally relate to this because since I’m also and Asian American that has a culturally Asian mother. When she moved to America, even though she didn’t have a bad life in China, she also had plans for me to
The American Dream represents diverse aspects of the millions of people in the United States. Being different for every individual person, the dream has no way of really being categorized or labeled under a single thought or idea neither can it be considered good nor bad. Amy Tan underlies her book Joy Luck Club with the American Dream message, how it is different for each person, how it disappoints them and also how the dream allowed them to find their true selves and realize truly who they really are.
On the very first page of the book, the story of the swan introduces this theme of the American Dream. The mothers that immigrated to America: Lindo, Suyuan, Ying Ying, and An Mei all wanted better lives for their daughters, wanted them to “speak only perfect American English” (1), wanted them to marry well and wanted them to be proud. They wanted freedom for their daughters and wanted them to be successful without all the restrictions of arranged marriages like the one An-Mei had, forced marriages like the one Ying Ying had or even restrictions on living your life in peace like Suyan had when she was stuck at home during the . This freedom and this success was the mother’s image of the American dream and why they moved out of their comfort zone, half way across the world to fulfill this dream. During the life of the different characters in America you can see the mothers guiding their daughters life so they that in the future they will be successful. Jing Mei explains that her “mother believed that [she] could be anything you wanted to be in American” (132) and decided that her daughter, Jing Mei should become a piano prodigy. After that decision Jing Mei was forced to practice two hours a day and expected to turn out great. I can totally relate to this because since I’m also and Asian American that has a culturally Asian mother. When she moved to America, even though she didn’t have a bad life in China, she also had plans for me to