Comparing The Joy Luck Club And The Hundred Secret Senses
Amy Tan’s novels all have many things in common; they are always about Chinese-American families and the difficulties they face while living in America, and The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses are no exception. Joy is a novel with sixteen vignettes, each one with a different story to tell about Chinese mothers and daughters and their experiences. Hundred is the story of two half-sisters, Olivia, a Chinese-American girl born in San Francisco, and Kwan, who was born and raised in a remote Chinese village. It frequently switches perspectives between the two protagonists and time frames, jumping back and forth between the present and the past. In The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan utilizes the anecdotal-type stories within the main storyline in each novel in order to influence the
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way subsequent chapters are interpreted, showing that previous experiences influence the way human beings process things.
The short prologues before each part of The Joy Luck Club tell readers the way to understand the stories that come after. Stephen Souris elaborates, saying that “[the prologues] serve...as the ‘horizon’ of the respective preface. The prefaces also help the reader pick up on what Tan calls the ‘emotional curve’ of each ‘quartet’” (111). The short prologue before part one of the novel (Tan, Joy 3-4) represents the conflicts that Chinese mothers and Chinese-American daughters have within their relationship. Because the mothers are used to Chinese customs, they try to bring it with them into America. The daughters do not understand Chinese customs for they didn't grow up with them, unlike their mothers.
However, the story does not only speak about the conflicts between mother and daughter.
It also speaks to things that are lost or forgotten, all of which are present in the chapters that follow. In the first chapter of Joy, Suyuan Woo’s story is told by her daughter Jing-Mei. While escaping China, Suyaan had to leave behind her twin baby girls (Tan, Joy 12), and because she was unable to communicate to her husband and daughter her tremendous loss, she was also unable to reunite with her long lost twin daughters. The story is remarkably similar to the prologue of the chapter, with the old woman also unable to express herself to her daughter. Jing-mei, when reflecting on the fact that she does not really know anything of significance about her mother, says that “[our mothers] are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America” (Tan, Joy 31). The metaphorical lost swan in the preface is not only the mothers’ fear that they will be forgotten by their daughters, but also their fear that Chinese culture and traditions will also be forgotten and ignored by their
daughters. The Hundred Secret Senses constantly switches from past to present, telling the story of Kwan’s previous life from her perspective and then switching to Olivia’s narrative in first person. Kwan believes that her stories aren't just stories; they are based on her belief that she is part of the yin world, the world of the ghosts. She believes that she is recounting tales from her past lives.
way subsequent chapters are interpreted, showing that previous experiences influence the way human beings process things.
The short prologues before each part of The Joy Luck Club tell readers the way to understand the stories that come after. Stephen Souris elaborates, saying that “[the prologues] serve...as the ‘horizon’ of the respective preface. The prefaces also help the reader pick up on what Tan calls the ‘emotional curve’ of each ‘quartet’” (111). The short prologue before part one of the novel (Tan, Joy 3-4) represents the conflicts that Chinese mothers and Chinese-American daughters have within their relationship. Because the mothers are used to Chinese customs, they try to bring it with them into America. The daughters do not understand Chinese customs for they didn't grow up with them, unlike their mothers.
However, the story does not only speak about the conflicts between mother and daughter.
It also speaks to things that are lost or forgotten, all of which are present in the chapters that follow. In the first chapter of Joy, Suyuan Woo’s story is told by her daughter Jing-Mei. While escaping China, Suyaan had to leave behind her twin baby girls (Tan, Joy 12), and because she was unable to communicate to her husband and daughter her tremendous loss, she was also unable to reunite with her long lost twin daughters. The story is remarkably similar to the prologue of the chapter, with the old woman also unable to express herself to her daughter. Jing-mei, when reflecting on the fact that she does not really know anything of significance about her mother, says that “[our mothers] are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America” (Tan, Joy 31). The metaphorical lost swan in the preface is not only the mothers’ fear that they will be forgotten by their daughters, but also their fear that Chinese culture and traditions will also be forgotten and ignored by their
daughters. The Hundred Secret Senses constantly switches from past to present, telling the story of Kwan’s previous life from her perspective and then switching to Olivia’s narrative in first person. Kwan believes that her stories aren't just stories; they are based on her belief that she is part of the yin world, the world of the ghosts. She believes that she is recounting tales from her past lives.