Culture Influence In The Joy Luck Club
Culture Influence in the Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club is a fictional novel by Amy Tan that unfolds the lives of four Chinese families and their American-born daughters. The story is portrayed in a diary-like fashion and it follows the lives and personal accounts of the Woo, Hsu, Jong, and St. Clair families. Culture is significant and it influences the story in many ways.
The Chinese and American cultures clash in this particular novel. The Chinese culture is represented as a high- context culture. A high-text culture is one in which people can understand without saying or revealing too much information. In such cultures people are expected to behave appropriately and respect others. Also, people in high-context cultures set the bar
very high for their sons and daughters. One of the main features in a high-context culture is obedience (“Amy Tan”).
The high-context culture affects the story because it proposes obedience. Once obedience is proposed the character in the story is forced to act responsibly. For example, Jing-Mei “June” Woo is forced to do many prodigy-like things, playing the piano, solving mathematical problems at super speeds, memorizing the Bible, and others; she has no choice but to do all the activities that seem treacherous to her. One night, after performing terribly at a piano recital, she decides to not listen to her mother and eventually stops playing the piano. Her mother yells at her, telling her that there are “only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan pg. 142). Disobedience is the probable cause of not communicating well with one another, which can be seen throughout low-context cultures.
The Joy Luck Club is a fictional novel by Amy Tan that unfolds the lives of four Chinese families and their American-born daughters. The story is portrayed in a diary-like fashion and it follows the lives and personal accounts of the Woo, Hsu, Jong, and St. Clair families. Culture is significant and it influences the story in many ways.
The Chinese and American cultures clash in this particular novel. The Chinese culture is represented as a high- context culture. A high-text culture is one in which people can understand without saying or revealing too much information. In such cultures people are expected to behave appropriately and respect others. Also, people in high-context cultures set the bar
very high for their sons and daughters. One of the main features in a high-context culture is obedience (“Amy Tan”).
The high-context culture affects the story because it proposes obedience. Once obedience is proposed the character in the story is forced to act responsibly. For example, Jing-Mei “June” Woo is forced to do many prodigy-like things, playing the piano, solving mathematical problems at super speeds, memorizing the Bible, and others; she has no choice but to do all the activities that seem treacherous to her. One night, after performing terribly at a piano recital, she decides to not listen to her mother and eventually stops playing the piano. Her mother yells at her, telling her that there are “only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan pg. 142). Disobedience is the probable cause of not communicating well with one another, which can be seen throughout low-context cultures.