Joy Luck Club Essay

I watched the movie, Joy Luck Club, featuring the American and Chinese cultures. The story started with a farewell party that was held for June as she was going to China to visit her two sisters. During the party, her 3 aunts shared their stories. The first story was about her June’s mother and her. The second story was about Auntie Lindo and Waverly. The third story was about auntie Ying-Ying and Lena St. Clair. The third story was about auntie An-Mei and Rose Hsu.
I picked out the scene 42:25 to 43:23 which shows the cultural conflict between the two cultures. Rose Hsu dated a man, Ted Jordan, whose father’s family owned publishing empire and his mother owned a winery. She has not been around people with such a high status which made her felt intimidated. His mother
As for the verbal way of communication, Ted’s mother uses a low context style to convey her message to Rose. Ted’s mother said everything on her mind without any restraints and it clearly showed the meaning behind her words. She was being straightforward and concise with her speech. All the characters in this scene had good pronunciation which allows their words to be understood clearly and easily. As for the non-verbal way of communication, Ted’s mom shake hands with Rose as a form of greeting. During the conversation with his mother, Rose’s eyes broke the eye contact with her after what she have said which caused her to feel uncomfortable. Rose kept blinking as she could not believe what Ted’s mother had old her. When Ted’s mother assumed that she was Vietnamese, her tone and pitch became louder to emphasize that she was not a Vietnamese with disbelief. When Ted overhead their conversation, he used a harsh tone towards his mother to reprimand her mother for disrespecting rose. From his mother’s expression, I can see her anger and disappointment as she keeps moving her head and had pauses in between her