The
Joy Luck Club
By: Amy Tan
“Feathers From a Thousand Li Away”
1. The novel
opens in which type of mood?
The novel opens in a joyous mood because of the anecdote that this is.
2. What is the
purpose of this short opening to the novel?
The purpose of the opening of the story is it provides a background to the
story.
“Jing-Mei Woo: The Joy Luck Club”
1. What purpose
does the First Chinese Baptist Church serve for the Woos, Hsus, Jongs, and
St.Clairs?
The Woos, Hsus, Jongs, and St.Clairs
met each other in the First Chinese Baptist Church.
2. Why would Suyuan
Woo not tell the whole story of her life in China to her daughter when she was
younger?
Jing-Mei’s, “mother…had unspeakable tragedies”(20).
3.What evidence can
the reader find of prejudice in Suyuan’s story?
In Suyuan’s story she says that she, “…had lost everything execpt for
three fancy silk dresses…”(26) which implies she had lost the babies at the
time.
4. What irony can be seen in the
establishment of the original Joy Luck Club?
The woman
were miserable and without any luck so at that time it was ironic for them to
name their club like this.
5. What can be intimated about
Suyuan’s personality from the following quotation: “But to despair was to wish
back for something already lost or prolong what was already unbearable.”
Suyuan is
the type of person who doesn’t have hopes for the future because she thinks
everything is lost.
6. When Suyuan would not speak of the
babies, except to say you are not those babies to say, “You are not those
babies,” what does one assume?
June is
another chapter in her mother’s life and the babies were another.
7. What does this quotation show
about June and her mother? “These clothes were too fancy for real Chinese
people, I thought, and too strange for American parties.”
Suyuan and
her daughter don’t have a very good relationship and aren’t very close to each
other.
8. In present time, how does June
remember her mother while at the Joy Luck club?
People in
the Joy Luck Club tell June she is just like her mother and she has flashbacks
to when her mother tells her she can’t be like her and she can’t replace her in
the Joy Luck Club like everyone else tells her she can.
9. What
characteristic is revealed about Auntie Lin when she chatters about her family
still in China?
Auntie Lin behaved
affectedly in front of the other aunties and June which reveals she is a bragger.