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Awakening of Female Consciousness in The Joy Luck Club: An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan as Two Illustrations

Received: 17 January 2019     Published: 29 April 2019
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Abstract

Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, with the awakening of women’s self-consciousness as one of its themes, revolves around the lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters. Taking An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan in The Joy Luck Club as two illustrations, this paper aims to explore the internal and external causes leading to their awakening. After analyzing the embodiment of the female consciousness in these two characters, this paper points out that the internal factors involve their traits and personalities and the external factors deal with their mother-daughter bond and the differences between Chinese and American culture: An-mei, encouraged by her mother’s silent rebellion against Chinese feudal patriarchal society, eventually achieves self-discovery and independence by struggling out of the dilemma and immigrating to America; Rose, a second-generation immigrant, keeps seeking for her own identity while facing both the racial and gender discrimination from American society and, with the help of her mother, succeeds in seizing the power of discourse in her marriage and in shaping her independent personality.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17
Page(s) 32-37
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

The Joy Luck Club, Female Consciousness, Sense of Identity

References
[1] Kaplan, T. Female Consciousness and Collective Action: The Case of Barcelona, 1910-1918 [J]. Signs Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 1982(7). p.545.
[2] Yang, Jiao-yan & Xue P. On Conflicts and Integration of American and Chinese Cultures in Joy Luck Club from Perspective of Intercultural Communication [A]. ICEMS 2018 [C]. pp.340-344.
[3] Guo, Huiqin. Differences of Marital View between China and America in The Joy Luck Club under Cultural Dimensions Theory [J]. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, vol.233, 2018. pp.897-901.
[4] Huang, Ping. Escape from the Other - the Feminist Awakening in The Joy Luck Club [D]. Wuhan University of Technology, 2013.
[5] Zhou, Yan. On Feminism of The Joy Luck Club [J]. Journal of Human Metallurgical Professional Technology College, 2008(8). p.85.
[6] Lima, A. T. Living Liminality: A Study of Second Generation Immigrant Identity [D]. Wesleyan University, 2013.
[7] P. Riana & M. Fajar. The Struggles of the First Generation on Women Stereotypes in The Joy Luck Club Novel [J]. Bulletin of Advanced English Studies, 2018(1). p.178.
[8] Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club [M]. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
[9] Ling, Amy. Between Worlds — Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry [M]. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. p.2.
[10] Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex [M]. Howard M. Parshley (Trans.). New York: Vintage Books, 1989. p.522.
[11] Wang, Jianhui. Sexual Politics in the Works of Chinese American Women Writers: Sui Sin Far, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Amy Tan [D]. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2007. p.103.
[12] Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own [M]. New York and Burlingame: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1957. p.90.
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  • APA Style

    Lei Zhu, Chujiao Ding. (2019). Awakening of Female Consciousness in The Joy Luck Club: An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan as Two Illustrations. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 7(1), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17

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    ACS Style

    Lei Zhu; Chujiao Ding. Awakening of Female Consciousness in The Joy Luck Club: An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan as Two Illustrations. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2019, 7(1), 32-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17

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    AMA Style

    Lei Zhu, Chujiao Ding. Awakening of Female Consciousness in The Joy Luck Club: An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan as Two Illustrations. Int J Lit Arts. 2019;7(1):32-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17,
      author = {Lei Zhu and Chujiao Ding},
      title = {Awakening of Female Consciousness in The Joy Luck Club: An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan as Two Illustrations},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {7},
      number = {1},
      pages = {32-37},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20190701.17},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20190701.17},
      abstract = {Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, with the awakening of women’s self-consciousness as one of its themes, revolves around the lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters. Taking An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan in The Joy Luck Club as two illustrations, this paper aims to explore the internal and external causes leading to their awakening. After analyzing the embodiment of the female consciousness in these two characters, this paper points out that the internal factors involve their traits and personalities and the external factors deal with their mother-daughter bond and the differences between Chinese and American culture: An-mei, encouraged by her mother’s silent rebellion against Chinese feudal patriarchal society, eventually achieves self-discovery and independence by struggling out of the dilemma and immigrating to America; Rose, a second-generation immigrant, keeps seeking for her own identity while facing both the racial and gender discrimination from American society and, with the help of her mother, succeeds in seizing the power of discourse in her marriage and in shaping her independent personality.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AB  - Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, with the awakening of women’s self-consciousness as one of its themes, revolves around the lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American-born daughters. Taking An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan in The Joy Luck Club as two illustrations, this paper aims to explore the internal and external causes leading to their awakening. After analyzing the embodiment of the female consciousness in these two characters, this paper points out that the internal factors involve their traits and personalities and the external factors deal with their mother-daughter bond and the differences between Chinese and American culture: An-mei, encouraged by her mother’s silent rebellion against Chinese feudal patriarchal society, eventually achieves self-discovery and independence by struggling out of the dilemma and immigrating to America; Rose, a second-generation immigrant, keeps seeking for her own identity while facing both the racial and gender discrimination from American society and, with the help of her mother, succeeds in seizing the power of discourse in her marriage and in shaping her independent personality.
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Author Information
  • School of Foreign Languages, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, China

  • School of Foreign Languages, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing, China

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