Chapter One: Character Analysis
I feel that the story of Lindo Jong was the most interesting story in this entire novel. The way she got out of her marriage was absolutly spectacular. The way she raised Waverly and was always in competion with Jing Mei-Woo to see who had the best daughter.
Lindo Jong going to live with her new husband is a great story. She finds her husband to be horribly unattractive. Also her new mother-in-law was a terrible woman to know. She devises a great plan to escape from this family. She claims that her ancestors disapproved of the wedding. She used the mole on her husbands back and her rotted tooth to prove that her ancestors were trying to prove a the marriage was wrong. Her new mother-in-law believed every word of this story and soon enough Lindo was out of the marriage.
Lindo competion with Jing-Mei Woo was a very intersting part of Lindo’s character. This competion started more than likely with the mah jong game. This game is all about competion. However, these two women didn’t stop with the mah jong game they brought there children into it also. They fought over whose child ate more and witch was better behaved. They fought over there daughters chess playing and there daughters piano playing.
Lindo Jong was my favorite character because she managed to deceive an entire family in getting what she wants. She did this in such a good way to leave a bad situation.
Chapter Two: The Structure of the Novel

I enjoyed the the structure of The Joy Luck Club. I found that the book had a nice flow to it and was easy top read. Also, I found that the way the story was told made it interesting and kept my attention. The book also had many references to the number four throughout the entire story.
I liked the way that the story was told. It was interesting to read something about each character and then to have that elaborated on later in the book. This technique kept me wanting to read more in the book to get back to the story’s that I liked. I felt that the way the book switched between mother and daughter and, switched back in forth between stories was done quite well.
The number four seemed to appear many times in this novel. The number four seemed to revolve around the mah jong game that was played or discussed at many times in this novel. The mah jong game involed four people sitting around a table and playing a game having to do with many tiles. The number four also appeared with the four mother’s and four daughters that the story revloved around. The entire book revoled around the number four and the mah jong game in some way.
I feel that the novel was written quite well and that the way the story bounced around was very interesting. The way the novel was written is very similar to the way that the book Catch-22 was written and I have enjoyed both books.
Chapter Three: Analysis of a key Theme

The most important theme in this novel is the bond between mother and daughter. We saw many examples of this bond in the novel. One way this bond was shown was by seeing that the daughters in this story knew how there mother’s would react to what they told them. The daughters in this story understood what there parents had been telling them from childhood only when they had grown up and had struggles of there own out in the real world.
Before Rose Hsu Jordan told her mother that her marriage to Ted was failing she knew how her mother would react. Her mother would tell her that, “this could not be”. Her mother would tell her to try and work things out with Ted. Lena St. Claire knew that her mother would be upset if her mother learned that she and Harold argue about money so often. Lena also knew when she was showing the house she and Harold lived in that her mother was only looking at the flaws of the house. Lena knew that her mother wouldn’t compliment her on an excellent job choosing a house.
An excellent example of daughters not being able to understand the message that their mothers are giving them is the story of Jing-Mei Woo. Jing-Mei had been told the story of the magic swan by her mother. When Jing-Mei was a child she couldn’t have possibly understood this message completely. Now that she’s grown up she understands the messages true meaning.
Chapter Four: Analysis of a Symbol

I feel that the two most important symbol in this story were given to An-Mei Hsu. An-Mei Hsu was given a pearl necklace witch to her looked to be the most valuable gift she had ever received. An-Mei soon found out that the necklace wasn’t all she thought it was.
The necklace was given to her by the second wife of an old rich man. Her own mother was the fourth wife of this old man. Her mother she saw that second wife was trying to buy the love of her daughter from her. An-Mei Hsu wore the necklace wherever she went. Soon An-Mei’s mother took the necklace from her, much to the dismay of An-Mei, and broke a single bead of the pearl necklace. The necklace turned out to be made out of only glass. An-Mei’s mother made An-Mei wear this fake pearl necklace for a week before she allowed An-Mei to take the necklace off. An-Mei’s mother then gave An-Mei a heavy ring of sapphire with a star in it’s center.
An-Mei learned the difference between gifts given to tempt people and gifts that are given from the heart. An-Mei also learned not to be bought off with simple gifts. She learned to have some self worth.
An-Mei passed this self worth down to her daughter years later. An-Mei’s daughter, Rose, told her that her marriage was falling apart. An-Mei made Rose see how important she was by telling her daughter not to simply sign the divorce papers and be out of her husbands life forever. An-Mei told Rose to fight for the house in the divorce because her daughter was important enough to have the house.
Chapter Five: A Consideration of the Film

Version I felt that the movie adaptation of The Joy Luck Club was very well done. I enjoyed several scenes in this film. My two favorite were, where Lindo Jong gets out of her marriage through trickery and the scene where June Woo goes to play the piano at a local talent show.
Lindo Jong devised a great plan to get out of her marriage and the movie portrayed this very well. Lindo was separated from her mother and then taken to live with her new husband. Lindo found her husband to be hardly older than a boy and the maturity level to go with it. The casting director of the movie did a good job at getting a boy that had the right amount of fat on him. The scene showing the boy’s mole was perfect. The boy’s mother grew angry that Lindo wasn’t producing a grandson for her, so she decided that Lindo would be confined to her bed until she did. So the movie did a good job of showing Lindo pretending to go insane begging her ancestors for forgiveness. I enjoyed the end of this scene where Lindo’s mother-in-law sends all of the servants away angrily and is left to fume.
The other scene that I enjoyed in this movie was June Woo playing the piano in front of her mother and of course Waverly and Lindo Jong. I enjoyed seeing a young June Woo walk out on stage to play and during the applause call Waverly a twirp. Also I loved the smug look on Waverly’s face as she heard June begin to play the wrong notes.
Over all I felt the movie was done well. However, I felt that the scenes with Waverly Jong playing chess could have been improved. It was a big let down to see something that took up so much space in the book take so little time in the movie.
Chapter Six: Your Role as a Reader

In general I feel that this novel is very good. I found the story of An-Mei Hsu to be quite a page turner. Also, I enjoyed the story of Lindo Jong. However, I wish that more time in the novel had been spent on the two children Jing-Mei Woo left in China.
An-Mei Hsu’s story was one of the best in the novel. The part of her story where the boiling soup falls on her neck was very entertaing. Then to hear that the family wouldn’t mourn her death for long and that she would have a simple funeral was excellently done. Hearing of all her time spent with her mother was also very well done. Even the story of how her mother was done very well. I enjoyed reading every word that had to do with her life.
The story of Lindo Jong also entertained me greatly. Lindo arriving at her new house and meeting her husband for the first time was a great moment in the novel. Watching Lindo get out of her marriage by using her husbands mole and her rotted tooth was pure genius. This section of the book was written very well.
The book largest problem by far was not spenting more time with the children of Jing-Mei Woo. After finishing the first chapter al oved this book. The invading Japenese comming down the road chasing after Jing-Mei and her having to leave her own children. This was an excelent story, it was a crime that it was only discussed in the first and last chapter.

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