Essays on Amy Tan

The American and Chinese cultures have major differences. Most of these differences are highlighted or presented in the movie. While analyzing the movie, it was important to identify some of the differences as the basis to understand the underlying message that Amy Tan wanted to...

Differentiation between appearance and reality has always been an underestimated struggle in regard to the human experience. Our understanding of many mental, social, and physical phenomena, hinge on the very basis of appearances that are presented to us. Unfortunately, situations that present misleading appearances are...

It is an undeniable fact that, character triats, attitude, upbringing, and education will shape an individual perception and mindset towards life. Lennie, Suyuan and Amir each has their own idea of what The American Dream should entail. Happiness as a concept is as ambiguous as...

In today research I am going to be discussing the culture gap between second generation immigrants and their immigrant parents. Firstly, what is culture? What is a culture gap? Culture, Edward Burnett Tylor, is described to be the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,...

The Joy Luck Club is a novel first published by Amy Tan in 1989. The 4 mothers portray in the book have all shared painful and heartbroken memories back in the days in China during the Japanese occupation. All 4 of them fled to America...

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is about Chinese immigrant mothers and their daughters who struggle in keeping balance in their lives. Waverly, a chess prodigy, struggles to fulfill the wishes of the people around her while also trying to fulfill her own wishes. Waverly...

During the 20th century, literature took an uprise in the world of fiction in the United States, where many writers originating from a diversity of ethnic minorities shared their ideas, background, and culture with the public. Chinese American novelist, Amy Tan, is best known for...

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, depicts the lives of four mothers who were born in China but eventually immigrated to America. They hoped to live better lives for themselves and for their daughters. A major portion of the novel focuses on the relationship between...

Trials…errors…disappointment. Many adolescents fail to keep up with their parents’ expectations and as a result often distort their own reality. The book The Joy Luck Club, published in 1989 by Amy Tan, takes place around the 1980s. The setting alternates between San Francisco and China....

While language is used to communicate information in a direct manner, the style of language usage also provides information about the person that is speaking or writing and their relationship with the intended audience. Amy Tan discusses the different styles of English that she grew...

During the 20th century, literature took an uprise in the world of fiction in the United States, where many writers originating from a diversity of ethnic minorities shared their ideas, background, and culture with the public. Chinese American novelist, Amy Tan, is best known for...

“Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift giving a story to someone “Amy Tan knew she had a gift and perfectly executed it by writing “Two Kinds”. Amy Tan‘s life exceedingly impacted her...

Amy Tan is a prolific Asian American writer who has been successful in depicting the sentiments of children of Chinese immigrants to the United States. Most of her work focused on the relationship dynamics of mothers and daughters inspired by her own conflicted experiences with...

Amy Tan is a prolific Asian American writer who has been successful in depicting the sentiments of children of Chinese immigrants to the United States. Most of her work focused on the relationship dynamics of mothers and daughters inspired by her own conflicted experiences with...

Living up to parents’ standards can be hard when they contradict with your own goals and aspirations. The short story, “Two Kinds”, by Amy Tan, shows this struggle in first person narrative form, by focusing on the effects these kinds of conflicts can have on...

In the short story “Without Wood” by Amy Tan, Rose Hsu Jordan feels like she listened to other people more than her mom, and ended up with a mind full of other peoples’ English thoughts, leaving her confused and unreadable to her own mother. Rose...

The Hundred Secret Senses Introduction: The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan is a modern novel that delves into the search for an identity and the tumultuous life that family can bring. Throughout the novel, Olivia Yee Bishop narrates her life with her half-sister Kwan...

Cultural divides are difficult to overcome in storytelling, because readers must both re-orient their largest cultural assumptions and understand the ideas of specific, unique characters. However, in The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan effectively makes much of Chinese culture comprehensible to American readers. In describing...

Intergenerational relations between mothers and daughters are further complicated in The Joy Luck Club as cultural differences come into play for the first generation Chinese immigrant mother and her Americanized daughter. This is clearly brought out when Lindo Jong shows off her daughter at the...

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club provides a realistic depiction of Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters struggling in relationships strained by tragedy, lack of communication, and unreasonable expectations. Tan criticizes mothers who intend to instill Chinese values while supplying American opportunities. The result is daughters...

Thousands of immigrants arrive in America every year with the hope that a new life, a better life, awaits them. The come in search of “the American Dream,” the hope that there are higher paying jobs, quality public schools to send their children to, and...

People should find their own cultural identities and feel proud of and empowered by their origin and identity. However, It is important to acknowledge that once people immigrate and immerse in a new culture, it is more challenging for them to have a clear definition...

In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Tan claims the concept that we tend to speak totally different languages to speak with one another which our intelligence is judged by the approach we tend to speak. As a fictional author, Tan is astonished by...

In the story entitled “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she explains about the knowledge and awareness of the social and cultural differences in “broken English” linked to Standard English. She loves writing and she wants to share about how language can influence her life until...

In the essay “Mother Tongue” published in the American literacy journal, Amy Tan goes on to emphasize the struggles of identity, and expectations of the American and Asian society, through her two worlds of language. She demonstrates her point through her mother’s perspectives, as well...

Imagine moving to a foreign country overseas and not knowing your way around. You’re in need of guidance with directions, but you don’t speak the language of the country. Wouldn’t you feel lost? Clueless? Perhaps, excluded? This is what the author, Amy Tan, in “Mother...

While language is used to communicate information in a direct manner, the style of language usage also provides information about the person that is speaking or writing and their relationship with the intended audience. Amy Tan discusses the different styles of English that she grew...

Language barriers and cultural differences is a real issue for people. Children of immigrant families get a unique view and experience as a bilingual kid; they will become familiar with two different backgrounds. Amy Tan, Author of “Mother Tongue” uses her personal experiences with her...

In the essay “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan believes that everyone speaks different languages in certain settings and are labeled by the way they speak. The author interested by how language is utilized in our daily life” and uses language as a daily part of her...

Does everyone consider English as a single language? There are inferences that English is a single language, but in reality, people develop diverse versions of English as their mother tongue such that it is very uncommon to discover two people that speak the exact same...