Essays on Amy Tan

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...

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...

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’s “A Pair of Tickets” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Volar” both use symbolism and distinct settings to portray the lives and feelings of two young girls that originate from a different cultural background. Although these girls are different in the way they lead their...

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...

Everyone should have pride in their origins and should not be embarrassed of their nationality. Many people today do not embrace their background because they believe they do not fit in. These people must realize that self-confidence is only present after you understand your own...

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...

‘Broken English,’ is what’s spoken in many homes throughout America. People that come from a different country and settle in a new one are categorized as immigrants. With that being said, once you settle into a different country then you have to get accustomed to...

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...

Not all people whose English as a second language speak it in the same way. This argument made by Amy Tan throughout in the story “Mother Tongue”. In the essay, she successfully expresses all three of rhetorical styles such as logos, ethos, and pathos. Tan...

Music is a prevalent motif in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, appearing during times of loss and confusion as a reminder of the past. The vignettes all share a common thread, in that music reveals how one must acknowledge the past and learn from...

“Mother Tongue” an article by an author named Amy Tan is about the many different forms of the English language that she has used and continues to use throughout her life. Amy goes on to describe the different English’s she uses, the one when she...

“There are times when even the tiger sleeps.” This Chinese proverb is essential in understanding the character of Lindo Jong, mother of Waverly Jong, in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. The book, written as a series of interwoven vignettes, delves into the world of...

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...