Introduction

The Joy Luck Club, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1989, presents the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters. Each […]

Amy Tan

Amy Tan began writing fiction as a distraction from her work as a technical writer. A self-proclaimed workaholic, Tan wanted to find a way to […]

Plot Summary

The Joy Luck Club consists of sixteen interlocking stories about the lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four American-born daughters. In 1949, the […]

Characters

A Jing-Mei Woo Jing-Mei, daughter of Suyuan Woo, takes her mother’s place in the Joy Luck Club when her mother dies. Jing-Mei searches for her […]

Themes

A Choices and Consequences The Joy Luck Club presents the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters. All of their lives, the […]

Construction

A Structure In presenting the stories of four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughters in The Joy Luck Club, Tan uses “cradling,” a formal […]

Questions

In an interview with Elaine Woo for the Los Angeles Times (March 12, 1989), Amy Tan said that her parents wanted their children “to have […]