Jennifer Fung 6A (8) The Joy Luck Club Author: Amy Tan Publisher ...

The Joy Luck ClubJennifer Fung6A (8)Author: Amy TanPublisher: Ballantine BooksNumber of pages: 332No more tolerance of female inferiorityGone are the days that women were regarded as inferior andunfortunate. Nowadays, women are enjoying a high reputation in society.The result of raising status of women can be accounted for previousoutstanding women’s unremitting effort like Mrs. Thatcher, who playedan active role in politics. In addition to female celebrities, ordinarywomen also attributed to the rise of females’ position in society. Forexample, Amy Tan who is an English writer of Chinese descent, wrote athought-provoking book to awaken females to get rid of the stereotypedbelief- men are praised with superiority while women are doomed toinferiority.In this book, Amy tried to emphasize the misfortune and fate oftraditional women. By bringing out eight different miserable stories,which charactered four mothers and four daughters, Amy criticizedheavily on the conservative-minded people for their stereotype oftraditional belief. The author’s ultimate goal is to uphold the woman’srights by suggesting gender equality.I was sympathetic about Ying-ying St. Clair’s anguished encounter. Shewas trained to behave in a meek and gentle way when she was small.Conservatively speaking, she could marry a good husband because shepossessed the qualities of being a good wife. Conversely, she facedmismarriage for two times. Her inhumane husband openly hadextramarital relationship with other women. This betrayal of marriagedeeply embarrassed Ying who found no way to defend her dignity. On theback of the failure of marriage, Ying trapped herself into another lovelessmarriage again. She haunted for the concubine in the first marriage thathad engraved on the inner heart of Ying.1

It is unfair to ask female to swallow all kinds of discontent andembarrassment, especially for the betrayal which submerged femalesinto insurmountable grief. Even if the woman asks for divorce providedthat her husband’s betrayal, she is also the only one who should beblamed in many traditional people’s eyes. Given that the Chinese arenarrow-minded, they suspect that the wife was irresponsible or inabilityin taking care of her man. Therefore, the man had no choice but engagedhimself into another relationship in which the new “spouse” could providehim with mental support and better treatment. Worse still, women wouldbe blamed if she could not reproduce a boy since the belief ofreproduction is engraved in every Chinese mind. Under the pretext offailed reproduction, the conservatives regarded this as misfortune oreven humiliation. Should women take this responsibility and beconsidered as disgrace? I am sorry to feel shame on the conservatives!Definitely, having no babies is not a dishonourable act. Nowadays, manyopen-minded couples even adopt contraceptive methods because theyrealize children breeding is not a piece of cake. They enjoy in pursuing ahigh-profile job, higher level of entertainment etc. Having no babies, theycan also maintain a good couple relationship. It proves baby is not theonly concern to maintain harmonious relationship. Traditional mencunning took this as an excuse to accompany with other women.This story is structured as a mahjong game, dividing into four sectionsand sixteen pages. Each section describes each woman’s story in details.This writing style enriches the story with Chinese flavor which can arousethe recognition of Chinese. The east-meets-west background wascultivated in the story which helps to increase its attractiveness. Readersare eager to spot out the Sino-West differences. As a female reader, I wasantagonized by the story, and at the meantime, I felt I am blessed. I wasangry because females are doomed to be slaves of men. Thedirectionless fate of women is entirely controlled by men. However, thefemale status nowadays stands a stark contrast with the previous. We aregiven with education opportunity. We have the voting rights in aliberal-minded government. Though the fact that the superiority of menbelief is slightly influencing us now, it is a big leap forward to witness thesoaring society position of women.2

I observed that females are more determined and independent now.We are eager to gain ourselves a good position no matter in terms ofoccupation, family position or society reputation. With the perpetuatingeffort of strong willed women, such gender misconception can beeliminated.3