Daniel+First+Draft

“If you are born poor here, it’s no lasting shame. . . . In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you” (Tan 289). In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, one can find the stories of the mothers and daughters, who strive to live a better life in an alien world. They are the stories of the four distinct Chinese immigrants, pursuing happiness in the midst of many triumphs and failures. Among those stories, the account of Jing-Mei Woo and Suyuan Woo highlights the core value of the American Dream of many Chinese Americans, the dream of becoming successful and returning to their homeland.

From the first chapter of the novel to the last, the Woo family shows the great leap from hardship to a contented life. Although once from a wealthy family, Suyuan “[loses] everything” (14) she held dear, including her former husband, children, and the rest of the family, from a Japanese invasion, but she moves to America after marrying a new husband, Canning Woo. Considering the time was right after the World War II, the Woo family would not have had great wealth when coming to America. The family should, therefore, be somewhat in impoverishment from the very beginning. After living in America, Suyuan seems to have accumulated a reasonable amount of wealth. She pays for Jing-Mei’s piano lessons and even buys a piano for Jing-Mei on her thirtieth birthday (154) as she manages a shop in California (223).

Jing-Mei receives the wealth earned from her parents and lives a comfortable life, however, does not attmept to go any further. She drops out of college (154) and lives a mediocre life as a copywriter (20), while Waverly, the daughter of her mother’s friend and Jing-Mei’s childhood rival, is married and lives a wealthier life as a tax attorney (Tan 229). Because the Woo family’s situation is neither better nor worse, Suyuan’s house remains to have drawbacks, such as the uncomfortable water pipes (236). Though Jing-Mei’s family may seem comparatively worse off than their neighbors, their American Dream has certainly been fulfilled. In “A Pair of Tickets,” when Jing-Mei and her father, Canning, returns to China to meet Jing-Mei’s half sisters, Jing-Mei notices the many goods, including the high class hotel, high technology elevator, the color television, marble walls and floors, they could enjoy with only thirty-four dollars (318).

This fulfilled life of the Woo family was possible through Suyuan’s value system. Suyuan believes one can do anything in America. She believes her daughter can become an actor (142) or even a pianist (146). “America was where all [her] hopes lay” (141). Her hopes were also closely related to wealth, “[opening] a restaurant ... [working] for the government and [getting] good retirement ... [buying] a house ... [becoming] rich” (141). Part of the reason to strive for this American Dream of becoming rich was probably in order to go back to China. Because she had never given up hope towards finding her twin daughters, even in her old age, she tells Canning that “we should go [to China], before it is too late, before we are too old” (329). Although the possibility was “like looking for a needle on the bottom of the ocean,” (329) she still tries by writing “to old friends in Shanghai and Kweilin” (329). Without the determined resolution to arduously work and find her daughters, her old schoolmate would not have the serendipity of finding Suyuan’s daughters.

Unlike Suyuan, Jing-Mei does not seem to hold such a strong will to achieve either fame or wealth. Mainly, she did not go through the sufferings her mother went through and, thus, could not understand the feeling of loss. She constantly changes her major in college not being able to decide how to live her life, ending up as a copywriter in a small ad agency, most likely satisfied with it. However, with the unanticipated contact from her half sisters, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa (329), and with the help of the Joy Luck Club members, she is able to fly to China and “[sees] what part of [her] is Chinese” (331), and fulfills her mother’s “long-cherished wish” (332).

Suyuan’s American Dream, not necessarily the pursuit of wealth, is ultimately achieved through her next generation. Like the meaning behind her name, Suyuan, her long-cherished wishes or hopes led her family to find the other half of her bloodline. Had she not hoped for the American Dream, had she not tried to go back to her origin and were satisfied in the comfort zone of America, her family would not have gotten to find Suyuan’s daughters. Suyuan’s American Dream is achieved. The daughter learns the Chinese part of herself and learns “all [Suyuan’s] good intentions” (4).

Tan, Amy. //Joy Luck Club//. New York: Ivy Books, 1990. Print.