Amy Tan Essay - 1532 Words

Amy Tan Amy Tan was born in 1952, in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrants John and Daisy Tan. Her family eventually settled in Santa Clara. When Tan was in her early teens, her father and one of her brothers died of brain tumors within months of each other. During this period Tan learned that her mother had been married before, to an abusive husband in China. After divorcing him, her mother fled China during the Communist takeover, leaving three daughters behind who she would not see again for nearly forty years. After losing her husband and son, Daisy moved her family to Switzerland where Tan finished high school. During these years, mother and daughter argued over what Tan should do in college and afterwards. Tan†¦show more content†¦Soon after its publication in 1989, The Joy Luck Club garnered enthusiastic reviews, and it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than six months. It won both the National Book Award and the L.A. Times Book Award in 1989. Tan c ontinues to publish popular works. She often emphasizes that she writes primarily to create a work of art, not to portray the Chinese-American experience, that her bicultural upbringing is the source of inspiration for her work, not the end product. Contemporary Literature Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club The Joy Luck Club contain stories about conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-raised daughters. The book mainly talked About Jing-meis trip to China to meet her half-sisters, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa. Jing-meis mother, Suyuan, was forced to leave her twin babies on the roadside during her flee from the Japanese invasion of Kweilin. Suyuan intended to recover her children, but she failed to find them before her death. Finally, a after her mothers life long search her mother received a letter from the two lost daughters. After Suyuans death, her mothers three friends in the Joy Luck Club, a weekly mahjong party that Suyuan started in China and later revived in San Francisco, urge Jing-mei to travel to China and tell her sisters about their mothers life. But Jing-mei wonders whether she is capable of telling her mothers story. Lindo, Ying-ying, andShow MoreRelatedFish Cheeks By Amy Tan958 Words   |  4 PagesAmy Tan’s short story, Fish Cheeks, outlines the general idea of self-acceptance. As the narrator, fourteen year old Tan declares her love for her minister’s son, Robert, who unlike herself, is â€Å"as white as Mary in the manger† (Tan 1). This crush is anything but healthy, primarily because Tan is reluctant to reveal her true self to him. This hesitance she portrays is strikingly recognizable in the teenagers of today’s world. Amy Tan s story, Fish Cheeks, is significant to the adolescents of todayRead MoreAmy Tan: A Brief Biography757 Words   |  3 PagesAmy Tan is an American Chinese writer most notably known for her critically acclaimed novel The Joy Luck Club, amongst many others. Amy Ruth Tan was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland California to John and Daisy Tan. Both of Amy’s parents were Chinese immigrants who fled from China to escape hardships. Amy’s mother, Daisy, divorced her abusive husband and left behind three daughters before immigrating to the United States and marry ing Amy’s father, John. The marriage produced three children,Read More amy tan Essay1307 Words   |  6 Pages Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† is an autobiographical look into her childhood that shows the conflict between Tan and her mother, the difference between old and new cultures, the past and the present, and parents’ expectations vs. reality. Couples of opposing elements comprise the basis of the entire story; to another extent even the title itself, â€Å"Two Kinds,† shows the friction that Tan creates. The strongest argument that Tan suggest is that this may not only be a look into her own life, rather it mayRead MoreThe Age Of Six, By Amy Tan1816 Words   |  8 PagesAmy Tan, a 64 year-old Chinese-American novelist, believed that her life was tough and horrendous as a child. She said, â€Å"‘I remember that starting at the age of six, I had thoughts of suicide†¦The fact that I had those thoughts when I was very young was an indic ation that I was a very gloomy kid. I had some ways of thinking that were not healthy,’† (â€Å"Interview† 2). Her thoughts of wanting to disappear from the world were due to her roots, which were planted in a miserable family history, a hard, strictRead More`` Two Kinds By Amy Tan1460 Words   |  6 Pages  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan is a story that shows a battle that starts with the narrator and her mother, for control over the narrator’s life. Her mother wanted her to become a prodigy, but she wanted to be anything other than that. So, throughout the short story â€Å"Two Kinds† she’s determined to not quit the fight. â€Å"Two Kinds† is filled with different forms of conflict which allows for the narrator to realize that her mother’s crazy antics were to help her find what she was good at. Which leadsRead MoreA Pair Of Tickets By Amy Tan1651 Words   |  7 Pages A Pair of Tickets Amy Tan was Chinese –American, born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants. Amy didn’t set out to be a writer, but she loved writing. When she wrote the Joy Luck Club, it was about stories from four different families that met every week and played mahjong, ate Chinese food, and told stories. Amy didn’t realize how much of these stories she absorbed growing up. Amy never set out to write about her own life, but when she began writing, she realized she had unconscientiously subsumedRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan1192 Words   |  5 Pages(H) The life of women has drastically changed throughout the ages. (CIS) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan portrays life in America and in China in the 1930’s for women. (GS1) When stories are true, there is more power behind them. (GS2) Novels need accuracy for the book to have feeling. (GS3) A rave-worthy novel needs truth to really draw the reader in. (thesis) Author Amy Tan accurately portrays life for Chinese women i n the 1930’s and it enhances the power of the novel because the stories have trueRead MoreThe Two Kinds By Amy Tan1272 Words   |  6 Pagesrepresenting 11% of the national population. The children of such immigrants in the U.S., also known as second generation immigrants, experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of mainstream U.S. society† (Wikipedia 1). Amy Tan the author of â€Å"Two Kinds†, and the young character in the story both are a second generation immigrants, who have struggled in their life with parents, about the culture they assimilating and their real culture. In the â€Å"Two Kinds† story the authorRead MoreAmy Tan s Two Kinds Essay1372 Words   |  6 PagesJing-Mei Woo and her mother are the major characters in Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds.† The two have a complicated mother-daughter relationship at the beginning of the story, but later, as an adult, Jing-Mei realizes the intentions of her mother. â€Å"Two Kinds† is told from Jing-Mei’s point of view as a mature adult who is reflecting on her childhood. Jing-Mei’s thoughts and feelings are revealed, but she and her mother, the antagonist, have conflictingly opposite desires. Jing-Mei’s mother desires for herRead MoreTwo Kinds by Amy Tan Essay981 Words   |  4 Pages In the short story, Two Kinds by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her America nization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within