Joy Luck Club, Miscellaneous, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous

joy luck club

joy luck club 1. From the film The Joy Luck Club, Chinese girls were supposed to act obedient and respectful to their parents and elders. This included the girls having to abide by each and every Chinese tradition that their parents instilled in them. Girls were also expected to be quiet and considerate to their parents and elders. They were only supposed to speak when spoken to at all times. Acting out against anything their parents enforced upon them was completely unacceptable. 2. Much like to their parents and elders, Chinese girls were supposed to be quiet and obedient to their husbands and mothers-in-law. Girls were supposed to respect, and not openly question the decisions that were made in the household. These women were taught to always ask what the husband wants and to ignore their own wants and needs. Chinese wives were there mainly to provide the mother-in-law with grandsons. 3. Chinese victims of rape were treated with complete disrespect and disbelief. As with the one mother in The Joy Luck Club, she was kicked away by her own family for making such a claim. These rape victims were seen as disrespectful to their families and themselves. One social consequence of claiming rape is that their families shun the women and force them to leave their homes. Secondly, the community shuns them as well. As with the woman in the film, she was denied work and abandoned by her neighbors. She was eventually forced to marry her assailant in order to save her child. 4. One of the main psychological consequences of having the system of many wives and concubines is that not only the husband, but also wives have complete power over each other as in a hierarchical system. As in the film, the second wife was able to claim the fourth wife’s child as her own, which caused her to believe she had no strength and self-esteem. This eventually led to her committing suicide in an attempt to give her daughter the strength that she lacked. Secondly, these women, especially the latter wives and the concubines, lose a lack of identity. For example, when these women marry, they are referred to as which wife they are. Even the wives refer to each other as first wife, second wife, etc. 5. As with Chinese women, slave women in the U.S. experienced complete losses of power over their lives. Slaves were forced to live their lives to the orders of their masters just as these Chinese wives were forced to live their lives to the orders of their husbands and higher wives. By given no chance to survive by themselves and maintain an identity, these women suffered from great losses of self-esteem and hope. As far as non-slave women in the U.S. are concerned, their lives are comparable to those lives of Chinese women, as well. Non-slave women in the times of slavery and Chinese women both experienced great inequities and discriminations. Women in both situations were given very few rights and chances to survive by themselves. Many of these women chose to give up their freedom and power for the protection and secure lifestyle that a man could provide, despite how damaging it may be to their identity and self-esteem. 6. Sex-role expectations were a very important issue in the relationship between An-Mei and her daughter. Throughout the mother’s life, she was expected to desire nothing. Because she was a girl, it was instilled in An-Mei that she had no worth. From the treatment of her mother and her own life, she learned that women should be content with living a life lacking desire and worth. An-Mei’s many attempts at reversing these beliefs for her daughter caused a great deal of friction in their relationship. For one, An-Mei noticed that her daughter insisted that she make her husband constantly happy while ignoring her own needs and desires. She felt that her daughter was doing this so that she would feel respected by her husband as a good wife. While her daughter simply said that she was being a good and obedient wife, An-Mei knew that she was following in the same footsteps as her and her mother before her. Secondly, An-Mei and her daughter struggled over the issue of who would get the property after her divorce. After initially asking for nothing in the divorce, An-Mei enforced upon her daughter that she is worthy of demanding both the house and her daughter. She knew that by asking for nothing, she would once again believe in that sense of worthlessness that she and her mother felt before her. 7. While the Chinese men and the community are very influential agents of socialization for women, probably the greatest influence on a woman’s socialization is her mother. For the mothers in the film, their mothers strongly attempted to instill self-esteem, strength, and identity for their daughters. It was these grandparents that received the greatest amounts of negative sex-role stereotypes from society, such as the treatment of rape victims and the expected behaviors of a woman in society. After witnessing the struggles that their mothers had gone through, the mothers in the film exerted great efforts make sure that their daughters did not suffer from these same negative sex-roles. It was this possible over-exertion that caused their daughters to experience these same sex-roles, although to a lesser extent. For example, June’s mother was so steadfast on having her daughter become a successful and a worthy member of society by becoming a great piano player that she ignored her own wants and desires. This eventually caused June to feel like a failure for disappointing her mother. 8. Probably the most evident of a relationship having been affected by sex-role expectations was that of Rosie and her husband. One way that these sex-roles helped to structure the relationship is from Rosie’s constant catering to her husband’s needs and wants. For example, if he were to ask her what she wanted for dinner, she would reply by saying that he was the one who had worked hard that day so he should get to decide. Her belief that his love was worth more than hers ultimately led him to stray from their marriage. Secondly, Rosie’s husband’s positive views on sex-roles ultimately led to them getting back together. He believed that everything in a marriage from love to property should be split evenly. After speaking to her mother, Rosie realized that her marriage should be equal. She also realized that her husband felt the same way and eventually they got back together. 9. One main instance of alienation between a mother and her daughter in the film was between Lindo and her daughter. The misunderstanding is over Lindo’s apparent disliking of her daughter’s new husband, Rich. Her daughter is under the impression the she disapproves of everything she does, especially in her choice of husbands. Sex-roles played an important part in this misunderstanding. While her daughter views Lindo’s criticisms as unfair, she is only hoping for the best for her daughter. Lindo wants her daughter to have everything that unfair sex-roles did not allow her to have as a younger girl – a good marriage and a loving husband. Because her younger years did not afford her these things, Lindo is being very cautious, often critical, of her daughter and the choices that she has. 10. The daughters in this film struggled with traditional sex roles mainly due to the influence of their mothers. In many cases, the mothers tried desperately hard to encourage their daughters to have power over their lives, be successful, and have a strong self-esteem. This over-encouragement to lead a life that they could not, led many of the daughters to feel inferior because they could not live up to their mother’s expectations. In some cases, this led to the daughters getting involved in relationships in which they relied on their husbands for power and support. So in essence, it was their mothers’ extremely high hopes for their daughters that led them to feeling inferior as women when these hopes could not be fulfilled. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1349