Oral exam: The Joy Luck Club

Can you summarize the book in two minutes?

The novel talks about four women, all chinese immigrants living in San Francisco. All they arrived to California to looking for a better life. Each of them has an adult daughter that were born in America. The four woman decided to create „The Joy Luck Club“ where they meet regulary to play the chinese game mahjong, to eat and to tell their stories and adventures each other.

The relationship of each women with their daughters is full of sadness and they can't understand each other. The book is divided in a lot of chapters, and there are chapters where the womans are talking and some others where the daughters are telling their stories. The mothers remember their childhood in China, and their lifes in California, which were very difficult and sad. The daughters remember growing up with Chinese mothers in San Francisco. Sometimes they felt like they weren't Chinese at all, and didn't know how to deal with the Chinese culture in their homes.

The book ends with that one of the daughters returns to China to find the rest of her family, and there it has become clear the her that her real identity is Chinese and not American.

Is there a mystery sentence or a turning point in the story?

Yes. At the beginning of the book, one of the daughters say: „Over the years, she told me the same story, except for the ending, which grew darker, casting long shadows into her life, and eventually into mine“. I think it's a very important quote, because it shows that the lifes of the mothers weren't good, and that the ones of the daughters wouldn't be better.

When and where does the story take place?

The story takes place in the 1950's in San Francisco, California. The characters of the book are telling how were their lifes in pre-Revolutionary China.

Who are the main characters in the story? What’s their role?

The main characters are the three mothers, because one is already dead when the novel starts, and the four daughters. The three mothers have a good relationship and the daughters too, but mothers between daughters isn't so good.

Choose one character (main or secondary) and describe him/her.

June: She is the daughter of Suyuan Woo and she is 36 years old. She always had a bad relationship with her mother, full of troubles. She was very frustated when her mother died, and she never knew the whole story of her mother's previous life in china. At the beginning of the book she considered herself more American than Chinese, but when she traveled to China to find the rest of her family, she saw that China is a part of her identity.

Can you identify with any character? Why?

I think that I can't identify me with any of the characters of the story, because all the people that appear in it had a very very hard life, with no good memories.

Choose your favourite moment in the story

My favorite moment is when Ying-Ying remembers going to a moon festival as a young girl and finding out that the magic and ceremony is often just an act. She recognized that the „Lady Moon“, an angel who she really believed in, is only an actor.

I don't really like bad moments, when dreams broke or something similar, but these moment was very interesting because it was exciting and surprising.

Which new key words have you learnt to understand the story?

Scar: cicatriu

Chin: barbeta

Ancestor: avantpassat

Sewing: cosir

Sighed: sospirar

Provide an alternative ending.

At the end of the story, June found her half-sisters and their mother. So she felt happy because she had a new family with who she passed very good times.

An alternative ending could be that June went to China to find the rest of her family and she didn't found them. She would be very sad and go back to San Francisco to continue her poor life. She would have the same destiny as her mother: be unhappy with her life.

Would you recommend this book? Why?

Yes. I think it is a very interesting book, because it's not like usual novels with an „normal“ story. The book is structured in different chapters, where all of the main characters tell their stories from the past and with flashbacks. It is very well written. The only thing that is a bit annoying is that the chinese names are very confusing.