Jing-Mei "June" Woo
The Joy Luck Club
This novel contains the stories of multiple fictional characters.
Mothers: Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, Ying-Ying St. Clair
Daughters: Jing-Mei "June" Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, Lena St. Clair
The first chapter of this novel provides some brief background information on exactly what the Joy Luck Club is and gives the reader some insight on June's mother, Suyuan Woo. June narrates this chapter. She tells the story of her mother's creation of the Joy Luck Club and how she must now take her late mother's place. She tells the troubles and tragedies her mother faced in China as the Japanese invaded. To have some kind of escape from these troubles, she created the Joy Luck Club with three other women in Kwelin. At the tie, Suyuan was married to a Chinese officer whom she had a set of twins with. June explains that her mother used to tell her the story of Kweilin and the Joy Luck Club many times, but always left something out. June's mother eventually had to leave Kweilin as it was facing invasion from the Japanese. She put her twins in a wheelbarrow and pushed as far as she could to Chungking. She was suffering from dissentary and, when she was close to death, realized she needed to leave the twins on the side of the road and hope that they would survive. As June recalls this tale, she does not think she is right to take her mother's place at the table. June is then informed by Suyuan's friends that her twin sisters are alive. Her mother had been trying to find them all this time and before she could go to China to see them, she died. June is assigned with the task of going to China, meeting her sisters, and telling them everything about their mother. However, June knows nothing of her own mother. Suyuan's friends are shocked to hear this, then become worried that their own daughters will one day say the same. Suyuan's friends begin to tell their own tales, thus starting the stories that will be told in the duration of the book.
 |
| Watercolor painting of Kweilin, China |
No comments:
Post a Comment