LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:10 October 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Integral Bond between Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s
The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Joy Luck Club

V. Parameswari, M.A., M.Phil.


Abstract

Amy Tan is a contemporary Chinese American writer whose achievements in her primary genre, the novel, have been complemented over the years by personal essays and juvenile fiction. Recurrent themes include the dynamics of mother-daughter relationship, general and cultural conflicts, and the particularities of women’s life experience. The major theme in all her novels concerns the nature the mother-daughter relationship, which are complicated not only by age difference, but by vastly different upbringing. In her novels, The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan mainly explores the theme of the whole bond between mothers and daughters. In The Kitchen God’s Wife, Winnie Louie and her daughter, Pearl are unable to understand each other because both of them conceal the secrets between them. This inability to understand each other is central to the thematic development of the novel. As the novel moves on, they are trying to reveal their secrets with the help of Auntie Helen. When reconciliation and understanding is made between Winnie and Pearl, on sharing their secrets, a true bondage of love begins between the mother and the daughter. In her another famous novel, The Joy Luck Club, there are four mothers who left China. They dreamt of a bright and prosperous future for their daughters. The daughters who were born in a different country saw the easy lifestyle around and rebelled against their mothers. The mothers in this novel face difficulty in directing their daughters to the right choices. The four mothers share their past life to their daughters to make them understand their real love and affection on them. At the end of the novel, the daughters understand their mothers’ care and love on them. A true and whole bond begins when reconciliation and understanding were made between them. Thus, the mother and daughter relationship is not easy to break. It is a strong and true bond. The integral or whole bond between mothers and daughters is unique and inseparable in this world.

Keywords:Mother-daughter Bond, Mystery, Reconciliation, Understanding

Introduction

Asian American history is the history of ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. The term ‘Asian American’ was coined in the late 1960s, to promote political solidarity and cultural nationalism. Asian American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of Asian descent. Elaine Kim defines “Asian American literature as work in English by writers of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean descent about U.S. American experience”. Asian origin communities were designated as ‘Oriental’, east of and peripheral to an unnamed centre. (Qutd. Asian American Literature 9) Historically renamed as ‘Asian Americans’ they have had no place in the discourse on race and culture in the United States except as ‘model minorities’ on the one hand and/ or as ‘inassimilable aliens’ on the other who refuse to be assimilated into the dominant centre. Therefore, many Asian Americans felt the need to assert a self determined Asian American identity in direct opposition to this dehumanizing characterization. Consequently they used their writings as a means to forge a new and distinct identity in America. Asian American literature became a category during the 1970s but didn’t see a direct impact in viewership until later in the 1970s. Asian American literature is now one of the most popular and important research areas within American literature and Comparative literature studies in China.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

V. Parameswari, M.A., M.Phil.
D/O. R.Veeriah
40/3, Karuppan Chettiyar Street
Mamsapuram- 626110
Tamilnadu
India
esu237@gmail.com

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