GCSE-ready- Home
- Lessons
- GCSE & IGCSE English Literature
- The Joy Luck Club: structure and characters
The Joy Luck Club: structure and characters
🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.
Amy Tan's 1989 novel is made of sixteen linked stories told by four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters in San Francisco.
Structure
The novel has four sections, each with four stories. Mothers and daughters take turns to narrate.
The Joy Luck Club is a group of women who meet to play mahjong. It was started by Suyuan Woo, who has died before the novel opens.
The Joy Luck Club is a group of women who meet to play mahjong. It was started by Suyuan Woo, who has died before the novel opens.
The four families
Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei (June) Woo: June takes her mother's place at the mahjong table.
An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan.
Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong: Waverly was a child chess champion.
Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair.
An-mei Hsu and Rose Hsu Jordan.
Lindo Jong and Waverly Jong: Waverly was a child chess champion.
Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena St. Clair.
The frame story
June learns that her mother had been forced to leave twin baby daughters behind in China during the war.
The aunties have found the twins, and at the end June travels to China to meet her half-sisters, completing her mother's wish.
The aunties have found the twins, and at the end June travels to China to meet her half-sisters, completing her mother's wish.
Why does Tan use many narrators?
- Each mother and daughter tells her own story.
- We see misunderstandings from both sides.
- This shows how generations and cultures struggle to understand each other, and how much they share.
Answer: Multiple narrators show mother-daughter misunderstandings from both sides and the bonds beneath them.
Sixteen stories in four sections; four mothers (Suyuan, An-mei, Lindo, Ying-ying) and four daughters (June, Rose, Waverly, Lena); the mahjong club; June's journey to meet her half-sisters in China.
Check you have got it
Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.