The Joy Luck Club Chapter 1

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Mah Jong tiles

The first chapter of the book basically sets the stage for the story. Jing-mei, or June, has recently suffered the loss of her mother. Her mother was the head of an organization she started called the Joy Luck Club. Her mother started this club in China with some friends when she was just a girl in order to think of happier times, celebrate being with each other, play mah jong, and share good-humored stories. She later left China in search of a new life in America and tried to start up a Joy Luck Club there. Even though she has passed away, the club has continued and Jing-mei is to take her mother's place. As she attends the meetings, she sees that the original spirit of the club has been lost and she feels alienated from both the other women and her mother.

The literary term I have chosen is ANECDOTE. There are several pages that share an anecdote about Jing-mei's mother in Kweilin and how she started the Joy Luck Club.

The quote I have allocated (I wanted to have a better word than "chosen", so I hope I used that right.) for this particular chapter is from pg. 40. The "aunties" from the Joy Luck Club have just told Jing-mei that she must go to China and meet her sisters that her mother lost contact from all those years ago and tell her sisters all about the mother they never knew. In response, Jing-mei says, "'What will  I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don't know anything. She was my mother.'"

I found this quote interesting because of the way family relationships work. The members of the family live in the same house and eat meals and spend some time with each other, but the relationship is not quite like a friendship. In a family, the people will always love you and you know that and love them too, but a friendship is based on people you have chosen because of similar interests and the like. I just thought it was really weird how Jing-mei says she knows nothings about her own mother. I mean, honestly, I don't know EVERYTHING about my mom, but I could at least tell you the things she likes and things that are important to her. I just thought Jing-mei's comment showed an extreme example of a dysfunctional family.

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