Jennifer Fung 6A (8) The Joy Luck Club Author: Amy Tan Publisher ...

Jennifer Fung 6A (8) The Joy Luck Club Author: Amy Tan Publisher: Ballantine Books Number of pages: 332 No more tolerance of female inferiority Gone are the days that women were regarded as inferior and unfortunate. Nowadays, women are enjoying a high reputation in society. The result of raising status of women can be accounted for previous outstanding women’s unremitting effort like Mrs. Thatcher, who played an active role in politics. In addition to female celebrities, ordinary women also attributed to the rise of females’ position in society. For example, Amy Tan who is an English writer of Chinese descent, wrote a thought-provoking book to awaken females to get rid of the stereotyped belief- men are praised with superiority while women are doomed to inferiority. In this book, Amy tried to emphasize the misfortune and fate of traditional women. By bringing out eight different miserable stories, which charactered four mothers and four daughters, Amy criticized heavily on the conservative-minded people for their stereotype of traditional belief. The author’s ultimate goal is to uphold the woman’s rights by suggesting gender equality. I was sympathetic about Ying-ying St. Clair’s anguished encounter. She was trained to behave in a meek and gentle way when she was small. Conservatively speaking, she could marry a good husband because she possessed the qualities of being a good wife. Conversely, she faced mismarriage for two times. Her inhumane husband openly had extramarital relationship with other women. This betrayal of marriage deeply embarrassed Ying who found no way to defend her dignity. On the back of the failure of marriage, Ying trapped herself into another loveless marriage again. She haunted for the concubine in the first marriage that had engraved on the inner heart of Ying. 1

It is unfair to ask female to swallow all kinds of discontent and embarrassment, especially for the betrayal which submerged females into insurmountable grief. Even if the woman asks for divorce provided that her husband’s betrayal, she is also the only one who should be blamed in many traditional people’s eyes. Given that the Chinese are narrow-minded, they suspect that the wife was irresponsible or inability in taking care of her man. Therefore, the man had no choice but engaged himself into another relationship in which the new “spouse” could provide him with mental support and better treatment. Worse still, women would be blamed if she could not reproduce a boy since the belief of reproduction is engraved in every Chinese mind. Under the pretext of failed reproduction, the conservatives regarded this as misfortune or even humiliation. Should women take this responsibility and be considered as disgrace? I am sorry to feel shame on the conservatives! Definitely, having no babies is not a dishonourable act. Nowadays, many open-minded couples even adopt contraceptive methods because they realize children breeding is not a piece of cake. They enjoy in pursuing a high-profile job, higher level of entertainment etc. Having no babies, they can also maintain a good couple relationship. It proves baby is not the only concern to maintain harmonious relationship. Traditional men cunning took this as an excuse to accompany with other women. This story is structured as a mahjong game, dividing into four sections and sixteen pages. Each section describes each woman’s story in details. This writing style enriches the story with Chinese flavor which can arouse the recognition of Chinese. The east-meets-west background was cultivated in the story which helps to increase its attractiveness. Readers are eager to spot out the Sino-West differences. As a female reader, I was antagonized by the story, and at the meantime, I felt I am blessed. I was angry because females are doomed to be slaves of men. The directionless fate of women is entirely controlled by men. However, the female status nowadays stands a stark contrast with the previous. We are given with education opportunity. We have the voting rights in a liberal-minded government. Though the fact that the superiority of men belief is slightly influencing us now, it is a big leap forward to witness the soaring society position of women.

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I observed that females are more determined and independent now. We are eager to gain ourselves a good position no matter in terms of occupation, family position or society reputation. With the perpetuating effort of strong willed women, such gender misconception can be eliminated.

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