The Tragic Constituents in The Joy Luck Club《喜福会》中的悲剧因素

1、the tragic constituents in the joy luck club喜福会中的悲剧因素 摘 要: 喜福会是华裔女作家谭恩美于1989年发表的处女作，发表之初就列入纽约时报畅销书排行榜达九个月之久。它的出版曾一度在美国掀起了一股华裔文学热，也为华裔作品进入美国主流文学做出了贡献。本文通过对四对母女共四个方面的悲剧因素的分析母亲们的女性他者、种族他者歧视的悲剧、女儿们在双重文化下中美文化的冲突、寻求身份认同的悲剧，使得读者明白在双重文化下产生的悲剧形象从而理解两种不同文化互相宽容接纳，共同生存的可能性，期待一个文化共存的和谐世界。关键词:悲剧； 他者； 喜福会； 抗争； 共存

2、the tragic constituents in the joy luck club abstract: the joy luck club is the maiden work of the chinese-american woman writer amy tan, published in 1989. it was on the best seller list for up to nine months since its publication. the publication of the novel has raised an upsurge of american chin

3、ese literary study, which open the door of american mainstream literature for american chinese literary works. in this paper, the author analyzes the tragic constituents of four pairs of mother-daughters. mothers tragic constituents are formed by the gender “others” prejudice and racial “others” dis

4、crimination. living in a bicultural circumstance, with the conflicts of chinese culture and american culture and the hardship of seeking roots contribute to the daughters tragedy. this paper intends to reveal the tragic images under the double-cultural circumstance, through exploring the tragic cons

5、tituents in the joy luck club. then, readers get to understand the recombination of two kinds of totally different cultures is possible, and hope a harmonious co-existent world will come.key words: tragedy; others; the joy luck club; conflicts; co-existence contents1. introduction12. the tragic cons

6、tituents of “others”12.1 the tragedy of gender “others” identity in mothers22.2 the racial “others” discrimination in mothers33. the tragic constituents of living in a bicultural circumstance43.1 the conflicts between american culture & chinese culture in daughters43.2 the hardship of finding root54

7、. conclusion7bibliography8acknowledgements91. introductionthe joy luck club is the maiden work of the chinese-american woman writer amy tan, published in 1989. it was on the best seller list for up to nine months since its publication. in 1990 the book received a number of literary prizes, such as:

8、angeles times book award, the national book award, and the national book critics award etc. the publication of the novel has raised an upsurge of american chinese literary study, which open the door of american mainstream literature for american chinese literary works. tan has begun to “create what

9、is, in fact, a new genre of american fiction” and the joy luck club is “a jewel of a book” (schell, 1989:4). the novel concerns the relationship between four pairs of mother and daughter. in this paper, the author, interpreted from the perspective of the tragic constituents in the joy luck club, and

10、 found that chinese-american women suffer a lot under the bicultural environment. the author explores the tragedies of mothers and daughters. mothers tragedies can be divided into two periods. every mother has a painful memory in china. they are gender “others” in male dominate society when they are

11、 in china. war refuge, class oppression, patriarchal society, contributes them to “silence”. they want to break the deadlock, to search a new life in the unknown land. however, the situation is not getting better. in america, they speak in broken english; keep their own traditional views of value, b

12、elief and custom. mothers are unacceptable by the mainstream culture, trapped into linguistic and cultural dilemma. they go through a great from racial “others” discrimination. the daughters grew up speaking only english and swallowing more coca-cola than sorrow. they thought they were complete amer

13、ican. however, the chinese culture always influences them unconsciously. they are educated by american culture at school and chinese culture at home. chinese culture and american culture always conflict in their mind. they are confused. who am i? they begin their difficult journey to seek their cult

14、ural and social identity. on this road, daughters also suffer from different kinds of tragedies. in this paper, author analyzes the tragic constituents to find out the causes of tragedies to obtain a comprehensive perspective of the different images under the double cultural environment and aim to t

15、he final understanding of two cultures. it is also significant for the chinese-american women to maintain their characteristics and find a way to survive under the american cultural hegemony.2. the tragic constituents of “others”the key clue in this novel is the relationship between mothers and thei

16、r daughters. what is more, mothers marriages, the dominant causes of the mothers tragedy are gender “others” and racial “others”, which lead them to swallow all the sorrow and always keep silence to the unfair things happening in them. in their mind masculinity is their sun, giving them bright and w

17、arm. however, the truth is cruel. the cruel truth drives them to the white people world, searching for the new life. unfortunately, mothers find themselves again being stripped of self and devalued as racial “others” in a eurocentric america. 2.1 the tragedy of gender “others” identity in mothers ac

18、cording to confucian doctrine, a woman without talent and ambition is a woman of virtue. that doctrine is based on the assumption that women are generally narrow-minded, short-sighted, and unsuited for mental cultivation. every mother (include grandmother) in this novel has the painful memory in chi

19、na. under the context of anti-japanese war, the feudal society of china was very dark. class oppression from the feudal confucian theory and value, war refuge included. women did not have the right to choose their love; they were subordinate to man as filial daughter, virtuous wife and kind mother.

20、women owned very low social status. they become the tool to give birth babies (especially boys), and obeyed to the “three obedience and four virtue” of the confucian ethics under the feudal system. all of them were the victims in that society. anmeis mother is driven out because she is raped by wu t

21、sing and she is pregnant after the death of her husband. no one believes that she is innocent. she has no choice but to be wu tsings fourth wife. “my mother, she suffered. she lost her face and tried to hide it. she found only greater misery and finally could not hide that. there is nothing more to

22、understand. that was china. that was what people did back then. they had no choice. they could not speak up. they could not run away. that was their fate.” (tan, 1989: 303) women could not speak out their tragedy, and did not learn to shout out. because they are women, they must listen to their husb

23、and, their families. anmeis mother is the victim of class oppression from the feudal confucian theory and value. lena has been engaged when she is four years old. they do not see each other before. her marriage is decided by her parents and the matcher. from that day, her mother treats her as a visi

24、tor. when the day she becomes daughter-in-law of huangs, giving birth to a boy is the most important thing in her whole life. what a miserable thing! woman was nothing but the tool of giving births. women did not have the right to choose their life but were subordinate to the male and their parents.

25、 in the description of war evoked by japanese in keilin, the chinese people are victims. unprecedented flees from calamity is a tragedy. in keilin the numerous populace killed for no reason is also a tragedy. suyuan abandoning her two babies in the anti-japanese war is the biggest tragedy. in her wh

26、ole life, she misses her lost daughters so much, she never say anything but use all of her love to her other daughter-june. “ai-ya, what a shame. a lifetime of waiting” (tan, 29). “i think your mother died with an important thing in her mind. you mother was a very strong woman, a good mother. she lo

27、ved you very much, more than her own life. and that is why you can understand why a mother like this could never forget her other daughters” (tan, 29). the war causes her tragedy. she is a mother that she can not cut off the blood relationship between her daughters and her.“for woman is yin, she cri

28、ed sadly, the darkness within, where unintended passion lies. and man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds” (tan, 65). under the feudal system, confucian ethics is the mainstream. women just swallow all their sorrow. the mothers bitterness mostly is caused by social tragedies which lead the moth

29、ers to live as gender “others”. the mothers are tortured and battered. in order to escape from this situation, they leave behind all their sorrow in china, going to america and hoping their next generations as “in america i will have a daughter just like me. but over there nobody will say her worth

30、is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. over there nobody will look down on her, because i will make her speak only perfect american english. and over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! ” (tan: 1) however, there are several new problems arising.2.2 the racial “others

31、” discrimination in mothersamerica is an ethics melting pot. when mothers step into this land, things do not go as they expect, they are treated as ethic minorities. on one hand, western people define chinese-american as cruel, sneaky, evil, cunning, and dishonest etc. on the other hand, mothers sti

32、ck to their own traditional value, belief and logic mind, living in their own small zone. they always lack a sense of security and stability. therefore, they cling to the customs which they bring from china, holding the traditional chinese ways. for instance, they gather regularly in their joy luck

33、club to play mah-jong; they eat chinese food and gossip about their children. because they refuse to accept local culture and custom, and the distorted images that western people hold for chinese-american people, which lead mothers to be unacceptable and unwelcome by the whole american mainstream so

34、ciety. “my mother could sense that the women of these families also had unspeakable tragedies they had left behind in china and hopes they couldnt begin to express in their fragile english. or at least, my mother recognized the numbness in these womens faces. and she saw how quickly their eyes moved

35、 when she told them her idea for the joy luck club” (tan, 6-7). they can not speak english accurately and fluently. they speak in breaking english, and live in borderline situation. the great culture shock traps them into linguistic and cultural dilemma. they live in america for a long time but they

36、 can not be american, their identities as racial “others”, which are discriminated by the whole american society, and even misunderstood by their daughters. their next generations bring up in america, eating italian noodle, and drinking coca cola. the daughters think they are american，since they do

37、not have any idea of china. as for the daughters, china just likes a legend. however, the mothers insist the daughters are chinese. due to these factors above, the conflicts between two generations become more and more serious. “these kinds of explanations made me feel my mother and i spoke two diff

38、erent languages, which we did. i talked to her in english, she answered back in chinese” (tan, 21). daughters can not understand chinese. what is more, they even can not speak chinese. they live in the totally different social context with their mothers. daughters feel more blood relationship than u

39、nderstanding to their mothers. when rose meets trouble in marriage, she prefers to ask an unknown psychiatrist to give her advice rather than talk to her mother who bears and rears her. she does not think that her mother can give her any useful advice. she believes that her mother does not understan

40、d her just like she also can not understand her mother. there is a great gap between two generations. mothers are racial “others” images, and struggle in a foreign land; they are unacceptable because they are unwilling to be involved in “others” identities. they misunderstand by their daughters even

41、 the whole american society.3. the tragic constituents of living in a bicultural circumstancedaughters are the second-generation chinese immigrants living in america. it seems that they do not have so much linguistic and cultural dilemma. they put on american-style clothes, drink american-water, eat

42、 american-food and have the totally same lifestyle as americans. however, they are chinese genes; they can not be accepted by american completely. they are minorities in america, so the racial prejudice and discrimination makes them feel inferiority. sometimes they are confused. they can not be acce

43、pted by american society; however, at the same time they do not accept the view that they are chinese. they are born and grow up in america. two kinds of different cultures always conflict in their mind. what is more, they are non-identity. who am i? this question always lingers in their mind. the t

44、wo main problems lead to the key cause of their tragedies.3.1 the conflicts between american culture & chinese culture in daughters conflicts between the mothers of one generation and the daughters of other indicate the cultural clashes between chinese and american. daughters are educated by their m

45、others with chinese culture that they shall have the obligations of filial piety and obedience; parents are the authority to them. however, they are instilled by american culture in the school that everybody is equal; they shall have their own ideas. under the american culture circle they believe in

46、 the individualism, advocate self-reliance. their parents educate them by using the means as bind, criticism and responsibility instead of recognition and encouragement of american education. gradually, girls get tired of their mothers education and they begin to repel their mothers even the whole c

47、hinese culture. the misunderstanding between mothers and daughters become deeper and deeper which lead girls to think chinese culture is backward and primitive. “chinese people had chinese opinions, american people had american opinions. and almost every case the american version was much better” (t

48、an, 124). in their mind, american culture is superior to chinese culture. they make every effort to cut off relationship with chinese culture, traditions, customs and habits to be a completely american. however, they are origin in china. though they ignore the chinese culture, lose memory of their o

49、wn nation and hold prejudice towards chinese culture, they can not change the truth of chinese. though girls try their best to alien to chinese culture, they still think and behave as a chinese. just as the waverly jong is an american chess champion, but her skills and knowledge are from the books o

50、f chinatown, and guidance of mother which are always reflection of the traditional chinese ways to behave. rose is also influenced by chinese culture in unconscious way. after her marriage with ted, she behaves as the traditional chinese women, bidding and easy-bullied. on one side, the daughters lo

51、se too much on the road to pursuit american lifestyles. jing mei loses her music talents; waverly jong loses the power to chess competition. on the other side, they do and think about things in the chinese ways unconsciously. two kinds of cultures collision trap them into dilemma. they wander around

52、 the two sides. at last, through the sharing of personal experiences, reconciliation between mothers and daughters is reached. daughters also correct their false views about china. because mothers lives in china had been circumscribed by parental constraints that invariably led to pain, humiliation,

53、 and tragedy, the mothers are all come to america to give their daughters a better life. however, daughters must first understand the real circumstance surrounding of their mothers: how they arrived in their new country, how they married, how hard they try to hold onto their chinese roots. once they

54、 have understood this, the daughters are better able to understand why they themselves are the way they are. ultimately, this understanding will also lead them to finally appreciate their mothers. this is not only the reconciliation between mothers and daughters but also the co-existence between ame

55、rican culture and chinese culture.3.2 the hardship of finding rootthe four daughters were born in american, and they were called “banana” and “abc” generations. they are facing the problem of two identities, two cultures and even two names, one english name and the other chinese. for instance, jing-

56、mei in the joy luck club has an english name “june”. the daughters receive the american education and are affected by the american principle of individuality and independence. at the same time, the traditional chinese culture influence their growing process from the chinese community and their famil

57、ies. so girls in the novel have the same confusion. who am i? what will be? they are a generation that loses their ethnic memories; they hardly understand china and know little about chinese culture and traditions. they decide to find their origin. during the journey of seeking root, they meet so ma

58、ny difficulties; lose their own belief and value. the second-generation immigrants are brought up and born in foreign land. however, they have the black hair, yellow skin, brown eyes. in fact, the daughters are chinese in their bone. before the ending of the story, girls do not have the same view wi

59、th their mother that they are chinese identity. at first, it seems that the two kinds of culture can not coexist and the girls numb to follow the american culture. they do their best to join in the u.s peers. however, they feel isolation and frustration. lena and rose are the typical examples. lena and her husband pay for the daily cost half and half. at the beginning, she thinks it is the way to show equality of their love. it is the value system which is c