Project Planning #3, Week 13, The Joy Luck Club

For our third and final project, I will be using the free choice book, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tran. I really enjoyed this book and the contents. Below are the three choices that I will use to select my topic for my project.

Choice One - Think about a theme you see running through your life. Choose a reading that you think also discusses this theme. Explore connections between how the theme plays out in your life, and how the theme gets played out in the reading.

Theme - Life is not always what it seems

In the book, The Joy Luck Club, there are four mothers born and raised in China, and later immigrated to San Francisco with their husbands and had daughters. The book has stories from the mothers and daughters grew up and then talks about their relationships once the daughters became adults. The daughters views of what their mothers wanted for and from them are different than what the mothers want for their daughters and at the end of the book the daughters finally see what their mothers have been trying to show and tell them for all of their lives.

Choice Two – Choose a reading selection. Explore the relationship between elements of the selection.

How does setting influence character development – China vs San Francisco, California, US.

The four mothers were born and grew up in China, their daughters were born and grew up in San Francisco. The mothers wanted a different life for their children, but still tried to instill their cultural values in them. The mothers realized that although they wanted a better life for their children in America, it was very different then what they expected.

Choice Three – What does this work reflect about its historical, social, political and/or economic context? You may focus in race, class, power, cultural values and beliefs, historical events, etc)

Focus – Cultural values and beliefs -  The cultural values and belief were very different for the mothers and daughters in the book, The Joy Luck Club. Lindo Jong was raised to keep her families promise to marry the man she was promised to by the town matchmaker, she could not dishonor her family. Waverly Jong was her daughter, she did not think her mother would approve of her new boyfriend, she felt like she needed to trick her mom into inviting him over for dinner, after she felt defeated because the dinner did not go well. She later came to realize that her mother loved her no matter what and tired to find a balance and build a stronger, trusting relationship with her mother.

Project Action Plan , Week 9, Lae Choo from In the Land of the Free

Topic 3: From a piece of fiction choose a female character on whom to focus, and create a project.

From a piece of fiction (short story, section of novel, or a play) choose a female character on whom to focus, and create a project that discusses some of the following questions: 

• What is the author’s attitude towards her? (how can you tell?)
• What is your attitude towards her? 
• How do (at least 2) other characters view her? 
• How does she view herself?

The female character I am choosing for my project is Lae Choo from the passage, In the Land of the Free, by Edith Maud Easton.

In the passage, Lae Choo is a Chinese woman, who was married to her husband, Hom Hing, they lived in San Francisco, Lae Choo, returned to China to give birth to their child, the Little One. Her husband, Hom Hing stayed in San Francisco and continued to work as a merchant, he owned a store and they lived above it. Lae Choo and her son had stayed in China longer than they expected because Hom Hing’s parents were ill and she needed to take care of them. Hom Hing had never met his son, who was 20 months old. Lae Choo and The Little One arrived under the Golden Gate bridge aboard, Easter Queen. Hom Hing met his son and as they were leaving the ship the family was stopped by two men with the initials U.S.C. on their caps. The Little One did not have any papers and none of the papers about Lae Choo had mentioned anything about a child, because he was not born when the papers were filed. Against the parents will they had to hand their son over to the men, until they could get approval from the government to let the child in to the US. It took the couple 10 months to get their son back.

The author’s attitude towards Lae Choo, is that she is a fighter and very strong, however she is also shown to be a victim.

My attitude towards Law Choo, is that she loves her son so much, that it is the love she has that helps her through one of the toughest times in her life.

The passage describes Hom Hing’s view of his wife as weak and heart broken. This is shown in the story with the following quote. “Her food she takes only when I bed her and her tears fall continually. She finds no pleasure in dress or flowers and cares not to see her friends. He eyes stare all night. I think before another moon she will pass into the land of spirits.” pg 326.

The passage describes, James Clancy, the young white lawyer’s, view of Lae Choo as

feeling sad for her and wanting to help, but then he uses his position to take advantage of the couple and the love of Lae Choo’s love for her son.

Lao Choo views herself as a very scared woman, but knows that the love for her child will bring him back to her.