Discuss the significance of the chapter titles of the novel in regard to theme in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.

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                G. Halliwell

Garreth Halliwell

Professor Southard

EG13 1091

October 11

A-Discuss the significance of the chapter titles of the novel in regard to theme.

        In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, as in most other existing novels, the titles of each chapter holds a distinct significance in regard to the content of that chapter. It could be argued that Amy Tan selects the words for her titles carefully in order to attain the highest level of analogical, and metaphoric purpose from them. An analysis of each of the chapter titles in regard to the main ideas and messages Amy Tan is putting across highlights the purpose of each of them, and displays the metaphoric and analogical concepts that each hold.

        The title of the first chapter is a repetition of the title of the book. Amy Tan probably does this deliberately so as to focus the reader. The title itself, The Joy Luck Club, directly refers to the name of a club formed by all the four mothers in the book. At this club, all the mothers who are the co-main characters in the book are members. Around the Mah Jong table, the four women gossip and gamble. This is the most likely cause of the name, The Joy Luck Club, in the way that it was fun and enjoyable talking and telling tales, but one also needed luck in order to win the games of Mah Jong. The Joy Luck Club is founded by the women immigrants, so as to keep a part of Chinese tradition alive in the new world they were in. This is backed up partially by the quote in the book, “My mother started the San Francisco version of the Joy Luck Club in 1949” (6). The chapter is mainly focusing on the human needs to be surrounded with feelings of familiarity; the reason the club was founded in America.

        Scar is the title of the second chapter. As a representation of the sequences in the chapter, the title gives us a good basis as of what to expect in the chapter. For example, a scar is the result from someone receiving a deep wound. This is the case as the plot in this part of the book is about a little girl who gets burnt, has a mother who left her, and whom she eventually sees again. The title also holds an analogy. That is the analogy of the emotional healing process. Amy Tan uses this analogy in describing the pain inflicted upon the girl, by the mother, in relation to the pain inflicted on the girl by the hot soup. This analogical and metaphoric purpose Amy Tan intends with this can be directly drawn from the chapter itself

In two years time, my scar became pale and shiny and I had no memory of my mother. That is the way the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain(40)

This seems to be the way, in the human emotional and physical healing process, it takes time.

        Amy Tan uses the title, The Red Candle for her third chapter. In the plot of this part, a daughter of one family is being married to a man from another family. In the festivities, it is Chinese tradition to light a candle that has two ends. This represents the longevity of the marriage, and the commitment of the two involved. As the main plot in the chapter is the marriage the title reflects the content, and so is another good selection by Amy Tan. In regard to the theme of this chapter, the red candle, is representing the strength of the marriage, stated in the book, “That red candle was supposed to seal me to my husband and his family, no excuses afterward”(55). If the candle goes out the marriage is not strong, where as if it doesn’t the marriage can never be broken, “’This candle burned continuously at both ends without going out. This marriage can never be broken’”(54). As the burning candle represents the impermanence of a marriage, as there is no way a candle, in the situation as the one in the book, could burn to the end without going out, the girl who actually blows it out, along with the wind, and the servant who leaves the candle unattended all represent the intangible forces a marriage encounters. In all, the red candle has a very metaphoric purpose in this chapter, as a title, and theme.

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The Moon Lady is the title of the next chapter. The title comes directly from the name given to a particular demigod in the Chinese tradition. As the plot of this area focuses mainly on the Moon festival, celebrating the Moon Lady, and the little girls wish to the Moon Lady, it would appear that Amy Tan has chosen an appropriate title for this part. The main idea the author is trying to put across here is the reliance and desire for hope that human society has. Therefore beliefs that support the idea of hope, even in an irrational form, such ...

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