The Theme of Girl Power in Joy Luck Club and Taste of Honey :: Joy Luck Club Taste of Honey Amy Tan Essays

The Theme of Girl Power in Joy Luck beau monde and Taste of making loveJoy Luck Club and Taste of HoneyWomens rights is an issue of serious interest in much of todaysliterature. As more women take the pen in hand more and more femalecharacters take center stage in the stories they write. The newestterm for this focus on the powerful heroine is called Girl Power andthis strength of persona shtup be seen in two pieces of literature inparticular. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, and A Taste of Honey, byShelagh Delaney.In the Joy Luck Club Amy Tan write about the lives of four set aboutsfrom China who pass their lives wisdom d confess to their daughters whoare growing up on the outside shores of California, USA. Each ofthese women have a story to tell about growing up in the patriarchalsociety of china, how they overcame the stifling environment they grewup in and how they survived and escaped to the new world as itwere. The story of An Mei, Waverly Jongs mother, is an excellent exam ple ofhow women can take control of the situations that are forced upon themand make their lives better. In the novel An Mei is s one-time(a) into amarriage at the age of four. At fifteen, on her wedding day shediscovers she has been get hitched with to 13 year old boy, who no more wantsto be a husband than he does a father. An Mei is forced to sleep onthe floor and treated to the derisive comments and punishments of hermother in law when she fails to produce a child. However, overhearing a house servant who found herself pregnant, she devises a planto escape her ill-fated emotional state and out-trick her lying child-groom. Sheuses the superstitions of the traditional Chinese and her clever witto win a ticket out of the loveless marriage and back to Shanghaiwith her family. This tale, re-told by An Mei, shows how woman, pull downin dire situations, can take charge of their lives and make the mostof what they have.Rose Hsu Jordan is another one of Tans Characters that really take scharge of her living just when it seems she would be swallowed whole bya mans world. In this present day tale, a young woman find herselfmarried to man whose opinions she has grown to value above her own. She has forgotten how to value herself and fallen prey to the pitfallof pleasing her husband before taking care of her own needs.