《喜福会》中母爱主题的文化阐释.doc

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1、喜福会中母爱主题的文化阐释 AbstractThe Joy Luck Club is written by Amy Tan，a famous Chinese American writer. In the novel, she presents the stories of four Chinese-immigrant women and their American-born daughters. Each of the four Chinese women has her own view of the world based on her experiences in China and

2、 wants to share her experiences with her daughter, and they never cease to try to build a bridge over the cultural differences and conflicts between them and their daughters with their maternal love of various forms. At first the daughters dont understand their mothers and the Chinese culture that t

3、heir mothers represent, but as time elapses, the daughters begin to understand and appreciate their mothers past and accept their mothers in the end. In fact, it is the maternal love the Joy Luck Club mothers extend to their daughters that finally makes their daughters understand them and the Chines

4、e culture that they represent. In this sense, the maternal love not only symbolizes Chinese culture, but more importantly serves as a bridge over the mothers and daughters, and over Chinese culture and American culture.Key WordsThe Joy Luck Club; conflicts; understanding; culture; maternal love 

5、;摘要喜福会是美国著名的华裔女作家谭恩美的代表作品。在小说中,她呈现给读者的是四位移民母亲与她们女儿之间的故事。这四位母亲都有着自己的世界观，她们的世界观又是立足于她们的中国生活经历。她们想把自己的经历一一讲述给女儿,并努力通过母爱的表达在她们与女儿的文化差异和冲突之间建立起沟通的桥梁。起初女儿们不能理解她们的母亲及其代表的中国文化,但随着时间的流逝,女儿们开始理解她们的母亲,同情她们母亲的悲惨过去并最终接受了她们的母亲。事实上，正是喜福会中母亲给予女儿们无微不至的母爱才最终使得女儿们理解了她们的母亲及其代表的中国文化。因而, 喜福会中的母爱不仅是中国文化的象征,更重要的是母女理解与沟通的桥梁

6、，也是中美文化交流的桥梁。关键词喜福会；冲突；理解；文化；母爱   IntroductionAmy Tans the Joy Luck Club is a masterpiece in Chinese-American literature. The Joy Luck Club mothers and their daughters have been the focus of research ever since the publication of this book. Some researchers put the emphasis on the rel

7、ationship between the mothers and daughters while some others believe that it is the writing style that makes Amy Tans the Joy Luck Club a success. For there are conflicts that have been vividly described in this book, some researchers make the conflicts in the Joy Luck Club the theme of their thesi

8、s. However, in this thesis, maternal love will be the theme, and it will be interpreted from a cultural point of view.Through the stories of the Joy Luck Club, the secret-laden lives of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters are shown in front of the readers. The daughters

9、reject their mothers seemingly constant criticism of everything they choose, from husbands to hairdos. They view their mothers warnings as irrelevant, and their advice as intrusive. The daughters do not know what has inspired their warnings and advice: the hardships their mothers suffered in China b

10、efore coming to the United States. Thus, as the mothers see it, their daughters are flailing in their modern American circumstances, unable to use what is “in their bones,” the familys inheritance of pain that led to their determined strength for survival, which their mothers try to bequeath them. T

11、he mothers, meanwhile, watch with heartache as their daughters marriages fail, as they expect less and less and so accept less and less. Conflicts have become something that prevents the understanding and communication between mothers and daughters. In fact, all the conflicts are caused by cultural

12、differences. The Joy Luck Club mothers have accepted and been deeply influenced by Chinese culture, while their daughters are born and grow up in the United States and know little about Chinese culture. What they have accepted is the American mainstream culture which is somehow contradictory with Ch

13、inese culture.However, due to the maternal love of the Joy Luck Club mothers, the mothers and daughters finally understand each other. The maternal love in the Joy Luck Club helps the daughters understand their mothers; furthermore, its significance lies in that it serves as a bridge of cultural und

14、erstanding between Chinese culture and American culture. I. Conflicts Between Mothers and Daughtersin the Joy Luck ClubConflict is the main plot in the Joy Luck Club. Because the two generations are born and grow up in different cultural environments, the Joy Luck Club mothers and their daughte

15、rs have many conflicts. The mothers are deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese culture, while their daughters are born and get educated in the United States, whose culture is a completely different one. Thus the Joy Luck Club mothers and daughter can never understand each other. The daughters

16、at first have a strong prejudice against their mothers and the Chinese culture. Born in the United States and brought up in American mainstream culture, they inevitably hold a prejudice against their mothers and the Chinese culture. They believe that American culture is superior to Chinese culture.

17、In their eyes, their mothers symbolize backwardness and ignorance. They are dissatisfied with their mothers who use toothpick in public. They are ashamed of their mothers who open jars to smell the insides in grocery stores and they are angry with their mothers who like to use them to show off. Natu

18、rally the four daughters try to identify themselves with American mainstream culture. Both Rose and Lena marry Americans or what their mothers call Waiguoren. They admire the Americans and their culture so much that they are willing to make sacrifice for their American husbands. Waverly thinks that

19、her mothers Chinese outlook would make her lose face when she attends her wedding, so she conspires with her beauty parlor to dress up her mother in an American style. The Joy Luck Club mothers intervene so much in their daughters life that the daughters feel their mothers love is not embracing but

20、suffocating. Waverly, a chess prodigy thinks she has grown cleverer than her mother who gives her “invisible strength.” Lena fears being drawn into her mothers madness and consoles herself by imagining others who have a life worse than hers. Rose, whose mother cannot let go of the memory of her son

21、who drowned, now believes that by hoping for less, one isnt vulnerable to loss. And June believes it is her mothers impossibly high expectations that make her feel that even today, she is a failure.On the other hand, for the Joy Luck Club mothers, they also cannot understand some behaviors of their

22、American-born daughters. Their behaviors are so different from their mothers culture that their mothers even feel distain about the American culture. Ying-ying cant bear the go-Dutch rule between Lena and her husband. Under the rule, the couple only pays for their common life expenditures that both

23、of them have to use in their daily life. If they want to buy some personal commodities, they must pay for themselves. This is no surprise in the western countries, especially in the U.S.  But according to the Chinese culture in which their mothers were born and grew up, its unacceptable. A marr

24、ied Chinese couple cannot calculate the family financial expenditure so clearly; they must share the burden together. When (Jing-mei) Woo quarrels with her mother Suyuan, Suyuan says in Chinese, “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind o

25、f daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter! ” (Tan 124). Because in Chinese culture, children must obey their parents without any excuse. So when June makes her mother angry, Suyuan bursts out these Chinese characters. Due to the cultural differences, the Joy Luck Club mothers and daughter

26、s have many barriers in communication and understanding, and these barriers cannot be elated in a short period. For quite a long time, the Joy Luck Club mothers, who live in the United States as minority groups, are overwhelmed by American mainstream society, but they make great efforts to make thei

27、r daughters understand them and the Chinese culture. They chat with their daughters about their past experiences and impart maternal love to their daughters, patiently waiting for the moment when their daughters can understand and respect them and the Chinese culture. Finally thanks to their materna

28、l love they imparted to their daughters and the same blood that flows in their bodies, the Joy Luck Club mothers are able to make their daughters know and understand them and the Chinese culture.II. Maternal Love in the Joy Luck ClubEvery mother loves her child or children. Although the Joy Luck Clu

29、b mothers are very strict with their daughters, they still love their daughters. And the maternal love the four mothers impart to their daughters is just a typical Chinese one. The maternal love of Chinese mothers is not as direct as that of American mothers. Chinese mothers do not kiss and hug thei

30、r daughters and say “I love you” to them like their American counterparts. (Yu Longyu 173).The Joy Luck Club mothers all love their daughters in a Chinese way. First, just as the woman in the preface of the Feathers From A Thousand Li Away cooes to her swan, In America I will have a daughter just li

31、ke me. But over there nobody will measured bythe 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! She will know my meaning, because I wil

32、l give her thisswana creature that became more than what was hoped for.  (Tan 3 )., the Joy Luck Club mothers put high expectations upon their daughters. They hope their daughters will become successful. They begin to plan for their daughters future since they are children. They dont care wheth

33、er their daughters like the plan or not, because in traditional Chinese culture, sons and daughters must obey their parents, and they cannot rebel against the parents. If they do this, it is filial impiety, and they will be criticized by the family members and the neighbors and the society. Although

34、 the Joy Luck Club mothers have immigrated to the U.S, a brand-new country, their concept of the Chinese culture cannot be left behind in China. Both Suyuan and Lindo put great hope to their adolescent daughters. Suyuan hopes that one day her daughter will become famous like Shirley Temple. In order

35、 to turn her dream into reality, she lets Jingmei do lots of intelligence test that she has colleted from some magazines. She even trades housecleaning service for weekly piano lessons for her daughter Jingmei. Lindo wants her daughter Waverly to win as many champions as possible in chess games. Whe

36、n Waverly is practicing the chess game skills, she always stands behind Waverly, although she doesnt know too much about chess. She arranges timetables for her daughter and she even asks Waverlys brothers to clean the dish after supper, which is what Waverly has to do before she becomes a famous chess player in her district.