History Literature / TheJoyLuckClub

* BrokenBird: Young An-Mei, An-Mei's mother, Ying-ying.

* BreakTheCutie[=/=]BreakTheHaughty: Varying cases through all of the characters.

* HeroicSacrifice, MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning, ThanatosGambit [[XMeetsY all meet]]: An-mei's mother, trapped into a horrific marriage to her rapist, commits suicide by poison, but does so two days before the new year. Folklore states that the third day after death is when a spirit returns to settle old scores -- and you do ''not'' want a spirit angry with you on New Year's Day. An-mei's mother ensures her daughter and son will be cared for.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[InUniverse]] Lindo's mother-in-law cannot understand why her son hasn't [[IWantGrandchildren sired any children yet.]] It's because he hasn't hit puberty; he's physically too young to be a father.

* Adorkable: Tin Jong in "Double Face" could be counted as one after his proposal to Lindo. He speaks Cantonese and she speaks Mandarin but they're both learning English which is the only way they could speak to each other from the time despite it being both their second languages. It leads to some rather humorous dialogue between the two.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: "Together we look like our mother." [[Jing-Mei, finding her lost sisters.]]

The book centers around four mother-daughter pairs living in SanFrancisco. The mothers are Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. The daughters are, respectively, Jing-Mei (June) Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All of the mothers immigrated from China during their lives, and much of the book talks about their relationships with their mothers, with the exception of Suyuan Woo. The book is structured in sixteen chapters, each narrated in first person by one of the characters; the first four are told by the mothers, the next eight are told by the daughters, and the last four are told by the mothers, all with the exception of Suyuan Woo, who is dead at the beginning of the novel, so Jing-Mei takes her chapters. Most of each chapter is dedicated to a flashback of the narrator's childhood, usually regarding a particular incident or series of events involving that character's mother.

* HeroicSacrifice [[XMeetsY Meets]] MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: An-mei's mother, trapped into a horrific marriage to her rapist, commits suicide by poison, but does so two days before the new year. Folklore states that the third day after death is when a spirit returns to settle old scores -- and you do ''not'' want a spirit angry with you on New Year's Day. An-mei's mother ensures her daughter and son will be cared for.

* JerkWithHeartOfJerk: Rose grows to realize that Ted is self-centered, often blames the brunt of his issues on her, and ultimately tries to kick her out of her house, expecting her to react well to the news of his cheating and divorce.

* DefiledForever: An-mei's widowed mother is raped by a strange man, and is then forced to marry him because she is considered defiled.

* DrivenToSuicide: Well... it's a long story in the case of An-Mei's mother.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter" Girl]]: Waverly and Jing-Mei feel this about their mothers, who constantly compared each of their daughters to the other's.

* [[YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX You Know What They Say About Asians]]: Again implied by Mrs Jordan to Rose.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Most prominent in Suyuan's story.

* MementoMacguffin: The jade necklaces.

* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Waverly and Jing-Mei feel this about their mothers, who constantly compared each of their daughters to the other's.
* WorldWarTwo: Most prominent in Suyuan's story.

* TrophyWife: Wu-Tsing engages in concubinage a few of them.

* PrecisionFStrike: Andrew [=McCarthy's=] character gives this to his own mother after she makes remarks towards Rose.

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's That Gal!]] Yep, the Dolman Elaan Herself as elderly Ying-ying. And Rose [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration signed up for Starfleet]], while Jing-Mei went to work in an ''{{ER}}''.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Yes, that is {{Mulan}}'s voice coming out of Jing-Mei. Lena is also [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Jinx and Gizmo]].

* PetTheDog: The introduction of Second Wife seems to be this. She gives An-Mei a "genuine" pearl necklace as a welcoming offer. Then An-Mei's exposes the necklace as fake to An-Mei, hinting to Second Wife's conniving and manipulative nature..

* RealitySubtext: [[http://authorlink.com/interview/part-1-amy-tan-revisits-joy-luck-club-in-latest-release-2014/ Amy Tan essentially lifted An-Mei's backstory from what she was told about and researched about the backstory of her grandmother]]. Ironically, ''both'' the victimized An-Mei's mother and the evil Second Wife are modeled after her grandmother's alleged mannerisms and backstory.

* AbusiveParents: Or rather, abusive aunt and uncle in young An-Mei's case. Lena thinks she encounters one in the apartment next to her as a child, but it turns out the mother and daughter are only playing.

* BrokenBird: Young An-Mei, Ying-ying.

** An-Mei's mother, due to her circumstances. She's later decides to take An-Mei so she could live a better life, ironically doing this again by abandoning An-Mei's younger brother (it's implied that taking him to the house where she served as a concubine could be frowned upon).
* PoorCommunicationKills: Mr. St. Clair could never understand his wife fully because of this, resulting in a marriage run mostly by tolerance than true love. Also a common case between the mothers and daughters.

* ParentalAbandonment: ''Entirely'' unwillingly, on [[spoiler: Suyuan's]] part.