The Joy Luck Club Characters Analysis
Suuyan Woo - She is the founder of the Joy Luck Club both in America as well as China. She had begun the club in China to create some hope in her own life as well as that of her friends. Suuyan had twin daughters with an officer in the Chinese army before she moved to America, but she was forced to abandon her twins during the Japanese invasion. Suuyan was forever haunted by the loss of her children, yet she tried to be a good mother to Jing-Mei when she had her in America. Jing-Mei learns the complete truth about her mother’s life only after her death when her mother’s friends urge her to go to China and tell the recently discovered Twins about their mother.
Jing-Mei Woo, June - Jing-Mei is Suuyan’s daughter, but they have a troubled relationship as June believes that her mother is disappointed in her because she is not a prodigy like her friend’s daughter, Waverly Jong. After Suuyan’s death, June gains a better understanding of her mother’s character and grows to accept the love that her mother had always felt for her.
An-Mei Hsu - She grows up in the Chinese countryside with her grandmother and uncle’s family without her mother. Her grandmother and uncle hate her mother because she brought dishonor to the family by becoming the third concubine to a rich merchant. An-Mei learns to appreciate her mother when she goes to live with her in the city and learns of how she had been forced to live a life of dishonor and pain until she kills herself to liberate her children.
Rose-Hsu Jordan - Rose suffers a great trauma at a young age when she fails to look after her youngest brother Bing, who ends up dying by drowning in the sea. In later life, Rose has a difficult time making decisions, and although at first her marriage with Ted seems perfect, he soon grows distant from her and asks for a divorce. Rose learns to stand up for herself with promptings from her mother.
Lindo Jong - Lindo spends the early years of her life living in the house of her betrothed, and being treated like a servant. She perseveres through the difficult conditions and liberates herself from the relationship without bringing any dishonor to her family. She moves to America and works in a fortune cookie factory until she gets married to her husband.
Waverly Jong - Waverly is a gifted Chess player from a very small age so much so that she becomes a national champion before turning 10. Lindo is very involved in Waverly’s training for chess competitions, but Waverly doesn’t like how her mother shows off her involvement with her chess. Waverly begins to perceive her mother in a very bad light, and this continues well into her thirties just as she is preparing to marry Rich.
Ying-Ying St. Clair - She comes from a very rich Chinese family and is exposed to a very traumatic experience of being separated from her festival during a Chinese festival. Later in her life, she marries a man who turns out to be an adulterer. She leaves him and aborts his child. She meets an English man in Shanghai and allows him to believe that he is rescuing her from poverty. In America, she suffers from yet another miscarriage after Lena’s birth.
Lena St. Clair - Lena is deeply scarred by her mother’s past and her depression, and she grows to have severe self-esteem problems. Lena’s marriage with Harold involves constant mathematical calculations as he insists on ensuring that they keep their finances completely separate. Lena stands up for herself against Harold after her mother points out the unfairness and oddness in her relationship with her husband.
