The Joy Luck Club, four women, who were once each four daughters, come from four different families, and have four different stories to tell the reader about. It’s 1949 and four Chinese immigrants move to San Francisco. They prepare their own dishes to share, talk story, and play mahjong. The four women speak of their pasts and reveal surprises never told before. The story follows Jing Mei Woo, who is the youngest member of the Joy Luck Club and is there to replace her recently deceased mother, the story follows her and then it disperses into the back stories of the other women. I feel that the theme of the story is that nothing is as it seems. “And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges running wild in every direction” (Amy Chp 11), Rose is speaking metaphorically, how the edges were her misconception of her marriage and how the weeds spilling over represents the nasty, unwanted, truth behind it. That it’s not good to marry a man who walks all over you. “I wanted my children to have the best combination; American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?” (Amy Chp 15). Lindo Jong speaks of her daughter who has become fully immersed in the American lifestyle. For some reason she didn’t realize the impossibility of the two immensely diverse cultures mixing into one girl. Throughout the story many things do not go in the favor of the members of the “Joy Luck Club”. What
