喜福會joyluckclubconflictsandblendingbetweenAmericanandChineseculture英語畢業(yè)論文

1、作 者 聲 明我鄭重聲明：本人恪守學(xué)術(shù)道德，崇尚嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)學(xué)風(fēng)。所呈交的學(xué)位論文，是本人在導(dǎo)師的指導(dǎo)下，獨立進(jìn)行研究工作所取得的結(jié)果。除文中明確注明和引用的內(nèi)容外，本論文不包含任何他人已經(jīng)發(fā)表或撰寫過的內(nèi)容。論文為本人親自撰寫，并對所寫內(nèi)容負(fù)責(zé)。論文作者簽名：2011年5月31日題 目 conflict and blending between american daughters and their chinese mothers 2011年3月7日 至 2011年5月31日 共 13 周 院 系 外國語學(xué)院英語系 專業(yè)班級 英073 學(xué) 號 10071510 姓 名 王曉楠院長 系主任 教學(xué)科研

2、組主任教研組(研究室)主任 指導(dǎo)教師 2011年5月31日課題來源自 選課題的目的、意義本論文基于美國和中國地理、文化等差異對子女教育的深刻影響，探討了譚恩美的小說喜福會中的文化沖突，分析在文化差異的影響下如何平衡兩種文化、兩代人之間的矛盾。如今，全球化不斷加速，最新調(diào)查顯示亞裔已經(jīng)成為美國最大移民組成部分，中美不同的教育方式孰優(yōu)孰劣成為議論的焦點。譚恩美在喜福會中已經(jīng)發(fā)表了自己對中美文化沖突的一些獨特見解，今天再來梳理、解讀她的觀點，具有一定的實際價值和現(xiàn)實意義。要 求認(rèn)真閱讀小說原著，廣泛查找、閱讀參考資料和書籍，在領(lǐng)會理解的基礎(chǔ)上形成自己的觀點，并清晰、有邏輯性地闡釋自己的觀點。語言正確

3、地道，行文通順流暢。課題主要內(nèi)容及進(jìn)度本論文探討了談恩美小說喜福會中四對移民母親和美國化的女兒之間的矛盾背景、矛盾表現(xiàn)、矛盾原因、以及矛盾解決方案。這是探討解決與文化差異有關(guān)的文化沖突的一次頗有意義的嘗試。進(jìn)度： 2011年1月11日1月22日撰寫開題報告2011年1月22日交開題報告2011年1月23日3月6日 閱讀、整理文獻(xiàn)2011年3月 7日4月20日 撰寫論文初稿2011年4月21日5月31日 修改論文初稿/二稿/定稿等2011年6月 1日6月9日 評閱及盲審2011年6月10日 論文答辯注：以上各項由指導(dǎo)教師填寫conflict and blending between americ

4、an daughters and their chinese mothersa study of amy tans the joy luck clubby wang xiaonanunder the supervision of assoc. prof. chen lia thesis submitted tothe english department of school of foreign languageseast china university of science and technologyin partial fulfillment of the requirementsfo

5、r the degree of bachelor of artsjune 2011abstractdifference between chinese and western cultures has always been a main source of conflict between local people and citizens of chinese origin. in the joy luck club, amy tan describes the conflicts between the mothers and daughters to show us different

6、 culture traditions, perceptions of life, etc. between american and chinese culture. in the end, the two different cultures merge together. nowadays, with the development of globalization, more contacts require an effective way of communication to narrow the gap between different cultures. so, in th

7、is thesis, through systematic study of the joy luck club by analyzing what are the conflicts, and why they have conflicts, the author would like to dissect the main reasons of cultural conflicts and find proper ways in blending cultures.keywords: the joy luck club; culture; conflicts; communication摘

8、 要西方的中國移民和當(dāng)?shù)厝说拿芎艽蟪潭壬显从跂|西方文化的差異。在小說喜福會中，作者譚恩美在描寫母女矛盾時表達(dá)了不同的文化傳統(tǒng)、意識形態(tài)等的重要影響作用。在小說的結(jié)尾，母女的矛盾化解了，而原因大致可以歸納為：母親與生俱來的母愛和有效的溝通交流。如今，全球化加速，不同文化背景的人與人之間的接觸更多了,在這種情況下，尋找一種有效的交流方式就顯得格外重要。在這篇論文中，我將系統(tǒng)地對小說喜福會進(jìn)行研究分析。母女間矛盾是什么？為什么會有矛盾？同時，我將試圖通過以上分析為文化沖突最終找到合適的解決方法。關(guān)鍵詞：喜福會; 文化; 矛盾; 交流contentsabstracti摘 要iichapter one

9、 introduction1chapter two the mothers sufferings22.1 the sufferings of june woos mother -suyuan woo22.2 the sufferings of roses mother -an-mei hsu22.3 the sufferings of waverlys mother -lindo jong22.4 the sufferings of lenas mother -ying ying gu3chapter three conflicts43.1 conflicts between suyuan w

10、oo and june43.2 conflicts between an-mei hsu and rose53.3 conflicts between lindo jong and waverly63.4 conflicts between ying ying gu and lena st. clair6chapter four causes of the conflicts84.1 different forms of social organization84.2 different natural conditions94.3 different ways of expression10

11、chapter five blending125.1 maternal love in the joy luck club125.2 dialogue and effective communication in the joy luck club13chapter six conclusion15bibliography16acknowledgements17chapter one introduction the joy luck club (1989) was written by amy tan. it tells the conflicts and blending of four

12、pairs of mothers of china origin and daughters who grew up in america. the mothers start a club known as the joy luck club, playing the chinese game - mahjong for fun. this book has four parts divided into four sections creating sixteen chapters. this thesis which consists of six main chapters, will

13、 analyze the conflicts and blending between american and chinese cultures in the joy luck club. in the first chapter, i will briefly introduce the relationship networks and the main experience in china of the immigrant mothers. in the second chapter, i will summarize the conflicts between mothers an

14、d daughters respectively with the following key words: expectation, confidence, interference, and misunderstanding. in the following chapter, id like to analyze the reasons of the conflicts between mothers and daughters, including the different cultural traditions, different natural conditions, diff

15、erent social organization, and different ways of expression. in the last but one chapter, the way how they confront the conflicts and get along with each other finally will be my focus. in the last chapter, i will make a summary.the reason why i choose this novel and this topic is on the one hand, w

16、ith the globalization going far and fast, nowadays more and more people get the chance to live abroad. according to the latest figure release of the 2011 american study of population dynamics the chinese americans become the largest asian american ethnic groups, and in the past 10 years, chinese-ame

17、rican population increased by one third. so i believe my thesis has a realistic significance when more and more chinese come across culture shocks in the foreign countries. on the other hand, the style of education between china and america differs a lot. my thesis also tries to summarize the soluti

18、ons in solving the conflicts which are offered by the author by analyzing the specific conflicts of four pairs of mothers and daughters in the novel.chapter two the mothers sufferingsthe novel has a balanced structure. there are four sections, and four tales within each section. to make my thesis ea

19、sy to follow, id like to introduce the sufferings of the four mothers first, which actually lay the foundation for some of the conflicts and the flows of the plots.2.1 the sufferings of june woos mother -suyuan woojune woos chinese name was jing-mei woo, and she was an unmarried writer who decided t

20、o travel to china to meet the halfsisters she had never knownsuyuan woo was her motherduring the world war , suyuan took the kids to guangxi to seek safer shelter, where she and the other three women organized a joy luck club which relieved them of cares and worries. before long news came that the j

21、apanese army would invade kweilin, and then suyuan woo had to flee to chongqing with her twin daughters with no vehicles at all. however she was so exhausted that she dropped her twin daughters on the side of the road desperately. fortunately, she had a narrow escape with the help of an american mis

22、sionary, who took her to the hospital, in which she met luning woo and married him in america. 2.2 the sufferings of roses mother -an-mei hsuan-mei hsu was the mother of roseshe was the last of four best friends，who came to the us after seeing her own mother become the mistreated 4th wife of an abus

23、ive chinese businessman. when she was young, she was forced to follow her mother as a concubine to tianjin from ningbo. under the old rule of patriarchal ideology in chinese society, if a woman remarried, it would be a great shame to her and her family. therefore, her mothers status in the mansion w

24、as much lower than the other three wives. an-mei hsu deeply felt the pain of living off others. although finally she was relieved of jealousy and struggle of the large house, the free was at the cost of the life of her mother. 2.3 the sufferings of waverlys mother -lindo jongwaverly was a divorced a

25、ccountant and she had a new boyfriend, rich. lindo was her mother. she came to the united states after having escaped from a horrible arranged marriage with a 10-years-old boy when she was 13she lived in the north of china, where they had suffered natural disasters for several years, so her parents

26、had to let her get married early, while the other family members got away from the famine-stricken area. lindo jong married a useless rich kid by a matchmaker. unfortunately, she was not in that family a hostess, but a child bride, suffering a variety of insults. in order to preserve the secrets-sex

27、ual dysfunction-of their son, her parents-in-law gave money and set her free.2.4 the sufferings of lenas mother -ying ying gulena was a depressed and newly married woman whose husband, harold, was an american guyying ying, mother of lena, was suyuans another friend who came to the united states afte

28、r having been married to a cruel chinese manying ying gu came from a prosperous family. her husband was a playboy, and gave her such great physical and psychological damage that she killed her unborn child in desperation, and departed from her husband until he had died. later, she married an america

29、n soldier and began a new life. chapter three conflicts 3.1 conflicts between suyuan woo and junethe main conflict between suyuan woo and her daughter lies in that the mother had too much expectation for her daughter, while the daughter could not stand the great pressure.i extract the following two

30、typical paragraphs to illustrate it: you could be anything you wanted to be in america. you could open a restaurant. you could work for the government and get good retirement. you could buy a house with almost no money down. you could become rich. you could become instantly famous. (the joy luck clu

31、b p.132) “of course you can be prodigy. you can be best anything. (the joy luck club p.132)suyuan woo hoped that her daughter could live up to her expectations. her daughter becoming a chinese shirley temple was her first dream. she took her daughter to the image design salon, but unfortunately, it

32、didnt work. later she began to find other gifts from her daughter, every night she tried to find her daughters extraordinary character from the old magazines abandoned by others. when these failed, suyuan wanted to shape her daughter to be a famous pianist, although she was too poor to afford a pian

33、o. finally she managed to do some cleaning for a retired piano teacher and got the opportunity for her daughter. but her daughter was not pleased; she wanted to be herself, to be an ordinary person. she defied her mother many times. we could read her grievance from the following paragraph: why dont

34、you like me the way i am? i am not a genius! i cant play the piano. and even if i could, i wouldnt go on tv if you pay me a million dollars! (the joy luck club p.136) in the traditional chinese culture, parents wanted the best for their children. they believed that childrens success was their succes

35、s, and they would be very proud. the parents had the right to arrange their life, future and marriage, and children had to respect their parents. jing-mei woo was looking forward to the freedom of the western way of life, while her mother insisted to impose the tradition on her. only the obedient da

36、ughter can stay in this house (the joy luck club p.100). but her daughter did not think so, she believed she was not a slave to her mother, and this was not china, she had the right to enjoy as much democracy and equality as other white children. after the piano conflicts, their different modes of t

37、hinking caused by different cultural background had lasted for twenty years. they lived with their own values, until jing-mei came back to china, when she began to understand her mother.3.2 conflicts between an-mei hsu and rosethe main conflict between an-mei hsu and her daughter lies in confidence.

38、 the mother tended to be more confident and self-esteemed as a chinese. the daughter, however, suffered a sense of inferiority being a chinese. she disdained the chinese wisdom and always neglected her mothers opinions. rose never believed in her own ideas, so whenever her american husband asked for

39、 her opinion, she would reply, “you decide,” or “i dont care,” or “either way is fine with me.” with the belief that chinese people had the views of the chinese people; americans had the views of americans; the latter seemed to be better than the former. however, her husband ted was not happy with t

40、his. he criticized that refusing to make decisions meant firstly she had no personality, and secondly she would shoulder none of the responsibilities to avoid any blame. her mother an-mei hsu had experienced a miserable childhood, she hoped to educate her daughter with her own lesson. when she was y

41、oung, she was very timid and dependent on her stepfather, and it was her mothers death that awakened her, and then she noticed being independent with great courage counts more and refusing to be dictated by others would win more respect from others. so an-mei told rose that she should stand up brave

42、ly and learn to control the destiny of her own marriage. besides, being a chinese was not a shame, and each man was irreplaceable. but rose turned a deaf ear to her at the beginning. with this prejudice to chinese, when roses marriage came across difficulties, she preferred to confide them to her fr

43、iends, and even a psychiatrist rather than her mother, which made her mother very sad and depressed. and they had a heat quarrel on this issue. although at first, rose looked down upon her mothers opinion and would not take her advice into consideration. but in the end, fortunately, rose adopted her

44、 mothers advice. she made her first own decision during her marriage span and refused to sign the divorce agreement. it was a big shock to ted, and he discovered roses personality and confidence from her rejection and decided not to divorce her.3.3 conflicts between lindo jong and waverlythe main co

45、nflict between lindo jong and her daughter first lies in showing off her daughters achievements to others, which brought great aversion to her daughter. and the second one is what is the proper degree of interfering childrens private affairs. to get rid of the torture of old china, lindo came to the

46、 united states to seek a better material life, and more opportunities for her kids. lindo jong hoped her children to be a perfect combination and she never expected that blending was impossible. lindo jong hoped that her daughter could be outstanding, and she tried to train her daughter to be a ches

47、s master. proud of her daughters achievements, she often showed it off to the outsiders, which brought strong aversion to waverly. after a heated quarrel, their relationship began to tense up. although after the chess conflicts lindo jong did not intervene in her daughters life directly, still in he

48、r daughters marriage, she would not stand by. in the chinese tradition, parents have rights to interfere with this matter for the good of their kids. when lindo jong knew that waverly was older than her boyfriend, she felt negative to him because there was a chinese saying would rather find a male t

49、en years older to female one year older (the joy luck club p.146). besides, he was a white american, to which she was instinctively offensive as a chinese-american, who could not really integrate into the mainstream culture. she stuck to the ancient chinese customs and ideas, and she preferred tea t

50、o coffee. when waverly took her first boyfriend home, with the so-called unique insight her mother found that he lacked family responsibility, fickle in love, talked big, and did not care about his wife, etc. she even threw shoes to him to show her dislike. however, waverly could not understand her

51、mother at all. she believed it was her mother who ruined her first marriage, so this time she was afraid that she might once again destroyed her marriage. for decades, she never understood her mother, and she even mixed up taiyuan, the birthplace of her mother, with taiwan, because she had very litt

52、le knowledge of china, and she herself had been completely westernized. there are some typical details to illustrate it: firstly, she tried her best to get rid of her mothers interference in the free love. secondly, she had accepted the western way of life and cohabited with two boys. thirdly, she a

53、sked her parents to respect her private life, calling her is a must before visiting her house. 3.4 conflicts between ying ying gu and lena st. clairthe main conflicts between ying ying gu and her daughter lena st. clair is her misunderstanding of chinese people.on the one hand, she knew little about

54、 her mother, and looked down upon her with the prejudice that all of the chinese are impoverished. for example, in a store, her mother was shouted rudely by others, which made lena very embarrassed, and she lied to her mother who could not speek english: chinese people were not allowed to shop there

55、 ( the joy luck club p.106). on the other hand, she was afraid of chinese superstition. her mother once told her that her great-grandfather punished a person and suffered retaliation for his deed. since then, china in her mind had become a pretty savage place, and she even asked her mother: “did the

56、y slice off his skin first? did they use a cleaver to chop up his bones? did he scream and feel all one thousand cuts (the joy luck club p.102)? her mother was very angry with her misunderstanding of her great-grandfather. the conflicts varied among four pairs of mothers and daughters. suyuan woo ex

57、pected too much for her daughter, which imposed breathless pressure on her. an-mei hsu tried to teach her daughter to be more confident and self-esteemed as a chinese, however, her daughter felt inferior to those americans and she always followed her husbands advice without regard to her own persona

58、lity. the conflict between lindo jong and her daughter, who interpreted the so-called maternal love as superfluous action, lied in what was an acceptable degree of interfering with her private affairs. besides, the daughter was negative to her mothers showing off. ying ying gus daughter misunderstood the chinese people with the prejudice that th