Pluralism, Acculturation and Assimilation in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

The purpose of this paper is to investigate pluralism, acculturation and assimilation in Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club (1989). In this successful novel, Amy Tan, as a Chinese American, masterfully managed to portray the Chinese experience in the United States through two generations represented by four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four American- born daughters. Despite the fact that the Chinese mothers stuck firmly to their Chinese cultural heritage, they eventually managed to make some sort of compromise between their Chinese culture and the American way of life. Consequently, they adopted a pluralistic identity. In the meantime, though their American- born daughters assimilated into American culture, and continually ridiculed Chinese culture, towards the end of the novel, they accepted some of the Chinese cultural heritage. In fact, the theories of pluralism, acculturation and assimilation are applicable to Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. The Chinese mothers adopted pluralism whereas their American- born daughters embraced acculturation and assimilation though, as they matured, they perceived the great worth of their Chinese cultural heritage, and managed to strike a balance between their ethnic culture and the American culture. In this novel, Amy Tan actually affirms the indispensability of one's ethnic culture, along with the American way of life; subsequently, she recommends pluralism. The great merit of the novel, really resides in the fact that Amy Tan's approval of pluralism can be applied to any ethnic group.