Quote- "So we decided to hold parties and pretend each week had become the new year. Each week we could forget past wrongs done to us. We weren't allowed to think a bad thought. We feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories. And each week, we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy. And that's how we came to call our little parties Joy Luck." (25)
Jing-mei, the main character, is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant to San Francisco. Her mother and three other women began the Joy Luck Club. In a time of oppression and warfare between China and Japan, these women met to bring feelings of hope and joy into a dark, painful period in their society. This quote effectively explains what the Joy Luck Club entailed and it's purpose. A similar situation in American history is relatable to this quote. Many Africans were enslaved in the American colonies throughout the eighteenth century. While these slaves were treated brutally and faced oppression and adversity, they found joy and hope through their cultural roots. They used music, dance, religion, and oral tradition to illustrate the resilience of the human spirit under bondage. They threw celebrations in slave quarters with song and dance. These parties and their strong sense of community allowed them to experience hope and joy even under bondage.
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| This eighteenth-century painting depicts a celebration in the slave quarters on a South Carolina plantation |
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