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In the well-known 2009 movie UP directed by Pete Doctor, a young Carl Fredrickson befriends a girl named Ellie and the two become inseparable. We experience the blossoming love and then the marriage of the two, they happily live together and fantasize about a future living in their dream home on top of paradise falls. As they live their life they forget about their youthful dream and Ellie becomes sick and dies, Carl is devastated and becomes lonely and depressed but when the city tries to reclaim his house to build a new apartment complex, he decides to fulfill their dream and fly away in his house to paradise falls by attaching balloons to the roof (Up). After Mr. Fredrickson’s loss, he is devastated but through his sorrow, he learns to stand up and fly toward the sun similar to the characters Lindo Jong, An-mei Hsu, and Rose Hsu in the heartfelt novel, The Joy Luck Club. In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the characters Lindo Jong, An-mei Hsu, and Rose Hsu become stronger and grow in spirit after losing a loved one, proving grief brings out a person’s greatest inner strength and spirit.

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In the famous 1991 movie, Beauty and the Beast, Belle is known for her empathetic and kindhearted nature when she sacrifices herself for the protection of her father. Belle gives up her freedom and all her responsibilities to takes the place of her elderly father who is imprisoned in the Beast’s castle. Belle did not know how long she would be trapped or what would happen to her, but she was willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of her father’s life, which eventually resulted in her happily ever after with the Beast. Similar to Belle’s personality, in the novel, The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan, the characters Lindo, Suyuan & An-Mei’s mother, sacrifice themselves to protect their families showing that great achievement is born of great sacrifice.

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·         Martin Luther King once said, “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” In this beautiful quote, King suggests that the ending might not be known, but when people believe they get closer to the ending. Such strong beliefs can be shown in The Joy Luck Club. In Amy Tan’s novel Bing’s, Sooyun’s, and Lena’s story show how faith pulls us through our darkest times.

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In literature, courage is defined as, “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous” (Letourneau 2016). Generally, courage is portrayed when one finds the mental strength to face a fear and make an implausible decision. Readers can grasp the idea of courage all throughout the novel, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Throughout the story, the characters, Waverly, An-Mei, and Rose illustrate that courage is necessary when facing adversaries.

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Stephan Chbosky, author of Perks of Being a Wallflower, wrote “We accept the love we think we deserve.” (24) In this open-ended statement, Chbosky leaves us wondering the ways that our mindset affects the direction we go about our lives. Events that people experience, good or bad, create different paths that they then get to choose where to move forward in life. Similarly, in the agony fueled novel The Joy Luck Club, author Amy Tan portrays individual trauma through An-Mei’s mother, An-Mei, and Jing-Mei’s stories, showing how trauma causes some to flourish while others are negatively inflicted.

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In the Brothers Grimm story Cinderella, Cinderella and the people in her village demonstrate roles of women in multiple aspects of society. When the prince comes to Cinderella’s house, her stepmother instructs her stepsisters to cut their heels and toes off to fit their feet in the slipper and marry the prince. This moment illustrates the role women have in aspects of society similarly to The Joy Luck Club. In The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the novel illustrates that the role of women in Chines culture greatly differs from modern American culture shown through a woman’s place in marriages, families, and society.

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Throughout the television series Gilmore Girls, Emily Gilmore constantly applies pressure to her daughter Lorelai’s life, and later her grand-daughter, Rory’s. By withstanding a prestigious reputation, Emily persists that Lorelai and Rory must live their life a certain, proper way, with Lorelai marrying a man from a high class and Rory attending Harvard. High expectations lead to future insecurities between both daughters, similar to those exhibited in Amy Tan’s celebrated novel, The Joy Luck Club. In the work, Waverly and June express to readers how pressure and high expectations from family can lead to anxiety and insecurities.

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In the Disney film Beauty and the Beast, Belle’s father is missing, and in the act of trying to find him, Belle demonstrates an immense amount of sacrifice. By generously surrendering her freedom to save her father from imprisonment in a castle by a beast. Once Belle’s father becomes violently ill, she quickly volunteers to take his place in the castle prison. Belle’s selfless actions not only save her father’s life but pave the way for the curse inflicted on the Beast and his servants to be broken. Similar to the love shown by some of the mothers in Amy Tan’s renowned novel The Joy Luck Club. Characters such as Lindo Jong, An-Mei Hsu’s mother, and Suyuan Woo show their selfless love in their own sacrificial ways and strengthens paths for the daughters and offers the next generations a possibility to grow.  In the novel The Joy Luck Club, author Amy Tan relays the idea that sacrifice is the ultimate form of love through the sufferings of Lindo Jong, An-Mei Hsu’s mother, and Suyuan Woo.

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Ella Mancuso:                                                                  In the Disney Film, The Lion King, Simba demonstrates how trauma can affect one’s life due to the death of a loved one. When Simba helplessly watches his uncle, Scar, push his father of a cliff to his death, it leaves Simba with the guilt that he should have listened and obeyed his father all along, which then results in Simba running away from home. Simba’s trauma to the death of a family member is similar to the trauma shown by many characters in Amy Tan’s engrossing novel The Joy Luck Club. In the work, character such as Jing-mei “June” Woo, An-mei Hsu, and Rose Hsu Jordan exemplify the impact trauma has on one’s life through the death of an immediate family member.  

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Ella Mancuso:                                                                  In the Disney Film, The Lion King, Simba demonstrates how trauma can affect one’s life due to the death of a loved one. When Simba helplessly watches his uncle, Scar, push his father of a cliff to his death, it leaves Simba with the guilt that he should have listened and obeyed his father all along, which then results in Simba running away from home. Simba’s trauma to the death of a family member is similar to the trauma shown by many characters in Amy Tan’s engrossing novel The Joy Luck Club. In the work, character such as Jing-mei “June” Woo, An-mei Hsu, and Rose Hsu Jordan exemplify the impact trauma has on one’s life through the death of an immediate family member.  

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The bond between mother and daughter is nearly unbreakable. However, in the Joy Luck Club, this bond is challenged. The hardships of immigration and the adversities that proceed it strain this bond. In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the barrier between Chinese culture divides first generation immigrant daughters from their mothers, creating distance, misunderstanding, and missed opportunities.

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In the Disney movie Brave Princess Merida and her mother, Queen Elinor, fight through a big hurdle in their relationship. After a disagreement over marriage, Merida tries to change her mother’s attitude with a spell, but accidentally turns her into a bear. Merida repents for her trickery, which heals Elinor, and now the two have grown closer and more understanding than they ever were before (Andrews). This unbreakable bond between mother and daughter is also illustrated in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. In this best-selling novel Suyuan's sacrifice, Waverly's relationships, and An mei's mother's determination prove that mothers and daughters' connections are infinitely strong, even through dreadful hardship.

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In the Disney film The Lion King, the heir to his father’s throne, Simba, portrays one’s finding of inner strength after persevering through affliction. After Scar, Simba’s uncle, kills Simba’s father, Mufasa, and attempts to murder Simba, Simba flees to safety while Scar continues to seize the throne. However, Simba returns to take back his rightful throne not only for himself, but for his dear father as well. In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the characters Rose, An-mei, and Jing-mei display how invisible strength surfaces after one endures hardships.

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In the Disney movie Mulan, Mulan defies the gender expectations and roles of the time. When her father becomes ill, Mulan fears he will be drafted to the military, so she decides to step in for her dad despite any rules of the time regarding a woman’s ability to serve. Even at a physical disadvantage, she overcomes the hardships of training and listening to harsh critiques while appearing as a man, and she ends up being one of the top warriors in the Hun invasion. Since she disguises as a man, Mulan finds her own inner strength to overcome the comments of the men surrounding her and the challenges given by the chief to become one of the best and smartest on the battlefield. Just as Mulan endures through the situation given to her despite expectations of women, Amy Tan writes of strong women who endure in their given situations through the power of invisible strength. · In the novel The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan, proves invisible strength stems from endurance through hardships by the stories of Lindo Jong, Lena St. Clair, and An-Mei Hsu.

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In the Disney Channel Original Movie, Adventures in Babysitting, one of the main characters, Jenny, is often too strict. Through many twists and turns, and meeting a new friend, she learns that being too strict and balanced is not always for the best. Jenny learns that in order to truly live you must “throw caution to the wind” often. In the novel, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the stories of Ying-ying, Lena, and Lindo similarly illustrate that balance is not always beneficial.

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In the 2000’s teen drama Gossip Girl, Blair believes that Chuck has changed drastically after the death of his father, and she regrets not telling him that she was love with him when he was not grieving. This regret causes her to have a change of heart and tell Chuck how she feels, which inevitably begins their romance. The love that was confessed due to regret causes a positive shift in both of their lives, much like how regret fuels the character’s actions in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck club. In the novel, Rose, June, and Lena’s stories all illustrate the common theme that regret can change people for the better.

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In the novel Walden, Henry David Thoreau writes “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” In this quote, Thoreau is referencing being lost in the woods and finding oneself, but to many readers, this also references a deeper sense of disorientation that leads to an internal enlightenment. Thoreau suggests that in order to truly discover one’s character, some sort of struggle or hardship must occur. This idea is portrayed in the novel The Joy Luck Club when each character individually struggles to achieve introspection. In the novel, Amy Tan shows this through Lindo finding her determination through her first marriage, Lena finding her voice after being suppressed by the equality in her marriage, and Rose finding her strength after Ted cheats and wants a divorce, proving that the path to self-discovery is never easy.

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In the original Netflix film Enola Holmes, the complicated relationship of Enola and her mom persists even though Enola’s mom one day spontaneously left her for a good cause. Enola experiences the hardship of searching for her mom and finds clues along the way. Even through this hardship, their relationship persists due to the immense strength of their bond. The same theme of the strength of mother-daughter relationships persisting through hardships is shown in Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club. In this novel the author demonstrates the central theme of  strength of mother-daughter relationships, even though complicated, persevering through hardships which is shown in Lindo and Waverly's Jong’s head to head relationship becoming better in the end, June and Suyaun Woo’s connection to each other even after death, and An-Mei Hsu and her mom persevering and loving each other through tough challenges.

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In the 2021 Disney film Luca, sea monsters, Luca Paguro and Alberto Scorfano transform into humans when going on land to discover the town of Portorosso. The citizens of Portorosso detest sea monsters, so when Luca’s mother, Daniela Paguro, finds out where he goes, she is indignant. Daniela puts herself in danger and goes to Portorosso to find Luca, who does not understand her motivations to protect him. Finally, when Daniela finds Luca, he understands his mother’s determination to get him back safely. Daniela’s strive to rescue Luca in the film correlates to the mother-daughter relationships that remain strong in the novel. In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, a mother-daughter relationship will stay strong even through disagreements and hardships which is shown through Jing-mei and Suyuan, An-mei’s mother and Popo, and Lena and Ying-Ying.

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Researcher Jim Rendon found that “trauma can also be a powerful force for positive change.” This quote and the rest of the article prove that while trauma is a negative event that affects many people’s lives, it can also teach them something about how they interpret they world. They can apply this valuable lesson to their own lives for an effective improvement, just as the character Ann-Mei did in the novel, The Joy Luck Club. She finds the courage to use her voice to express herself even after having lived her childhood in a household where she was taught to endure alone and suffer in silence.

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In Sophocles’ ancient Greek play Antigone, the Sophocles demonstrates the importance of sacrifice for others through having the protagonist, Antigone, accept the consequences of giving her brother a proper burial. When King Creon sentences Antigone to execution, she secedes his power from by choosing to accept her death, rather than fight it. In the 1989 fiction novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Tan uses sacrifice to explore the topics of mother-daughter relationships and inner strength.