The female sense of self-reliance and self-improvement in The Joy Luck Club

Abstract：Amy Tan is a famous Chinese-American female writer. She started writing novels when she was 33 years old. Her first novel “The Joy Luck Club” was published in 1989 and the novel is based on her mother and her grandmother `s personal experience. 

　　　The book made a great success and established her reputation in the American literary world, once it was published. The novel tells a story about four Chinese immigrant women and their American-born daughter’s stories. Each of the four mothers experienced an unhappy marriage in the old China and their American daughters are unhappy in their own way in the United States. Although these women encounter every kind of difficulty in their pursuit of happiness, they use their talents and energies to overcome them and achieve success and happiness finally.

　　　Through their words and deeds, this paper is to interpret the experiences of three women of the novel, An-mei Hsu’s mother, Lindo Jong, the mother and Rose Hsu, a daughter, to let the world know that the self-reliance is not a male monopoly in this world and that a woman can be self-reliant, too. The three women don’t accept the arrangement of the fate and try hard to do what they can to change their fate. An-mei Hsu’s mother improves her and her daughter’s status in the family by sacrificing her life, Lindo Jong, the mother uses her wisdom to be a child bride no longer and restore freedom and Rose Hsu, the daughter gets her happy marriage again by finding herself again. 

　　　Their life experiences show us that a woman can and will surely have a new happy life and a better future if she does not accept her fate and fights bravely against her fate by whatever means. 

　　　A woman no longer needs to have others be the master of her fate but should and must be the master of her fate herself. A woman needs to be self-reliant, standing between the heaven and earth. 

Key words: The Joy Luck Club, female, wisdom, self-reliance，oneself 

摘要：谭恩美是著名的美籍华裔女作家。她从三十三岁开始写小说，1987年，谭恩美根据外婆和母亲的经历，写成了小说《喜福会》并于1989年出版该书，该书一出版就大获成功，奠定了她在文学界的声誉。

　　　该书描写了四位中国女性移居美国，以及她们各自在美国出生成长的女儿的经历。每一位母亲都有一段旧时代的婚姻的悲哀，她们的女儿也是如此。虽然这些女性在寻找幸福的过程中遇到了重重困难，但是她们勇于用自己的智慧和力量摆脱困境，最终得到了幸福。

    通过对几位女性独立寻求幸福经历的描写，谭恩美向读者揭示在这个世界上自立自强不是男人的专利，女人也要自立自强。

　　　本文旨在通过对喜福会的文本解读，解析喜福会中三位女性：许安梅，龚林达，许露丝遭受磨难和挫折后如何争取自立自强的过程。她们没有听从命运的安排，而是在顽强地跟命运抗争后改变了命运，并且获得新的人生和幸福。

　　　女性的命运不能由他人决定，不能认命，女儿当自强，立足于天地。

关键词：喜福会 女性  自立自强  智慧 自我

注：本文全文为英语所写的英语论文。只有摘要是中英语写的，全文为英文。