The Joy Luck Club Literary Techniques

Metaphor “And when my brother shouted that Auntie was a talking chicken without a head, she pushed my brother against the gate and spat on his face” (Tan 44). The respect to your elderlies and family members is very significant to the book. Auntie is very strict on the children and has high expectations.

simile “I tried to keep very still, but my heart felt like crickets scratching to get out of a cage” (Tan 22). Family is a very important theme in the book. At this point, An-mei sees her mother and old memories come flooding back to her.

personification “And then the clouds would move just a little and the hills would suddenly become monstrous elephants marching slowly toward me!” (Tan 21). At this point, the hills and peaks are imagined as objects coming to life.

onomatopoeia “Outside I could hear the bombing. Boom! Boom!” (Tan 22). Life was very difficult during the time period of this book. Living in a time of war came along with several hardships.

alliteration “In those days, before my mother told me her Kweilin story, I imagined Joy Luck was a shameful Chinese custom, like the secret gathering of the Ku Klux Klan or the tom-tom dances of TV Indians preparing for war” (Tan 28). The Joy Luck Club brought pleasure to the women while they lived in a horrible town. It provided a break from all the negativity,

hyperbole “I thought up Joy Luck on a summer night that was so hot even the moths fainted to the ground, their wings were so heavy with the damp heat” (Tan 23). Joy Luck means exactly what it is called. The club brings joy and happiness to the women.

irony “I was crying and I was afraid she would tell Huang Taitai. So I gave a big smile and shouted, 'What a lucky girl I am. I'm going to have the best life‘” (Tan 50). The crying needed to be covered up before trouble happened. A fake and cheesy response was given to do so.

foreshadowing “’What use for?’” asks my mother, jiggling the table with her hand. ‘You put something else on top, everything fall down. Chunwang chihan" (Tan 178). Amy Tan was foreshadowing the collapse of Lena and Harold’s marriage. Everything was falling down, just like their marriage.

simile “She backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless” (Tan 153). Suyuan Woo was very hurt when her daughter said she wished she was never born. She became upset and defeated.

personification “The chess board seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled. The chess men were more powerful than Old Li’s magic herbs that cured ancestral curses” (Tan 93). Things were building up. The existing tension needed yo be alleviated.