MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS’ HYBRID IDENTITY IN AMY TAN’S THE JOY LUCK CLUB

Abstract

Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is an exploration of different identities that are experienced by migration families in the United States. It happens to the mothers and daughters’ life as main characters. Mothers still preserve their culture although they have lived in a new country. It can be concluded that the mothers do not fully accept American custom. While their daughters as Asian-American have been influenced by American culture. Even, for them, their mothers’ culture has been ancient. Based on the description above, I am interested to analyse hybrid identity by using Bhabha’s theory about hybridity. This thesis is a qualitative research. This research aims to describe the process of hybridity in The Joy Luck Club as a postcolonial issue. Mothers’ experience as new comers in the United States and conflict experienced by daughters with their mothers lead to the first analysis through Bhabha’s concept about unhomeliness and then the way mothers and daughters use to solve their conflict because of difference of perspective leads to the next analysis through Bhabha’s concept about mimicry to answer the first question. The next step of analysis is reading hybridity in The Joy Luck Club especially the mimicry process that leads it to the hybridity. This research concludes that hibridity finally is able to bridge the different identities between mothers and daughters. The consequence of hybridity is that there is no authentic identity. By depicting these characters represented by the mothers and the daughters, this novel indirectly, implies the impossibility to identify an authentic identity. Moreover, this novel shows that hybrid persons are able to create their own identity. It is partial Chinese and partial American.