The Joy Luck Club

by Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club: Unreliable Narrator 1 key example

Part 3, Chapter 2: Four Directions
Explanation and Analysis—Just an Old Woman:

In a novel with as many different voices as those in The Joy Luck Club, disagreements and misunderstandings may be inevitable. Characters quibble, offer competing perspectives, and—in doing so—question their own narrative reliability. Feeling slighted by her mother, for instance, Waverly confronts Lindo Jong to talk about Rich in Part 3, Chapter 2. In the end, she merely confronts the limitations of her own perceptions:

‘Ai-ya, why do you think these bad things about me?’ Her face looked old and full of sorrow. ‘So you think your mother is this bad. You think I have a secret meaning. But it is you who has this meaning. Ai-ya! She thinks I am this bad!’