Characterization of Suyuan Woo

Physical look

Characterization of Suyuan Woo

And my mother---wearing light-blue polyester pants, a red sweater, and a child's green down jacket---she didn't look like anybody else.(P.199 (Paragraph 1) )

...all those things my mother did to embarrass me---haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combination(P. 267 Paragraph 4)

Reflections:

• had a unique style of fashion
• wound not blindly follow the current fashion trend.

What have we learnt from Suyuan Woo:

• We should not sail with the stream
• We should not be influenced by the peers easily
• We need to stick to our decisions.

Thinks

Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! She will know my meaning, because I will give her this swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for. (P.17 Paragraph 2)

...wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with in all my good intentions." (P.17 Paragraph 4)

Reflections

• Suyuan loved June very much.
• We should always appreciate what our parents have done for us.

• She wanted June to learn the Chinese tradition
• It is very important for us to know our own background and culture as they help us identify who we are.

Introduction

Suyuan

In chinese, this word means "long cherished wish." Just like her name, Suyuan did have a wish that she spent her lifetime searching for.

Suyuan Woo, who died of a cerebral aneurysm. She was the founder of the Joy Luck Club, which meets monthly to play mah-jongg. In fleeing from a Japanese attack in 1944, she was forced to abandon her twin infant daughters on a road outside Kweilin. Suyuan secretly looking for her other daughters until her death at the age of seventy-two.

4E Hosanna Au (1)

Janet Cheng (9)

Phoebe Choi (11)

Beverly Lau (19)

Reflections:

• P. 25:
• optimistic towards her life
• chose to grab her own happiness by herself
• we should always think positively.

Says

• P. 276:
• patriotic person
• is adamant that being a Chinese
• What have we learnt from Suyuan Woo:Using knowledge and facts as your thesis is always the most effective way to persuade a stubborn person.

... What was worse, we asked among ourselves, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces? Or to choose our own happiness?

"So we decide to hold parties and pretend each week had become the new year...

P. 25 (1st sentence)

Does/ actions

Reflections:

"Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese. "Someday you will see."said my mother. "It is in your blood, waiting to be let go." (P.276 Paragraph 2 & 3)

• willing to raise their child by sacrificing themselves.
• Suyuan woo is a typical and traditional chinese mother
• show her love towards June.

my mother shook the platter in front of me. "take it , already cold," said my mother. i was not too fond of crab..."(p. 202 paragraph 2)

Feels

...because they had known for many years about my mother's search for her twin daughters, her endless hope.

P.269 (paragraph 5)

Reflections:

....and her face went blank, her mouth closed,her arms went slack, she backed out of the room, stunned, as if she were blowing away like a small brown leaf, thin, brittle, lifeless. P.142 (Paragraph 7)

• P.269:
• strong faith in seeing her twin daughters again
• didn't give up searching
• remained hopeful

---> the natural instinct every mother has

• P.142:
• deeply hurt by Jing-Mei Woo
• disappointed by Jing-Mei's behaviours
• in pain when she heard Jing-mei saying "I wish I were dead! Like them (the twin sisters)."
• believed that the twins were still alive
• desperate for seeing the twins
• Jing-mei was opposing her mother's faith