In Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club', how does the fourteen-year-old Tan feel about her Chinese background and her mother?

• A. She feels embarrassed by her Chinese heritage and frustrated with her mother's behavior.
• B. She feels confused about her heritage but is very close to her mother.
• C. She is proud of her Chinese background and deeply admires her mother.
• D. She is indifferent to her cultural background and has a distant relationship with her mother.

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Identify the key elements in the question, which are Amy Tan's feelings about her Chinese background and her relationship with her mother at age fourteen.
2. Step 2: Recall or review the themes in 'The Joy Luck Club' related to cultural identity and mother-daughter relationships, focusing on the adolescent perspective.
3. Step 3: Analyze the options given, noting the emotional tones such as embarrassment, confusion, pride, indifference, and the nature of the mother-daughter relationship (frustrated, close, admiring, distant).
4. Step 4: Connect Amy Tan's adolescent feelings to common experiences of cultural conflict and generational misunderstanding portrayed in the book, which often include embarrassment and frustration.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the best interpretation is that the fourteen-year-old Tan feels embarrassed by her Chinese heritage and frustrated with her mother's behavior, reflecting the typical adolescent struggle with cultural identity and parental expectations.