Kak Yong writes: The Joy Luck Club assignment…done!

Alhamdulillah, finally, I’ve finished the essay set by Ms. Cat, on the novel by Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club. I must say I never thought it would be interesting at all. Dr. Saratha mentioned it a couple of times when I was in first year, but I admit I was not even interested, even though I knew Dr. Saratha was one of the experts in the literature field in Malaysia, and books recommended by her bound to be something. But I don’t know, the title itself doesn’t sound very creative and I thought it was a translation. Only now I discovered it was written by an American-born Chinese woman and it was written in English, and the title that I found was so unattractive is the whole essence of the story…talk about judging a book by its cover…but cover do matters, as the great Dr. Saratha said, and I couldn’t agree more.
Anyway, back to our novel, maybe I wouldn’t exactly add it my favourite books’ list, but to study it is quite interesting. I really enjoyed the class discussions that we had on that book, though watching the movie was not that fun, since we couldn’t finish it in one go, and had to continue the week after, and also I didn’t really enjoy it with everyone else being there. I have to admit, I prefer watching movies alone, and yes, I don’t think I will ever set foot in the cinema, so I’m not worried. I managed to download the movie anyway, though never had time to really watch it again. No matter, the assignment is done anyway, just a little editing here and there.
One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog like this is because I want to write about things that I like, and one of them is literature, English literature to be exact. But I admit, coming from an Islamic background, what I like and what I believe in doesn’t really fit in with each other. So, how to make them compatible? By looking at the literature from a Muslim point of view. What do you think? And since in literature there is no right or wrong as long as you can argue your way through it, and in Islam, what you should do and shouldn’t do has already be set down (doesn’t that make life much more easier?), my analysis of the literature will be from my view, as a student of literature and also a student of Islam. I may be born a Muslim, be there are still lots to learn about Islam. After all, Islam is the way of life, and how long will it take you to learn about life? Hmmm…a lifetime? Yeah, that’s what I’ve figured…
Back to the novel : For example, one of the main themes in The Joy Luck Club is mother-daughter relationship, so I’ll just talk about how I see it as a Muslim, that’s all. It may be imperfect in either way, but I’m still a student, so I should be forgiven. And I don’t think I’m going to produce a world-class opinion…maybe not yet anyway. Another interesting thing about The Joy Luck Club is that it has been labeled as a feminist literature. Hmmm, feminism huh? Another interesting topic to look at…