Strong women in The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife One of the common themes in both The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife are strong women. All the women of both generations in each book gain strength through different experiences. These experiences range from a war-torn China to the modern stresses of femininity. While different experiences have shaped each woman, they are all tied together by the common thread of strength. The Joy Luck Club portrays strong women. The examples that strike the reader most are the women who lived in traditional China. An-Mei Hsu gained her strong will from her mother's weak spirit. In her story, titled "Magpies", An-Mei's mother is forced to live the life of a concubine. His mother is deceived by Wu Tsing, a wealthy merchant, and is brutally raped. The Second Wife's deception lures An-Mei's mother into a life in which she is forced to give birth to a child she cannot claim as her own. As a last resort, An-Mei's mother commits suicide two days before the Chinese New Year, to ensure that her daughter can one day rise above the position of a concubine's daughter. An-Mei's mother, as the poison travels through her body, whispers, "I would rather kill my weak spirit so I can give you a stronger one." Another example of a strong female character is seen in Suyuan Woo. During her escape from China, she is forced to abandon her twin daughters on the side of the road. He leaves his daughters with the hope of returning to them one day. As the women of the Joy Luck Club tell June: "She walked down the street, stumbling and crying, thinking only of this last hope, that her daughters would be found by a kind-hearted person who would take care of... half of paper... At this moment, Winnie's life takes a positive turn, because she now knows that she can handle everything that life has to offer. According to critic Susan Dooley, "Amy Tan's brilliant novels review and from many realities, but all contain mothers and daughters.... Each story is a fascinating vignette, and together they weave the reader through a world where the Lady of the Moon can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage to two and delivered to twelve, she can, with cunning, free herself; where a rich man's concubine secures his daughter's future by killing herself and where a woman can continue to live, knowing she has lost her entire life." Works cited and consulted: Tan, Amy. The Kitchen God's Wife. New York, Ballantine Books, 1991. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Contemporary Vintage New York: a division of Random House, Inc.. 1993.