Abstract

Amy Tan, known as one of the most prominent Chinese American writers, has made a significant impact on the Chinese American literature. Her first novel The Joy Luck Club aroused extensive attention and favorable comments from American literary circles since its publication.
This thesis introduces the author Amy Tan and her novel The Joy Luck Club briefly. It classifies the phenomenon of silence generally. On the basis of classification of silence, it analyses the reasons why mothers become silent from the aspects of language barrier, culture differences and females’ traditional minds. At last, my thesis is going to put emphasis on how silence is broken to reveal that effective communication between mothers and daughters is a good way to help female find the self-confidence, self-esteem and courage in life and achieve the harmonious relationship. 

Key words: silence, break the silence, effective communication, harmonious relationship

摘  要

谭恩美是一位杰出的华裔美国作家。她对华裔美国文学产生了深远的影响。她的第一部小说《喜福会》一经出版就引起了美国文坛的广泛关注和好评。
文章首先简单介绍谭恩美生平以及喜福会的故事梗概，接着对小说中人物沉默进行大致分类，然后文章从语言障碍，文化差别以及传统思想的影响三个角度分析文中母亲沉默的原因，最后文章分析了母女如何通过有效的沟通交流从而打破沉默，实现母女关系的和谐。

关键词：沉默；有效沟通；打破沉默；和谐

1．Introduction 
1.1. A Brief Introduction to Amy Tan
Amy Tan is a Chinese American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of an engineer and a nurse. Both of her parents had emigrated from China. She is the only daughter of the three children. In the late 1960s, Amy's sixteen-year-old brother Peter died of a brain tumor. Within a year of Peter's death, Amy's father died of the same disease. After these family tragedies, Amy's mother moved her to Switzerland and Amy finished high school there. During this period, Amy knew her mother's former marriage to a Chinese man with abuse and their children, one of whom died as a toddler. All these incidents provide Amy the basis of her first novel named The Joy Luck Club. In the novel, four Chinese American immigrant women set up a club called "the Joy Luck Club" where they can play Chinese game of mahjong while feasting on a variety of food. The three mothers and four daughters share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes as the novel proceeds, and both the conflicts in the generations and genders exist in that modern tragicomedy.