The individual stories in The Joy Luck Club are filled with loss and grief, yet usually, these elements do not overwhelm the hope and joy also present in the tales. In fact, the two sides strike a poignant balance. Suyuan’s story stands out as a prime example. Suyuan loses everything in China. She must leave her babies by the side of the road as she flees Kweilin. Her husband is killed. A bomb falls on her family’s house, killing everyone inside. She ends up in a hospital, drastically ill, with only some silk dresses to her name. Yet this woman learns to live again. She marries Canning Woo and moves to America. She gives birth to another daughter. She even reestablishes the Joy Luck Club, all while continuing to search for her lost daughters. In Suyuan’s story, loss and grief—indeed, the deepest tragedy imaginable—meet hope and joy as she starts a new life, not forgetting what has passed but moving into the future.

The other women experience a similar blend. An-mei watches her mother die a slow death from an opium overdose. Ying-ying’s first husband leaves her. Lindo is mistreated by her first in-laws. Yet they all survive. They refuse to be overwhelmed by loss and grief (although for a while Ying-ying falls into depression after the death of her infant). They carry on and strive toward better lives. They raise their children. They do not forget what has happened. In fact, they turn it into stories, and through the stories, they find strength and meaning to cope and even notes of hope and joy. And they all continue to participate in the Joy Luck Club, Suyuan now through her daughter, to raise their spirits, feast, laugh, and play games even in the hardest of times, fulfilling the club’s original purpose.