Joy Luck Club

Oblivious

(followed by `to' or `of') lacking conscious awareness of EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Listening now to Auntie Lin bragging about the virtues of her family in China, I realize that Auntie Lin is oblivious to Auntie An-meis pain.

Fume

a cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "I was chiszle," she says, still fuming, "mad to death."

Sequence

a following of one thing after another in time EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I rearrange my tiles, sequences of bamboo and balls, doubles of colored number tiles, odd tiles that do not fit anywhere.

Vat

a large open vessel for holding or storing liquids EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The peaks looked like giant fried fish heads trying to jump out of a vat of oil.

Buffet

a piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers EXAMPLE SENTENCE: There are piles of food on the table, served buffet style, just like at the Kweilin feasts.

Percent

a proportion in relation to a whole (which is usually the amount per hundred) EXAMPLE SENTENCE: When I shyly told my mother this, she seemed insulted and said, "You dont even know little percent of me!

Morsel

a small amount of solid food; a mouthful EXAMPLE SENTENCE: As if on cue, the women peck at last morsels and then carry plates and bowls to the kitchen and dump them in the sink.

Calendar

a system of timekeeping that defines the beginning and length and divisions of the year EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Only the scroll-length calendar, free from the Bank of Canton, changes every year.

Gruel

a thin porridge (usually oatmeal or cornmeal) EXAMPLE SENTENCE : She traded that gruel for two feet from a pig.

Cultivate

adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment EXAMPLE SENTENCE: At first my mother tried to cultivate some hidden genius in me.

Amaze

affect with wonder EXAMPLE SENTENCE: And always, I would be amazed to find the hills against the burning sky had not been torn apart.

Translucent

allowing light to pass through diffusely EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The white chenille bedspreads are so worn they are almost translucent.

Guise

an artful or simulated semblance EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Still, what little we say to one another often comes back in another guise.

rhythm

an interval during which a recurring sequence of events occurs NOTES: And as she began to roll with one sweeping rhythm, she would start her story.

Discard

anything that is cast aside or discarded EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Auntie An-mei is rubbing her tile carefully before discarding it.

Vertical

at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line EXAMPLE SENTENCE: In perfectly straight vertical rows I see Chinese characters written in blue fountain-pen ink.

Miniature

being on a very small scale EXAMPLE SENTENCE: One was crammed with Sees Nuts & Chews, M & Ms, candy-coated cashews, instant hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows.

Overseas

beyond or across the sea EXAMPLE SENTENCE: They had all brought their mothers-in-law and children, and even their village friends who were not lucky enough to have overseas Chinese relatives to show off.

Fracture

breaking of hard tissue such as bone EXAMPLE SENTENCE: They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English.

Pall

burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped EXAMPLE SENTENCE: It was the story she would always tell me when she was bored, when there was nothing to do, when every bowl had been washed and the Formica table had been wiped down twice, when my father sat reading the newspaper and smoking one Pall Mall cigarett

embroider

decorate with needlework EXAMPLE SENTENCE: She and Auntie An-mei were dressed up in funny Chinese dresses with stiff stand-up collars and blooming branches of embroidered silk sewn over their breasts.

Meager

deficient in amount or quality or extent EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "What fine food we treated ourselves to with our meager allowances!

Starve

die of food deprivation EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Something inside of you starts to fade and you become like a starving person, crazy-hungry for light.

Halting

disabled in the feet or legs EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "I think your mother die with an important thought on her mind," she says in halting English.

Evict

expel or eject without recourse to legal process EXAMPLE SENTENCE: So now I know Auntie Yings daughter, Lena, told her about my being evicted from my apartment on lower Russian Hill.

leftovers

food remaining from a previous meal EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "We were a city of leftovers mixed together.

Compose

form the substance of EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The society was composed of a group of white-haired American missionary ladies from the First Chinese Baptist Church.

fragile

fragile -easily broken or damaged or destroyed NOTES: Tan's use of the word "fragile" to describe the immigrant women's English could be 1) to avoid wincing at the phrase "broken English" (see essay "Mother Tongue); 2) to suggest that the women's grasp of English is as fragile as their hold on their American lives; 3) to emphasize the women's emotional fragility. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: My mother could sense that the women of these families also had unspeakable tragedies they had left behind in China and hopes they couldn't begin to express in their fragile English.

Somber

grave or even gloomy in character EXAMPLE SENTENCE: What was worse, we asked among ourselves, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces?

Dangle

hang freely NOTES: How long can you see in your mind arms and legs hanging from telephone wires and starving dogs running down the streets with half-chewed hands dangling from their jaws?

Jagged

having a sharply uneven surface or outline EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "I dreamed of jagged peaks lining a curving river, with magic moss greening the banks.

Nondescript

lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "Will you look at that," he says, pointing to another nondescript picture

Exasperate

make furious EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Auntie Lin looks exasperated, as though I were a simple child: "How can we play with just three people?

numbness

numbness - the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Or at least, my mother recognized the numbness in these women's faces.

Cerebral

of or relating to the cerebrum or brain EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The doctor said she died of a cerebral aneurysm

Fragrant

pleasant-smelling EXAMPLE SENTENCE: My table was from my family and was of a very fragrant red wood, not what you call rosewood, but hong mu, which is so fine theres no English word for it.

Ignore

refuse to acknowledge EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Nor could they ignore the old ladies practical advice to improve their English through Bible study class on Wednesday nights and, later, through choir practice on Saturday mornings.

Translate

restate (words) from one language into another language EXAMPLE SENTENCE: We translated each others meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more.

Trophy

something given as a token of victory EXAMPLE SENTENCE: From the time we were babies, our mothers compared the creases in our belly buttons, how shapely our earlobes were, how fast we healed when we scraped our knees, how thick and dark our hair, how many shoes we wore out in one year, and later, how smart Wav

Compress

squeeze or press together EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Too many Chinese meals cooked in a too small kitchen, too many once fragrant smells compressed onto a thin layer of invisible grease.

Bloat

swelling of the rumen or intestinal tract of domestic animals caused by excessive gas EXAMPLE SENTENCE: We ate sparingly, not as if we didnt have enough, but to protest how we could not eat another bite, we had already bloated ourselves from earlier in the day

Psychology

the science of mental life EXAMPLE SENTENCE: In my twenties, while taking Introduction to Psychology, I tried to tell her why she shouldnt criticize so much, why it didnt lead to a healthy learning environment.

Spine

the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "Shes not stupid," said my mother on one occasion, "but she has no spine.

Savor

the taste experience when a savoury condiment is taken into the mouth NOTES: They are not like the ladies of Kweilin, who I always imagined savored their food with a certain detached delicacy.

Dialect

the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people EXAMPLE SENTENCE: She spoke Mandarin slightly blurred with a Shanghai dialect.

wispy

thin and weak EXAMPLE SENTENCE: A friend once told me that my mother and I were alike, that we had the same wispy hand gestures, the same girlish laugh and sideways look.

Scurry

to move about or proceed hurriedly EXAMPLE SENTENCE: When the sirens cried out to warn us of bombers, my neighbors and I jumped to our feet and scurried to the deep caves to hide like wild animals

deplete

use up (resources or materials) EXAMPLE SENTENCE: When the train pulled out of Hangzhou the next day, the Hsus found themselves depleted of some nine thousand dollars worth of goodwill.

Blurt

utter impulsively EXAMPLE SENTENCE: We have something important to tell you, from your mother," Auntie Ying blurts out in her too-loud voice.

Dutiful

willingly obedient out of a sense of duty and respect EXAMPLE SENTENCE: "Her dutiful nature to family."