Feeling shame for the way we look, who we are, and where we come from, is betraying the essential being that distinguishes one from all others. To look similar to everyone for the sake of acceptance, is merely an assent to the person’s perceived reality of a situation. Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” clearly explains the difficulty of her own reflexive action to fit in and her perception of how she would need to act, and how she would need to look. These feelings created an internal conflict of both shame for whom she is and pride to her own uniqueness of being Chinese American. Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” details her struggle to experience acceptance because of her self-perception of who she is and is not. Amy’s interpretation of acceptance by Robert, the minister’s son, would …show more content…
During this time in Tan’s life, she explains that her perception was tainted by need to achieve acceptance and win the heart of Robert. Amy Tan lost herself because she was so focused on her need to fit it, to be like American girls; a thin American nose, light skin, wearing miniskirts, and having blond hair. Instead of trying so hard to become something or someone that you are not. Although, over time Tan realized that her Chinese heritage made her the unique person she is. Tan also discounted the profound wisdom from her mother who explained that in order to achieve happiness Tan shouldn’t try to change who she is and where she’s from, “you want to be the same as American girls on the outside. But on the inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame” (Tan). Tan realized later in life of her own internal conflict of shame and pride in the uniqueness of her Chinese American
In amy tan’s “ fish cheeks “, Tan’s uses a motif to express her main message. The motif that is carried throughout the story is culture and a message she ties into that is that always keep culture close to who you are. In the short story tan tells us something she learned from her mom was if you are “want[ing] to be the same as american on the outside… but [on the] inside you must always be chinese.” ( tan 7 ) tan tells us this because she wants us to realize that it doesn't matter who or what we are; meaning if we are wanting to be american great but keep your culture close to and apart of you.
“The Face of Seung-Hui Cho,” by Wesley Yang, takes the mass murder of Virginia Tech shooting, Seung-Hui Cho, and the representation of “modern class of losers,” to reflect what it means to be an Asian-American in an environment that appearance, social status, and expression is highly valued. Yang approaches his essay regarding Seung-Hui Cho with sympathy, rather than complete hatred and distaste (a view collectively shared by Americans). He provides a personal account of his own experiences and observations of being an unattractive Asian kid in context towards the similar desperate for love Seung-Hui Cho. In “The Face of Seung-Hui Cho,” the New Jersey writer Wesley Yang brings to light—through a personal look—at the possible causation and origins of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Although highly well-written and thought-provoking, “The Face of Seung-Hui Cho,” nevertheless, left me with some confusion, especially regarding the direction of most of the material in the piece.
According to Forbes, 147 million people worry about their identities but one billion people don’t have an identity. In the novel American Born Chinese there are many different cultures within one community which causes a collision between the people. Jin Wang moved from a San Francisco Chinatown to a more Americanized neighborhood where he finds himself immediately getting bullied for being Asian. Jin Wang's interaction with the American culture had a significant impact on his development, so he tried to change himself physically and was willing to throw away his identity, showing that most people have this ongoing desire to change to be accepted. Jin Wang was so adamant about fitting in that changing himself physically after getting bullied at school.
The essay “Asian Problems” presents the struggle that an asian in America encounters because of the many differences these cultures posses. The author points out how moving to the United States was a big transition. He also exposes how his americanization led to problems with his parents. The fact that they are traditional and their views are based on their culture creates a difference among him and his parents. The liberty in America caused many issues with the way they saw his son’s actions.
The extreme personal discrimination alters peoples’ self-esteem or the perception people look at themselves. On the Tyra Banks show, Banks confronts an Asian American woman who had surgery to make her eyes look more like the European/American ideal of beauty. The 25-year-old woman interviewee made multiple excuses why she got the procedure. The woman claims her “eyes started to sag” and she appeared “tired”; she wants a more youthful appearance.
In "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan, the author utilizes the symbolic beige tweed miniskirt to represent the main characters yearning to be the same as American girls. After her parents invited her crushes family over for dinner she is apprehensive as to what he will presume about her traditional relatives and culture. The text states,"What will he think of our Shabby Chinese Christmas"(2). Which reveals that she wants to be like traditional Americans and doesn 't appreciate the unique differences about her culture. She also spends too much time caring about what the boy will think of her relatives and the non-american food served, that she doesn 't fancy over the fact that all her favorite foods were served.
In Amy Tan’s memoir “ Fish cheeks”, her identity is created by how she sees herself, how others see her, and who she will become in the future. In Amy Tan’s memoir she is ashamed of her culture and wants to be more American. Tan talks about how she wanted to disappear after her father uses his chopsticks and pokes just below the fish eye then pulls out the meat and offers it to her. She also talks about how her Native relatives' lack of American manners and their foreign meal will be embarrassing to her American crush. In her memoir her mother feels that she should love herself and is disappointed in her.
Reluctance perpetrates erasure and invisibility. Despite the stagnancy in social perception of Asian Americans, one must also recognize how both narratives bring up consciousness of the issues. Persistent push of political action in the tribunal and in the commission brings about an emergence of ethnic identity. Tenacious and determined, both the Cambodians and the Japanese embraced their pasts to amend the
I am Chinese-American, but this is only a tiny portion of who I am. In Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” she says that she identifies with being black, but she does “not always feel colored” and “at certain times, [she has] no race” (Hurston from Cohen 2014: 187-188). Similarly, I do not feel like I have to be confined to my race. I am simply me. I define myself by my actions and personality, which includes my hobbies and passions and not how I look on the outside.
In the nonfiction passage "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan, the author learns a valuable lesson about her heritage and learns to appreciate all aspects of her Chinese culture. Through her choice of vivid, colorful language, Tan creates a descriptive image in the reader's mind that clearly depicts what happened to her at Christmas Eve dinner. In the passage written by Amy Tan, the author uses detail and diction to reveal that an embarrassing experience in her youth changed how she felt about her family's heritage and culture by making her realize that her feelings of shame were based on other's opinions of their traditions more than her own feelings. Through her descriptions of their Chinese traditions and culture, the author reveals that she
This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing. At this point in the essay, Noda is unable to envision her identity as unified and she describes her identity as split by race.
Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” and Angelou’s “Champion of the World” both show a personal narrative dealing with young girls of a minority living in an unwelcoming society. In Tan’s “Fish Cheeks,” she is surrounded by family during an important holiday, and must ‘endure’ what she sees as an embarrassment when her family behave in a way that she finds shameful. She watched as her ‘crush’ repeatedly showed his own discomfort at their ways, which were strange to him, when all she wanted was for him to see her family in a good light. Tan grew up in a family who were different from those around her, where she constantly attempted to repress her heritage and fit in with those she believed were ‘normal.’
Chung accepted herself the way she looked and learned that the definition of beauty is “one that embraces differences and includes every girl, who can hold her head up, sang ka pul-less and chinky-eyed” (108). She hoped that her awakening about true beauty and acceptance would also help other Asian females, especially her mother realize that they are beautiful just the way God created them (Finding My
Consolisa Edmond Professor Sanati English Comp. 102-12 22 March 2017 Analysis of” Trying to Find Chinatown” Shortly after birth, we have our identity written on our birth certificate and we are forever defined by that. The world often defines the people within it, instead of people going off to discover their own identity themselves. Race, ethnicity and other factors like it describe who we are but not represent our identity. In David Hwang’s 1996 play “Trying to Find Chinatown” Hwang considers the role of race and ethnicity in how we identify ourselves and how others identify us.
It took a lengthy and embarrassing Christmas dinner, and many years after to make Amy discover that “the only shame you can have is to have shame. ”This remarkable quotation from Fish Cheeks shows that you must be yourself if it even makes you have shame because “the only shame you should have is to have shame. ”Also,this theme finally applies to when many middle schoolers hate something they like because “the cool kids” hate it. I believe there is no such idea like shame. The theme of having no shame applies to the author’s life as well as my life too.