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Amy Tan Fish Cheeks Analysis

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Fish Cheeks, by Amy Tan is a story of love, culture, being different, and accepting one's differences. A young Amy falls in love with the son of a white minister and is shocked when she finds out that her mother invited the ministers family over for christmas dinner. Amy is very embarrassed because of her asian heritage, and some of the asian customs her family embraces. She explains that her mother went out of her way to prepare many traditional asian dishes that most people would find quite odd. When Christmas eve came around, she explained what her mother was preparing and used imagery to paint a picture in the reader's mind as if they were there. “She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns” Tan said. Then continued to …show more content…

Once the dinner began, Amy got more and more embarrassed with her family as some of their actions are rude and gross to most cultures but not to theirs. “My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food”. Her father then reached across the table and poked into one of the fishes cheeks and said “Amy, your favorite”. This made Amy so embarrassed that she wished she would just disappear. At the end of the dinner Amy's father burped loudly as it is a sign of respect towards the cook showing gratitude for the food. After everyone had left, Amy’s mother noticed her embarrassment all night and said “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She the handed Amy an early gift, It was a beige tweed colored mini skirt. After she told Amy that she must always be Chinese on the inside and to be proud of who she was, because the only shame is to be ashamed. It took Amy years to truly figure out what her mother was trying to teach her, and after she figured it out she was proud of her ethnicity. For the next christmas eve, she chose all of her favorite

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