What Is Amy Tan's Idea Of Being American
Amy Tan's idea of being American is the antithesis of what being American is. Being American means you come from many cultures from all over the world. Amy identifies being American as: being white, high-class, and ignorant of other people's culture. I cannot agree less with Amy Tan when it comes to this line of thinking.
Amy Tan, author of Fish Cheeks, writes “When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas?” There is no secret that most Americans have ancestors that came for the American dream. James Truslow Adams, famous author and winner of the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for History, writes “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” (The Epic of America (2nd ed., Greenwood Press, 1931), p. 405). That is what those ancestors fought so hard to do; not just for themselves but for their children and their children’s
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Being of Hispanic descent, I have great pride in who I am and where my roots lie. Tan was clearly embarrassed of what her family was. Not white, not wealthy, and not traditionally American. She felt shame in showing her chinese culture to this white American boy. She also failed to see that being of foreign descent does not mean she is not normal. America is a nation of diversity. Many days out of the year are dedicated to celebrate any number of different races and ethnic groups.
The U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program estimates that 61.6% of the population. While that is a good part of the population; that still leaves around 40% of the population being of foreign ancestry. What Tan failed to see is that being Chinese did not make her out of place. She was just as normal as the other 40% of the
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