Amy Tan's Essay 'Fish Cheeks'
As many Chinese-Americans grew up in the 1960’s, one women described it best in her multiple literary works. Bestselling, Chinse-American writer, Amy Tan in her autobiographic essay, “Fish Cheeks”, illustrates her humiliating experience at a Christmas Eve dinner at the age of fourteen. Tan’s purpose is to interpret the idea of how her mother cared for Tan deeply and wanted her to be proud of her Chinese heritage and family. She adopts a nostalgic tone in order to engage relatable thoughts and feelings in her adult readers. Even decades after the essay had been written, readers can still relate to the embarrassing situation that Tan had to face.
Tan begins her narrative essay by retelling her teenage crush on the local minister’s son, a blond boy named Robert. She expresses how much she wanted to be with him, as well as implying that she insecure of her Chinese features, more specially her wide nose. She appeals to the sentimental feelings of the audience of how much distress she felt once her parents announced that they had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner. Tan describes her fear of how Robert, may think of her and her family once she sees the traditional Chinese meal set out, since the
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In the beginning, the story shows an innocent crush between two young teenagers, and turns the main lesson into being proud of your family and your heritage. In Tan’s case, being Chinese helped her realize that her family is not something to be shameful of, although she was wanting to look and act more like a white American. Years after she got over her crush on Robert, she had realized that it was not worth to change herself for a boy, because she was embarrassed of her family. Many readers have taken the lesson as; Some things you would not understand when you are younger, make much more sense when you are
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201 Words | 1 PagesIn the passage written by Amy Tan the author uses adjectives and feelings to reveal that an embarrassing experience in her youth changed her prospective on her heritage by showing her she needs to always be reminded of her heritage. One of Amy’s emotions in this passage is she feels embarrassed that her Chinese family that came over would get up to get their while the American would wait patiently for the food to be passed. One thing that made Amy embarrassed was when her dad took the fish cheek and said “Amy your favorite.” Another emotion was she was scared that the boy wouldn’t like their Chinese food or wouldn’t like there Chinese Christmas. But Amy’s fear was realized because the ministers family didn’t eat a lot nor did they talk.
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Amy Tan Fish Cheeks Analysis
694 Words | 3 PagesAt 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.
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737 Words | 3 PagesTan talks about the different types of English she used and learned while she was growing up. Tan’s English wasn’t all so great when she was in grade school but in college she switched to an English major from pre-med. English was Tan’s second language so she wasn’t so encouraged to become a writer. Others could not understand her mother’s “broken English”, but Tan could because she grew up listening to it, which is why she named this story “Mother tongue”.
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