Amy Tan's Short Essay Fish Cheeks

Both “Mexicans Begin Jogging” and “Fish Cheeks” deal with immigrants trying to live in the American society. The author that struggles more with their role and place in American society is Amy Tan because her story comes across clearly and is easy to understand that she is not used to the American society. While the poem is confusing and is not very clear with what they are talking about. I wouldn’t have known that “Mexicans Begin Jogging” had to do with immigrants if the prompt hadn’t said they both deal with living in the American society.

Finding Fish is a story of a young, unloved boy growing up and overcoming all obstacles and hardships in order to become an amazing man. Antwone Quenton Fisher was born on August 3, 1959, in Cleveland, Ohio. He was born in a prison to Eva Mae Fisher and Eddie Elkins, who was killed before he was born. As a result of this, Antwone grew up in the foster system and he was placed in the unloving home of his foster parents, Mrs. Isabella Pickett and Reverend Ulysses Pickett. Up until he was 16, Antwone had to deal with abuse, verbally, physically, and sexually. This negatively affected Antwone because he had very low self esteem and was exceedingly shy for many years of his life. Although Antwone had a really terrible childhood and upbringing, he didn’t let that define him. Antwone Fisher grew up to serve his country by being in the Navy for 11 years and he continues to make an impact on young foster

When Asian came to America— a place where full of unfamiliar faces, speak different language, have different belief and culture, how would they respond and adapt to these changes? This essay investigates on Asian American experience in terms of culture, racial discrimination, culture assimilation and collision, and lost of identity through diverse motions in four Asian American poems- “Eating Alone”, “Eating Together”, and “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee, and “The Lost Sister” by Cathy Song. From the motions or movement in the poems, we can further look into their life and feeling of being an Asian American. In “Eating Alone” and “Eating Together”, speaker would like to express his yearning towards his death father and convey the hierarchy of

    Among many literatures about Asian and Chinese culture “Saving Sourdi” by May-Lee Chai is one.  This short story is about a young girl, Nea, and her sister, Sourdi, and what happens when Sourdi grows up when Nea does not want her to. Their family are Chinese and they moved to America.  Throughout the story one of the supporting characters, Ma, constantly reminds Nea what she should do as a young woman.  Ma is used to the Chinese culture and it is clear in the arranged marriage that Sourdi is involved in, how Ma goes about punishment, and in general Sourdi and Nea’s interactions that the Chinese culture is a huge influence on them.  In many obvious ways, Chinese culture is much different than American culture.  Nea’s

Every year we see family emigrate to other countries, and they face many challenges. The stories “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”, by Firoozeh Dumas, and from “Fish Cheeks”, by Amy Tan, share similar cultures and really interesting stories. Also, both families from the essay share several challenges that they are face when they move to the United States of America. The two families share many similarities; however, they differ in to keeping their culture, showing openness, and teaching a lesson from their culture to others.

For first generation Americans, finding belonging in a new country can feel impossible. They are often caught between the traditions and ideals of the two differing countries. Raising a family in the new home with different values can lead to miscommunications or even a significant disconnect between parents and children. This is modeled well in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, particularly in the relationship between Ying Ying Saint Clair and her daughter Lena. The prejudice Ying Ying Saint Clair feels for American culture causes her to have a difficult time understanding and communicating with her daughter.

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.

Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society. Similarly, David Hwang’s 10-minute play “Trying to Find Chinatown” centers on an encounter between Ronnie, a Chinese-American street musician, and Benjamin, a Caucasian tourist from Wisconsin who identifies himself as Asian-American, in the busy street of New York. In the play, “each character defines who he believes he is: Benjamin is convinced he is a Chinese American, and Ronnie sees

By using easily understood English and short sentences, Tan is humbling herself before her audience and makes the text immediately intimate. It is a text that her mother could comprehend and read with ease. To allow the readers to connect to her story even further, Tan quotes her mother in her broken English. This shows the reader how difficult it can be to understand Tan's mother's English and how different it is from the English Tan has learned through formal

The first few sentences of the story outline an awkward connection between Amy and her self confidence. The line, “...I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose” displays a superficial idea that requires a second thought (Tan 184). Why does Amy want a new American nose? Evidently, it implies that she has been exposed to pop culture and plastic surgery; enough to slightly brush upon the concept. The connection to ‘Westernization’ is too strong to ignore. Perhaps “Fish Cheeks” was written before the trend of ‘Westernization’ died or maybe this is a thought unique to minorities living in America. Whatever the case, it is clear that Tan felt an inclination to merge with common societal culture, which is comparable to youth in Asian society. Popular trends or social media influences most of the youth in any society. In Amy’s case, this urge was probably stronger on account of being a minority in a culture that did not appreciate differences. Amy’s mother is also a prime component to the story, ultimately stating the moral of the story: “You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” (Tan 186). This encompasses most of the views in modern Asian society. Granted that adolescents growing up in America may feel differently, most East Asians are proud of their ethnicity. They look up to celebrities of the same background and entertain different beauty ideals. Obviously Tan’s mother was encouraging her to be true to identity — whether it is Asian, American, or both. Further speculation into Amy’s mother might reveal a background that understands Asian culture and popular American culture. Amy’s mother accepts that her daughter wants to fit into the American society; however, embracing cultural differences can be a huge benefit in finding one’s

The Paper Menagerie is a short story written by Ken Liu. This story is written from first point of view and it has a plot of a child named Jack becoming more mature through his mistakes made during his adolescence. Author Ken Liu uses characterization to demonstrate the universal truth of pain of our human need to belong. There are two important points the author made. The first Point is associated with Jack’s alienation, how he got excluded because of his looks and food. The second point connects to Jack’s mother’s experience of being an orphan, because her parents went missing.

Everyone has their different beliefs about being an American. But how do one know about being American if they are not accustomed to being an American? In a story, read by Quebalea Green called Fish Cheeks wrote by a young girl at the time named Amy Tan. In this story, Amy’s whose family including her was Chinese had a dinner for Christmas with Chinese traditional food. Amy thought it was a bad idea. Her family invited over their minister and his son that Amy had a crush on who were American. Amy was embarrassed by the selection of food her mother prepared being that her guest was American. She figured her dad didn’t display manners instead he acted like a pig by poking her favorite fish in the eyeballs and made a loud burp. By the looks on the minister’s son face, she knew she wouldn’t get a chance with him after. Amy mother said “You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” Amy’s mother was disappointed that Amy wasn’t being who she normal was trying to act American. Instead of believing in the beliefs she was taught. Amy has had her thoughts on what some of the things she considers to be American and one would have to disagree with her beliefs about Americans. Some of the things Amy believed is a part of Americans culture. Are Not all Americans have a

“Communication is the key to a successful relationship, attentiveness, and consistency. Without it, there is no relationship,” (Bleau). The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan. Set in the twentieth century, this novel depicts the life of four Chinese immigrant women escaping their past and their American-grown daughters. The novel reveals the mothers’ hardship-filled past and motivations alongside with the daughters’ inner conflicts and struggles. Throughout the entire novel, the mothers and daughters face inner struggles, family conflict, and societal collision. The divergence of cultures produces tension and miscommunication, which effectively causes the collision of American morals, beliefs, and priorities with Chinese culture which

As a secular person who takes an interest in science, I have always been fascinated by the academic field of evolutionary biology. Because of this, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the book I chose to review is entitled Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. Written by Neil Shubin, this piece aims to outline the origins of humanity, as well as present a plethora of compelling pieces of evidence for the theory of evolution. He does this by reviewing scientific discoveries in areas of comparative anatomy, genetics, and the examination of fossils. Interestingly enough, he also integrates some of the most basic senses that we possess, such as sight and smell. If read properly with an open mind,

In the poem, "When I Was Growing Up”, Nellie Wong relates the struggles of a Chinese girl growing up, searching to find her voice in a predominantly white cultural majority. The speaker begins the poem with, “I know now that once I longed to be white,” (1). This speaker longs for the privileges she attributes to being a member of the cultural majority. Ashamed of her darker Asian skin and Chinese culture, the speaker laments, “…I could not change, I could not shed / my skin…” (49, 50). The poem details the feelings of the speaker as she was growing up in America, while simultaneously being immersed in Chinese culture. She wanted to be part of the American white culture as it was depicted and glamorized by the media and movies. "When I Was Growing Up", utilizes literary devices such as diction, imagery, and symbolism to create friction and express the theme of shame and regret that the speaker feels about her longings to be white.