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Amy Tan Fish Cheeks

334 Words2 Pages
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
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The author Amy Tan, in her text she deals with living in the American society more than the other author because she gives the reader a clear idea of what she is going through at the moment. In the story “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, it says “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked poor proper American manners?” Tan

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In Seventeen’s reflective anecdote “Fish Cheeks,” appeared in the magazine in 1987 and was written by a woman of Chinese descent about a distinct Christmas when she was fourteen, the author utilizes ashamed diction to demonstrate her disappointment and utter embarrassment in her family’s Chinese traditions, appalled imagery to describe her thoughts toward her crush’s feelings about her mother’s food, and desperate parallel structure to convey her insatiable thirst to fit in and be accepted by the minister’s son, in order to explain her former horror of her crush’s judgment and how, later in life, she learns that preserving her family’s culture is

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To begin with, both Tan and Crutcher utilize characterization to pursue the shared theme, that a strong sense of self is crucial when under the pressure of the expectation of others. In “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, Amy feels propelled to conform because she feels judged for not being “normal”. Tan states, “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas” (2). Also, it’s obvious Amy was self-conscious about the Chinese style of cooking and in this sentence she’s self-conscious because she says, “For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, and a slim new American nose”(1). In the first quote, she was over thinking and doubting that Robert would not like “our shabby Chinese Christmas” though in the end she was correct about Robert

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For instance, her famous novel ‘The Joy Luck Club’ depicts the Chinese mother and her American daughter relationship where they go through various circumstances trying to understand each other including the evolvement that comes in their relationships as the daughters know more about their mother’s life stories. Secondly, Tan considers the theme of identity in terms of Chinese immigrants and their life experiences as an immigrant in the United States. She reveals how the children born to the immigrants strive in an environment which is a mixture of American and Chinese influence. Moreover, Tan is found to have explored identity issues through her fictive creations and tackled the issue of authorial identity (Becnel, 2010). Similarly, romantic love is another subject included in the literary artworks of Amy Tan which considers the relationships and romance an important aspect of human’s life.

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Fish Cheeks’ Amy Tan Isabella Kimball The way that Amy Tan in the Non-fiction narrative “Fish cheeks” develops as a complicated character is by how more of her feelings and character traits were represented as shown throughout the narrative. Feelings were overflowing her, as she did not know how the minister's son would react to her chinese christmas tradition would be to him and his family; she had had a crush on him when she had turned 14 and was dreading him coming over. Her traits and feelings were shown as in the beginning, as she was getting prepared for the minister's son who had been invited by her mother with his family.

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Amy Tan uses imagery in the short story “Fish Cheeks” in order to let the reader feel the way Amy felt at the table on Christmas Eve. For example, in the story it states, “ My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food.” This explains that Amy felt embarrassed that her family wasn’t realizing the fact that they had no manners at the table. Amy was completely embarrassed with the fact that, that was the way her family had acted while they ate. Everyone is put into a situation where they wished their parents or family members had not acted the way they did in front of them, and Amy Tan writing this story makes you remember those times.

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