More handpicked essays just for you.
The significance of cultural identity
Importance of cultural identity introdcution
The significance of cultural identity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Fish Spine” by Santiago Nazarian is the story in the life of Hau and him getting over his insecurity’s to give a gift to his love interest. The story starts out with Hau washing his hands trying not to get the faucet or anything around him dirty with the smell of fish. Hau believes he smells of fish due to working with his parents cleaning the fish spines. Something that he doesn’t want anybody to smell when they meet him especially a girl that he likes. A girl who Hau spends a great amount of time with always wanting to be more but not having the courage due to his fear that he smells of fish.
In 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.
Gene Luen Yang, born August 9th, 1973, attended the University of California. When he was a child he did research on Walt Disney, which made him want to grow up to be an animator. He majored in computer science, while minoring in creative writing. He then became a teacher of computer science. Gene Luen Yang informs and promotes understanding about Asian history and stereotypes through his literary works American Born Chinese, Boxers, and Saints.
This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing. At this point in the essay, Noda is unable to envision her identity as unified and she describes her identity as split by race.
In “Fish Cheeks” Amy realizes she should be proud of who she is even if she tries being American, and not to be ashamed of her Chinese customs and traditions. She learns to always be true to herself. In “Taco Head” it’s different because Sofia learns to be who she is. Sofia learns to be proud of who she is and to stand up for herself and all the Mexican American kids like her. In “Taco Head” it also said, “That year I kicked that girl in all classes and sports, especially soccer.”
Graphic novels are a great way to show how stereotypes can shape and affect a person. Two graphic novels, Almost American Girl by Robin Ha and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, do this by showing readers the lives of Asian Americans learning to fit in with other people while facing prejudice. In Almost American Girl, Robin is a Korean immigrant trying to adjust to her new home in the U.S. Robin also has a hard time fitting in with other people and faces discrimination from students at school. Meanwhile, in American Born Chinese, we follow three stories that all have characters that aren’t happy with who they are.
Lessons from the Culture 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.
The poem has life experiences of a fourteen-year-old girl who is caught between the Japanese and American culture. The young girl claims that she does not know how to use Japanese chopsticks that are symbolic of the Japanese culture. In fact, the girl claims that she understands more the hot dogs as opposed to using chopsticks (Rhea 7). This means that the girl seems to understand the American culture as opposed to her Japanese culture. The girl identifies more with the American culture and thus the issue of American identity.
In "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan, the author utilizes the symbolic beige tweed miniskirt to represent the main characters yearning to be the same as American girls. After her parents invited her crushes family over for dinner she is apprehensive as to what he will presume about her traditional relatives and culture. The text states,"What will he think of our Shabby Chinese Christmas"(2). Which reveals that she wants to be like traditional Americans and doesn 't appreciate the unique differences about her culture. She also spends too much time caring about what the boy will think of her relatives and the non-american food served, that she doesn 't fancy over the fact that all her favorite foods were served.
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.
Oh no Amy tan cried. The mister family is going to be here for dinner. I am totally secondhand embarrassed because what are they going to think of me?The theme is you should be proud of who you are and not change who you really are because the minister's family is coming to dinner . The story Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan demonstrates the theme which is you should be proud of who you are. In the text it states ‘’ The minster family is coming over for dinner i cried what would Robbert think of my shabby chinese christmas,’’ Another text evidence for the them you should be proud of who you are is what he would think about the food and not what they always see would they hate me she thought would he never speak to me again.
Cultural differences is something important to the author herself that somehow helps her to become what she is really today. In the beginning of the novel, there are many traumas deal with cultural differences that the author undertaken. One of the traumas she experienced is when she 's in the United States living with Melvin and his mother, she felt like "she doesn 't want to wear American dress" (Le 16,17). This is understandable when a six-year-old girl wanted to keep her Vietnamese traditional culture. And because she is young,
And in Thailand, women spend excessive amounts of time and money to always be seen as beautiful– a slim figure, white skin, a small head and nose, etc. Among these examples and many more, it is seen that Asian people are held to impossibly high standards in their home countries. And though America is seen as being a land of opportunity where people can break free of the shackles that other countries’ societal standards have put on them, Asian Americans receive the
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.
There’s a myth about Asian Americans, that generalizes them into one group. People create false images of us through stereotypes. These stereotypes have been manifested in books, movies, and literature, but they have repercussions for Asian Americans in society. We are often treated as foreigners, people leading us to believe that we don’t belong in American society, and that we have no purpose being here. Stereotypes are natural things that people will talk about.
