Character Analysis: A Pair Of Tickets

Amy Tan author of A pair of Tickets was born in California during the 1950’s. Tan is the daughter of two Chinese immigrants who moved to America during the 1940’s. As an American Writer Tan’s works explore both mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese American cultural gaps. In A Pair of Tickets, the point of view is told through the stories protagonist who like Tan also faces numerus challenges in life. One is not a mature adult until one acknowledges and excepts their identity. June May visits China to fulfill her mother’s desire of finding her long abandoned twins thus identifying what it means to be born into two nationalities. June is a young American born Asian and like most Americans June desires acceptance and popularity to fit in. May being a child of two Immigrants often found that her skin tone was a severe limitation when trying to assimilate, stating, “I was fifteen and had vigorously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin” (Tan 190). Being of two nationalities May demonstrates her struggle to adapt to an American society because of her Chinese decent clouding

Eventually June embraces her Asian heritage and culture allowing for her maturity to strengthen making her identity one to be proud of. Junes life is like that of a passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). June becomes her mother’s daughter after acknowledging and respecting her family’s heritage and past. Having a true identity June recalls her mother saying, "Someday you will see," said my mother. "It's in your blood, waiting to be let go” (Tan190). June May learned much more than what it means to be Chinese and after leaving China June learned what it meant to be her mother’s