Novelist, Amy Tan, in her excerpt, Fish Cheeks, reminisces over a boy she had a crush on when she was fourteen. Tan 's purpose is to entertain and teach a lesson. She espouses a sentimental attitude in order to appeal to her adult readers.
Tan draws her readers in by making a drastic contrast in the introductory paragraph stating, "He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger." Not only does she create a simile but the author also integrates an allusion when Tan mentions Mary, Jesus 's mother. She does this to provide the readers with an example of how different her and the boy she had an infatuation with when she was fourteen are.
In the third paragraph of the excerpt Tan uses vivid details to give the reader a sense of imagery. For example, when she says, "The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food," the audience can imply that Amy was disgusted with the food because of the adjectives she uses. However, she was also dramatized the entirety of the scene due to the fact that this memory took place when she was a teenager. Because Tan uses a dramatic voice to shape the story, the readers can distinguish the tone as though they were listening to a young, teenage girl. The novelist illustrates her uncomfortable self in her youth by using phrases such as, "I pretended he was not worthy of existence," and, "Dinner threw me deeper
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She explains how her family seems to lack proper manners compared to American culture due to their cleaning of utensils with their tongues and reaching across others for an item. To sustain her embarrassment though, her father offers her the infamous fish cheek, letting none be caught unaware that it is Amy 's favorite section of that food. By providing this scene for the readers, Tan organizes one reason behind the title of her work and what it