How Jing-mei’s Identity Develops in Amy Tan’s A Pair of Tickets Marcus Garvey once said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Garvey’s statement is rather applicable in Amy Tan’s A Pair of Tickets especially to the story’s narrator and main character, Jing-mei. As Jing-mei, along with her seventy-two-year-old father, is on her way to Guangzhou, China, she realizes a dilemma that deals with her racial identity. Born of Chinese descent but immersed in the Western culture, Jing-mei never felt as though she possessed any internal Chinese characteristics, regardless of what her mother had told her. However, as she embarks on her journey to China for the first time in thirty-six
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Initially, Jing-mei describes that her “blood [is] rushing through a new course” and that her “bones [are] aching with a familiar old pain” (par. 1). This hyperbole amplifies what Jing-mei is feeling so that the audience can understand the ambiguous sense of “becoming Chinese” (par. 1). Furthermore, Jing-mei depicts her change similar to “transforming like a werewolf”. Such a metaphor displays how she feels like a completely different being from the one that dwelled in the San Francisco (par. 4). She illustrates that the rushing feeling is like “a mutant tag of DNA suddenly triggered”, which indicates that the Chinese roots were always present but Jing-mei needed to experience China firsthand before allowing herself to feel Chinese (par. 4). As the plot of the story mostly revolves around Jing-mei’s internal conflict, Jing-mei needed to be able to describe her emotions and she did so through the utilization of figurative …show more content…
She “feels as if [she] were getting on a number 30 Stockton bus in San Francisco” but stops to remind herself that she is in China even though the environment “feels right” (par. 33). Jing-mei’s familiarity of the atmosphere in China adds to her character development as she gradually gives into her Chinese culture. As she rides through Guangzhou in a taxi, Jing-mei surmises that the area “looks like a major American city” rather than a city half way across the world (par. 59). Her observation of the Guangzhou hints her gravitation and affinity to China, since it is so much like home, which, furthermore, shows how she is accepting more of her Chinese influences. As Jing-mei resides within China, she cannot help but feel comfortable there even though it is not San Francisco because her inner Chinese nature continues to thrive in
Initially, Jing-mei describes that her “blood [is] rushing through a new course” and that her “bones [are] aching with a familiar old pain” (par. 1). This hyperbole amplifies what Jing-mei is feeling so that the audience can understand the ambiguous sense of “becoming Chinese” (par. 1). Furthermore, Jing-mei depicts her change similar to “transforming like a werewolf”. Such a metaphor displays how she feels like a completely different being from the one that dwelled in the San Francisco (par. 4). She illustrates that the rushing feeling is like “a mutant tag of DNA suddenly triggered”, which indicates that the Chinese roots were always present but Jing-mei needed to experience China firsthand before allowing herself to feel Chinese (par. 4). As the plot of the story mostly revolves around Jing-mei’s internal conflict, Jing-mei needed to be able to describe her emotions and she did so through the utilization of figurative …show more content…
She “feels as if [she] were getting on a number 30 Stockton bus in San Francisco” but stops to remind herself that she is in China even though the environment “feels right” (par. 33). Jing-mei’s familiarity of the atmosphere in China adds to her character development as she gradually gives into her Chinese culture. As she rides through Guangzhou in a taxi, Jing-mei surmises that the area “looks like a major American city” rather than a city half way across the world (par. 59). Her observation of the Guangzhou hints her gravitation and affinity to China, since it is so much like home, which, furthermore, shows how she is accepting more of her Chinese influences. As Jing-mei resides within China, she cannot help but feel comfortable there even though it is not San Francisco because her inner Chinese nature continues to thrive in