A Pair Of Tickets By Amy Tan Analysis

The passage, “A Pair of Tickets” is an excerpt from the book, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. Tan’s book is a narrative that derives from Tan’s life growing up as a Chinese-American. Jing-Mei “June” Woo is a thirty-six year old woman who has always considered herself to be “American” as she was born and raised in San Francisco, California. June finally travels to her motherland as a result of her recently deceased mother’s desire to reconcile with her long lost daughters. Throughout her journey in China, she connects with her paternal side of the family as well as her half-sisters she’s never met and begins to rediscover and acknowledges both sides of her of herself, her “American” identity and her “Chinese” identity. By accepting her cultural identity, June has achieved happiness. Happiness can be defined by feeling content with one’s identity such as how June is content with being a Chinese American. With Tan’s use of diction, pauses between paragraphs, imagery, and organization; the novel neatly concludes with the connection of each short story to the theme of happiness.

Throughout the passage, Tan exhibits her writing style by her use of diction. Tan selects specific words that are able to convey the emotions of the characters as she desires. An example of Tan’s wise choice of vocabulary is revealed in the second paragraph, “My sisters looked at me proudly. ‘Meimei jandale’, …show more content…
What started out as a discontented story of a girl who denied her Chinese background concluded with the same woman fully acknowledging her own Chinese cultures, customs and heritage leading up to willingness and embracing of one’s ethnicity. By the use of diction, breaks-between-paragraphs technique, imagery, and organization; Amy Tan ties together the main ideas of each short story, bringing them all together to reveal the ultimate theme of