Amy Tan Fish Cheeks Essay

Being a teen is not an easy task. Fitting in is one of the first things that people assume teenagers worry about. Those people are not wrong, but they are also forgetting another thing, too. Teenagers also worry about how their parents will act around friends, their crush, just about anybody else their age, did I mention their crush? Teens mainly worry about fitting in with the expectations of society at the time and how their parents act around their crush. In the short story, “Fish Cheeks,” Amy Tan reflects on the time her parents embarrassed her in front of her crush to show that even people of drastically different cultures can have the same embarrassing experiences, too. To start, Tan eases the reader into the story by sharing some information about her fourteen year self. She talks about her crush at the time, Robert, who “was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger” (Tan 1). She establishes herself as a stereotypical teenager throughout the first part of her story. She then reflects on how she “prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose” (Tan 1) for Christmas. Tan shares this information with the reader because she wants to show …show more content…
Specifically, how embarrassed she was by her parents that Christmas. “When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?” (Tan 2). Tan tells the reader this because she wants the reader to relate to her experience. She wants the reader to relate to the experience of being embarrassed by their parents in any situation, not just a “my parents invited my crush’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner”