Culture Exposed In Amy Tan's Fish Cheeks

Everyone comes from different families; which comes with different traditions and customs. We are all different in our own unique way. The problem is some people are ashamed of their differences. People like to fit in with the crowd. Amy Tan wrote “Fish Cheeks” to explain a time when she was ashamed of her Chinese culture, because she wanted to be like everyone else. She wrote this to teach the reader a lesson about being unique in their own way. Amy Tan does an amazing job using different tones to get her message across. Tan starts by telling a story of a time when she was younger where she felt embarrassed because of her culture. The story starts with a anxious, or rather desperate tone. “For Christmas, I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.” Tan immediately opens with how she feels about the minister’s son. She ends the first paragraph with, “and a slim new American nose.” She is a young Chinese girl who doesn’t like where she comes from. Being that she lives in …show more content…
She becomes nervous when she “found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner.” She continues to say, “I cried.” This shows that she’s embarrassed of her family, and she doesn’t want her crush over for dinner. “What terrible disappoint-ment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?” Amy Tan is scared to be seen as different. Tan really sticks with this embarassed concerned tone, and does a great job at explaining how she felt without saying it. “Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.” She continues to say “I wanted to disappear.” She says this after describing the food, as well as her family's behavior. At this point she is not only embarrassed, but she is ashamed of her family. The climax of the story has sort of the same tone, but at the same time a little