In the story “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, a young woman named Jing-Mei travels upon a journey into finding her culture. Along the way she takes many different stops in which enriches her knowledge of her background. Setting plays a major role in this particular story as she travels to a foreign land in hope of finding where she came from. The external setting in the story has an immense impact on what is going on internally with Jing-Mei, the narrator. The setting in Tan’s work explores the relationship of place, heritage, and ethnic identity all while giving the readers a deeper insight on the characters within. For Jing-Mei, not feeling Chinese in the U.S. leads her to adventure out of her comfort zone and embark on a journey to China, her mother’s homeland. All stories take place at a certain time and place. Within a story, the setting allows the readers to better understand the characters involved. “A Pair of Tickets” is set as up as a journey to the readers in the very beginning of the story, explaining that Jing-Mei and her father purchased a pair of tickets to travel across the world to China. This is all in hopes to reconnect with the long lost twins that her now deceased mother once had. Suyan, Jing-Mei’s mother, had a dream that one day they would all be reconnected again after Suyan had to abandon them while being a refugee. The first part where setting appears is in the very first line, “The minute…
“The Pair of Tickets” In the story, the Pair of Ticket written by Amy Tan’s, Jing-Mie speculate on the internal conflicts to prove how being ignorant and not embracing one own culture could make a person missed out on the most important element of life, heritage. In addition, the story signifies the challenges the second generation of American immigrant children struggle. Such as being bi-culture/cultural translation dilemma of identity and other obstacles they faced. The second generation of…
The title of Amy Tan’s story, “A Pair of Tickets”, hints to a lot of things. First of all, I assumed from the title that the story will most likely contain a journey-a start and a destination. After reading it, I realized this was true both figuratively and literally. Tickets, whether they are train tickets, airplane tickets or movie tickets, are used for allowance of entry into a particular place. The title also declares that this experience was being shared, because there was a pair of…
June May’s Connection With Her Culture and Dead Mother in A Pair Of Ticket. Amy Tan is an American author of the novels who writes about Chinese American women and her experience with different cultures. Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952, in Oakland, California. She grew up in California and in Switzerland. She studied English and linguistics at San Jose State University and the University of California. Amy Tan was a successful business writer, in 1987 when she took her Chinese immigrant…
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…
As we grow up, sometimes a little part of ourself will start to wonder where we come from. And in certain circumstances we might not feel as if we are what our genetic background says we are. Curiosity will then overflow our thoughts and we begin to doubt our own culture. In most situations our own self has to be exposed to our culture to feel a connection towards it. Although a small amount of people will not be able to figure out where they come from truly, it is important to know that you can…
"A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan In the story "A Pair of Tickets," by Amy Tan, a woman by the name of Jing-mei struggles with her identity as a Chinese female. Throughout her childhood, she "vigorously denied" (857) that she had any Chinese under her skin. Then her mother dies when Jing-Mei is in her 30's, and only three months after her father receives a letter from her twin daughters, Jing-Mei's half sisters. It is when Jing-mei hears her sisters are alive, that she and her dad take a trip…
It is what creates the imaginary world between what the author is betraying and what the reader is portraying. In “A Pair of Tickets”, the setting of Guangzhou, China helps Jing-Mei realize the difference between the place and culture due to her perspective of China being not what she had anticipated. “And then we are caught in a stream of people rushing, and shoving, pushing us along, until we find ourselves in one of a dozen lines waiting to go through customs. I feel as if I were getting on a…
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…
The Chinese way of life in Amy Tan’s story, “A Pair of Tickets” is described by the scenery, the influence of the American lifestyle, and the unbreakable bond of family. When May and her family arrive at in Guangzhou, they take a taxi into the city. Before reaching the city, May describes the outskirts as being very crowed while the taxi weaves in and out of traffic. As the taxi driver continually honks the horn, May notices rows of apartments with laundry hanging over the balconies above her.…