“The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese. (179). In the story A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan, the protagonist character, Jing-mei, finds herself in several difficult situations due to how her social and cultural upbringing has shaped her. She finds herself pulled between her Chinese DNA and her American background. While she was raised being told that she was Chinese and “it’s in her blood”, she does not identify as such, because she grew up in America and only sees herself as an American. After her mother’s passing, …show more content…
The definition of the word theme is the message about life or human nature that is “the focus” in the story that the writer tells. (Glossary of Literary Terms). One of the messages the author is trying to get across to the reader is, the ability to accept ones true self. June May continuously worries about what her family will think about her. “And rather than be impressed, I am worried about the expense, as well as the appearance it must give Aiyi, that we rich Americans cannot be without our luxuries even for one night.” (187). Her family is over joyed with them visiting and could care less about judging her or her father. June learns by the end of her trip that she needs to accept herself and stop worrying about what others my think. How she sees herself is what matters. Another theme in this story is that blood is thicker than distance. This meaning regardless how far away family may be, they will always be a part of her culture and history. June May’s family in China loves her and cares for her, despite the fact that they have never met before. None of that matters because family is blood and no matter the circumstance they will always be a part of her Chinese heritage. “You wrote and said you would come for only one day. One day! How can you see your family in only one day!”(186). June’s father, Canning Woo, had told his aunt that they would come to China and visit for one day. His aunt was …show more content…
Most of these conflicts are self-imposed drama that interrupt the story often through the character conflict. She builds up these conflicts in her head and make them much worse than they really are. For example; she worries about her family judging her by obsessing about every tiny detail. Later she realizes that this was never an actual conflict because her family loves her and does not judge her. Another conflict she deals with is not knowing her culture and how she does not feel Chinese. “I ask, what does Jing-mei mean?” “Your name so special, Jing like excellent jing. Not just good, it’s something pure, essential the best quality. Jing is good leftover stuff when you take impurities out of something like gold, or rice, or salt. And ‘Mei,’ this is common mei, as in meimei, ‘younger sister.’ ” (190). All June May needed to do in order to understand her Chinese heritage was ask about it. Before the trip to China she did not even know what her name meant in Chinese. She grew up in America and never really cared about her Chinese roots when she was younger but now that her mother has died she feels ashamed not knowing her culture. She finally realizes that she doesn’t need to be ashamed and learns from her father, his aunt and other family members about her family history. Another similar conflict she deals with
Though struggles about her mother’s talk-stories, and her experiences in America with her family, Maxine works toward knowing what it is to be a Chinese-American.
In the story 'Two Kinds'; by Amy Tan, we are shown the struggles of a young girl Jing-Mei. Her struggle is that of a young girl growing up and trying to find her own sense of identity. Her troubles are compounded by her mother, who convinces her that she can become someone important. Because of her mother's constant overbearing behavior, Jing-Mei does everything she can to annoy and displease her mother even to the point of being a failure. This fight to find her own identity against her mother's wishes shows how parents cannot control their child's life; they can only point them in the right direction and let them make their own choices.
It is very interesting the difference between Jing-mei’s mother and Sophie’s Grandmother. You see her show the difference between China and America , how in China the word ‘supportive’ does not exist basically that everyone is on their own and has to fend for themselves. Is as if shes an outsider looking in from the outside into the daily life of her daughter Nattie and her husband John and see what they
As someone with a hyphenated-identity and, more specifically, as a Chinese-Canadian, I’ve spent much of my life looking for a middle-ground between my two identities and at times have wished that I was just one or the other. This is similar to one of the conflicts the protagonist of “Everyone Talked Loudly in Chinatown” by Anne Jew faces. Lin’s struggle between her Chinese roots and her new Western identity results in her isolation from her family and it is not until she is able to appreciate her family’s traditional nature that she is able to reconnect with them. Since a young age, Lin has despised parts of her culture and her attempts to distance herself from it also results in her distancing herself from her grandmother. For example, “[she
The struggle with conflict between parents and children is something that almost occur to several teens, especially those who drift into a culture outside of their parents’. In “Two kinds,” by Amy Tan excerpt from The Joy Luck Club,is an example of constant conflict between a strict and overbearing parents, and their child. The main character is a young Chinese- American daughter, who childhood was affected by her overbearing Chinese mother. Throughout the whole story, Jing Mei and her mother had a numerous amount of conflict, which escorted to the central conflict. Jing Mei and her mother is like an apple and oranges, her mother is an imperious and an overbearing Chinese mother. While Jing Mei was an apathetic American upbringing.
In Amy Tan's A Pair of Tickets, Jing-Mei remembers her fifteen year old self feeling a deeper attachment to the United States, her homeland. She knows she is Chinese and it is in her blood, but she finds herself "becoming" it as she travels with her father and learns about her heritage. The train entered into Shenzhen, she began to "feel Chinese".When she arrived in Guangzhou, she didn't feel like the same person in the passport photo because her hair was different and her face was without makeup. Being there, she felt out of place. The person she knew was superficial. The drab American within her could not help her while in China. Therefore, she found herself with a connection to her family although before she didn't have one while in the
The Joy Luck Club retold the lives of four women who came from China and their four Americanized daughters. The protagonist, Jing Mei Woo (June) took over her mother’s place at the meetings of a social group called the Joy Luck Club. As its members play mah jong and feast on Chinese delicacies, friends of Jing Mei’s mother spin stories about the past and lament the barriers that exist between their daughter and themselves. In this paper, I will discuss briefly on cultural studies and the Chinese Immigrant Experience and Individual Identity that is very evident in this novel.
Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets," especially, explores the relationship of setting to place, heritage, and ethnic identity. Jing-Mei Woo, the main character, has trouble accepting that she is Chinese, despite her heritage. Jing-Mei Woo believed, at fifteen, that she had no Chinese whatsoever below her skin. If anything, she perceives herself as Caucasian; even her Caucasian friends agreed that she "was as Chinese as they were." Her mother, however, told her differently, "It's in your blood, waiting to be let go." This terrified Jing-Mei, making her believe that it would cause her to suddenly change, "I saw myself transforming like a werewolf." Jing-Mei Woo finally realizes that she has never really known what it means to be Chinese because she was born and has lived in America all her life. After her mother's death, Jing-Mei discovers that she has two twin sisters living in China who have been searching for their mother and that s...
Upon first reading “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl”, it seemed to be about a young girl of Chinese descent struggling to make it through her new school, the Chinese school, and adapting to the life her mother envisioned for her. However, with further reading and understanding, the essay digs deeper into an American girl of Chinese ancestry, who is trying to find out who she is and how she is trying to move past her Chinese culture to adapt into the American way of life but other people will still recognize her as Chinese.
When she arrives, she feels somehow proud to be Chinese. But her main reason why she went back home is to reflect her mother past life on her present life. Through the setting and her relatives, Jing Mei learns the nature of Chinese American culture. The main setting takes place in China, effects of the main character’s point of view through changing her sense of culture and identity. The time period plays a large role on the story, there is disconnect between the mother and daughter who came from different culture. In “A Pair of Tickets”, we learn it’s a first person narrator, we also learn detail of what the narrator is thinking about, detail of her past and how life compared to China and the US are very different. The theme is associated with the motherland and also has to deal with her mother’s death and half sisters. Her imagination of her sister transforming into adult, she also expected them to dresses and talk different. She also saw herself transforming, the DNA of Chinese running through her blood. In her own mind, from a distance she thinks Shanghai, the city of China looks like a major American city. Amy Tan used positive imagery of consumerism to drive home her themes of culture and identity, discovering her ancestral
The theme in a story is the message or big idea that the author is trying to reveal in his or her narrative. If there was no underlining theme in Sherman Alexie’s short story, “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” then readers would have no interest in reading the fictional story. Understanding the message that Alexie is trying to display to his readers can vary in many ways and depends on the reader 's understanding of the story. Strong themes that are presented in the fictional tale are man versus self conflict, family, and tribal identity. Victor is a tribal member that has had a rough life and has to deal with his father passing away. Not only does he have to come to terms with his father 's death, but he also has to face his
The main conflict of this story is Jing-mei's struggle between accepting her identity based on her heritage and not on a personal image. There is no real order in which this conflict is clarified, because the climax and resolution come about at the same time. The conflict is internal due to the fact that she cannot accept her true identity. The climax comes when she finally meets her twin sisters and says, "I get beyond the gate, we run toward each other, all three of us embracing, all hesitations and expectations forgotten" (870). It is then that the resolution comes into play and "After all these years, it can finally be let go" (870). It is at that point, when she can finally a...
Chang began his description of Chinese identity by stating the importance of where a person has lived. A Chinese youth who is American born or raised and then travels back to China will go through the process of acculturation and have to reconnect with their heritage. (Chang, 10) However, having a sense of both Chinese and American culture often gives a person a sense of belonging and a stronger cultural identity. (Chang, 10) Many Chinese that migrated to America brought their culture with them. They kept their Chinese identity by sustaining the same organization of family life and holding onto their ethnic identity. (Chang, 12) Since many Chinese people would travel back and forth between America and China, they often experienced a transnational family life. (Chang, 12) Therefore, many Chinese migrants felt a sense of their Chinese identity as well as a Chinese-American identity.
Her mother desperately tries to live the life of America through her daughter, since she has come from China and is looking for a better life with her daughter. In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, Jing-mei and her mother are the exact representation of a glory-eager mother, wanting her daughter to be a sensation. The simple of act associating land to one's name over the years, transformed into the unrealistic appetite for wealth and recognition, was the American Dream for many, but achievable by
Throughout the essay, the author, Amy Tan mentions her Chinese immigrant mother’s speech and how it has overall impacted her life. She