In the short story “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, Jing-Mei Woo, who is a 36-year-old woman, is traveling to China with her father for the family reunion. When casually coming back motherland, she has learned the thorough story about her deceased mother. This encounter directly changes her comprehension forever. In my opinion, there are three reasons why she changed her mind about Suyuan in particular and her Chinese’s heritage in general, these are her self-reflection, the conversation between Canning Woo and her aunt and the meeting with her half-sisters. The author has built the story of occasions that Jing-Mei Woo has to undergo, from which she consecutively removes the ravels of the story. Indeed, after each event, she gradually recognizes …show more content…
Shortly after coming to the hotel, she has an intimate dinner with her father and Syan Yen. She feels the familiar taste in Chinese foods. After dinner, she asks her father consecutive questions about her mother’s untold story. ”What was that pork stuff she used to make that had the texture of sawdust? What were the names of the uncles who died in Shanghai? What had she dreamt all these years about her other daughters? All the times when she got mad at me, was she really thinking about them? Did she wish I were they? Did she regret that I wasn't?” (Tan 128). Jing-Mei's dad uncovers that the names of her two stepsisters, Chwun Yu and Chwun Hwa, signify “Spring Rain” and “Spring Flower”, which mirrors their cozy relationship as twins. Through her own name, Jing-Mei likewise shares a unique association with the twins as "Jing" signifies "superb" or 'immaculate substance', and "Mei" signifies 'younger sibling.' In picking the name of her most youthful little girl, Suyuan trusted it spoke to the purest pith of the main conceived she needed to abandon. As Jing-Mei mulls over the significance of her mom's name, which signifies “Long-Cherished Wish”, she understands that she has a much more grounded association with her Chinese roots and her mom's past than she ever suspected. "Your name also special," he says. I wonder if any name in Chinese is not something …show more content…
She comprehends the similarities between the sisters by eyes. Finally, she has faced her lost sisters in a lifetime. Jing-Mie delights because they all see how similar they are to their mother. She forgives herself; they embrace one another and begin crying because her time is running out, unfortunately. On that day, all nervous is deserted behind, she enjoys fulfilling the last happy moment before coming back to
As June progresses through the journey into finding herself, she came to know that her mother wish was to reunite her sister with her family because after all Suyuan meant long-cherished wish. Suyuan was the person who gave her daughter the pendant that helped her overcome the obstacles and was the factor that furthermore boosted June’s confidence in recovering her mother’s wish. According to June, she was nothing like her mother but she has forgotten the bond that only blood related relatives share. There is only one fact that June could not change which helped her find her twins sisters and that was the unmistakable facial features that the daughters had in common with their mother. June says, “The gray-green surface changes...open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish”(332). When June met her sisters, it was not just because she wanted to fulfill her mother’s wishes but strengthen the bond because of the one thing they have in common which was they were all part of their mother, Suyuan. After all, her name Jing Mei meant the pure essence and little sister, which means that she was made up of the essence of her sisters. This was the reward that her mother had given Jing Mei, two sisters and all the love that Suyuan gave June which she had not realized before.
A Pair of Tickets”, by Amy Tan, is a brief narrative about the conscience and reminiscence of a young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei, who is on a trip to China to meet her two half-sisters for the first time in her life. Amy Tan is an author who uses the theme of Chinese-American life, converging primarily on mother-daughter relationships, where the mother is an emigrant from China and the daughter is fully Americanized --yellow on the surface and white underneath. In this story, the mother tries to communicate rich Chinese history and legacy to her daughter, but she is completely ignorant of their heritage. At the opening of the story "A Pair of Tickets" Jandale Woo and her father are on a train, the are destined for China. Their first stop will be Guangzhou, China where father will reunite with his long lost aunt. After visiting with her for a day they plan to take a plane to Shanghai, China where Jandale meets her two half-sisters for the first time. It is both a joyful time and yet a time of contrition, Jandale has come to China to find her Chinese roots that her mother told ...
In the beginning, Jing-mei, is “just as excited as my mother,”(469). Jing-mei was eagerly hoping to make her mother proud. However, her mother’s obsession with becoming a prodigy discouraged Jing-mei. The daily test began to aggravated Jing-mei because they made her feel less sma...
In Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets" (the last chapter of The Joy Luck Club), the understanding of the importance of names is the key to truly apprehend a sacred relationship between mother ("Suyuen") and daughters (June or "Jing-Mei", "Chwun Yu" and "Chwun Hwa").
As the daughter mature, they begin to feel that their identities are incomplete and become interested in their Chinese heritage. One of Jing-mei’s greatest fears about her trip to China is not that others will recognize her as American, but that she herself will fail to recognize any Chinese elements within herself. Waverly speaks wishfully about blending in too well in China now that it’s in fashion, Waverly likes to think that being Chinese is part of her identity, and doesn’t appreciate it when her mom points out how American Waverly.
As she gets off the train, Jing-mei starts to describe her surroundings once again. For example, she describes Guangzhou as “The landscape has become gray, filled with low flat cement buildings, old factories, and then tracks and more tracks filled with trains like ours passing by in the opposite direction. I see platforms crowded with people wearing drab Western clothes, with spots of bright colors: little children wearing pink and yellow, red and peach” (266). The colors mentioned go along with how Jing-mei described her mother wearing clothes that do not go well together. The colors are bright, much brighter than the colors she saw on the train. It could mean that she is getting closer to her mother by seeing her in other people in China. However, Jing-mei has not fully embraced her roots, which is understandable since that side of her has only just awoken. Again, Jing-mei is questioning herself when she and her father are going through customs. For example, she describes the long lines as “getting on a number 30 Stockton bus in San Francisco” (266). Immediately after making that connection, Jing-mei reminds herself “I am in China. I remind myself. And somehow the crowds don’t bother me. It feels right” (266). Jing-mei is allowing herself to drift away to what is comfortable. Reminding herself that she is in China, she begins to feel at peace and that it feels
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
When her mother dies, Jing-Mei really shows how much of a dynamic character she is. She realizes that, just like the songs in the piano book, her mother and she "were they were two halves of the same song" (Tan 357).
Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” follows a thirty-six year old woman named June May who has found herself lost from her own heritage and with loads of questions that were left without answers about her ancestry. According to “Explanation of Amy Tan’s A Pair of Tickets by Lit Finder Contemporary Collection” “this novel is a collection of sixteen interrelated stories centered on the diverse emotional relationships of four different mother-daughter pairs”. Growing and being raised in San Francisco California as a Chinese-American June May never believed or felt as if she were actually really Chinese even though her Mother was from China and had immigrated to the United States. Following the death of her mother June
In the beginning of the story, the author describes the Chin Yuen's as American in appearance yet Chinese in customs. Throughout the story she continues to describe the deterioration of the Chinese customs by American ideal. This is pinpointed when Mr. Chin Yuen decides to let his daughter marry the boy that she loves. The conversation that Mr. Spring Fragrance has with Young Carman explains that only in American culture is it customary to find love before marriage; in the Chinese tradition, all marriages are arranged. This clearly exemplifies the manner in which the Chinese characters are more and more disregarding their Chinese culture and taking on this new American standard of living. Ironically, Sui Sin Far conveys the notion that the American tradition is not necessarily better than the Chinese tradition. More so she demonstrates the struggle of identity between two worlds that both make sense. Though Laura and Kai Tzu have found their happiness in the American tradition of marriage, the reader discovers that Mr. and Mrs. Spring Fragrance are equally as happy even through the Chinese tradition of marriage.
This story is about a young Lady that lives in California with her mother and Father. She
She sees the opportunities that America has to offer, and does not want to see her daughter throw those opportunities away. She wants the best for her daughter, and does not want Jing-Mei to ever let go of something she wants because it is too hard to achieve. "America is where all my mother's hopes lay. . .There were so many ways for ... ...
her good-byes to her own family because in the Chinese culture she is now part
Jing-mei and her mother have conflicting values of how Jing-mei should live her life. She tries to see what becoming a prodigy would be like from her mother's point of view and the perks that it would bring her as she states in the story "In all my imaginings, I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect. My mother and f...
...ith Jing Mei and her mother, it is compounded by the fact that there are dual nationalities involved as well. Not only did the mother’s good intentions bring about failure and disappointment from Jing Mei, but rooted in her mother’s culture was the belief that children are to be obedient and give respect to their elders. "Only two kinds of daughters.....those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan1) is the comment made by her mother when Jing Mei refuses to continue with piano lessons. In the end, this story shows that not only is the mother-daughter relationship intricately complex but is made even more so with cultural and generational differences added to the mix.