Fish Cheeks By Amy Tan

Fish Cheeks By Amy Tan KEY

I (shows ist person POV) barbarous in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen.

He was not Chinese, but as white every bit Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-

haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.

When I found out that my parents had invited the minister's family over for Christmas

Eve dinner, I cried. (inciting incident) What would Robert recollect of our shabby

Chinese

Christmas? What would he think of our noisy

Chinese

relatives who lacked proper American

manners? What terribldue east disappointment would he experience upon seeing not a roasted turkey and

sugariness potatoes, only

Chinese

nutrient? (chief conflict is clear4person 5. self4Amy is embarrassed

about being Chinese)

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creatingrand a strange menu.

She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with

appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to exist

thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges.

A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with chiliadnife

markings so they resembled bike tires. (diction suggests negative qualities of this Chinese

food)

So they arrived4the minister's family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells

and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of

existence.

Dinner threw me deeper into despair. (Amy's thoughts shodue west

she is embarrassed) My relatives licked the ends of their

chopsticks and reached air conditioningross the table, dipping them into the

dozen or so plates of food. Robert and his family waited patiently

for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmuruby with

pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish.

Robert grimaced. Then my begetter poked his chopsticks merely below

the fish middle and plucked out the soft meat. <Amy, (name of protagonist) your favorite,= he said,

offering me the tender fish cheek. (symbol of being Chinese) I wanted to disappear. (Amy'due south

thoughts show she is embarrassed)

At the finish of the meal my father leaned dorsum and belched loudly, thanking my mother

for her fine coomale monarch. <It'south a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,= explained my

father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking downwardly at his plateast with a reddened face up.

The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the

night.

Afterward everyoneastward had gone, my mother said to me, <You want to be the same as American

girls on the outside.= She handed me an early gift. Information technology was a miniskirt (symbol of being

American) beige tweed. <But within you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are

different. (inkling to theme) Your only shame is to have shame.=

And even thousandgh I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood howestward much I

had suffered during the evening's dinner. Information technology wasn't until many years tardilyr (shows reminiscent

perspective and tone)fourlong subsequently I had gotten over my crush on Robert4that I was able to

fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve

that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods (in other words, the one thousandom was proverb <be proud

of being Chinese).

Fish Cheeks By Amy Tan,

Source: https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/kingsborough-community-college/english/fish-cheeks-assignment-answer-key/34935505

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