Preview

Amy Tan A Pair Of Tickets Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
641 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Amy Tan A Pair Of Tickets Analysis
Discovering New Perspectives and Heritage: “A Pair of Tickets”
Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets,” is a story about a young woman who was born in California, named Jing-Mei, who travels to China three months after her mother’s death, in hopes of finding her long-lost twin sisters. Along her voyage, she finds her Chinese heritage and overcomes the sorrow she felt for her late mother. In her story “A Pair of Tickets,” Amy Tan uses setting, point of view, and symbol to illustrate the narrator’s journey to find her heritage.

The setting of the story takes place in China, which enacts an important role in assisting the reader’s perception of how Jing-mei find’s her legacy in her native land. The moment She arrives in Shenzhen, she starts feeling unusual,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    <br>Initially, Jing-Mei doesn't have the drive to succeed as her mother does. Her mother has many ideas for her to succeed. At first, it was to be a Chinese Shirley Temple. Then, it was anything out of Ripley's Believe it or not, or Reader's Digest. Jing-Mei's mother would also give her tests—but she failed them all. Eventually. Jing-Mei began to perform listlessly and pretend to be bored. Then, when her mother saw a little Chinese girl playing the piano on the ED Sullivan Show, she got the same idea for Jing-Mei.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Amy Tan’s story “A Pair of Tickets”, the protagonist June May and her 72-year-old father are on a train heading to China. Their first stop will be Guangzhou, where they will get together with her father's aunt whom he hasn't seen in 62 years. Their final destination will be Shanghai, where they will meet June's two half-sisters whom she has never…

    • 63 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. What is Leah’s attitude to her Chinese identity as she travels to China? How do we know? (page 10)…

    • 774 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Model Extended Response

    • 736 Words
    • 1 Page

    In The China Coin by Allan Baillie, Leah gains new insights about her sense of belonging during her time in China. This is revealed effectively through the composer’s use of narrative voice, flashback and descriptive language.…

    • 736 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think the author use flashback technique in her story. She write some scene which takes the narrative in time from the current point in the story. The readers understand that the author write about Old China, because she describe some traditions. Women in that time have not the rights, the main character could not say her opinion for her husband, father, brothers. Women can only do what the men order them. But in the old China women and men have different rights. Men can command the women, men more dominate at that time. Also, they have choice to study or marry. In addition, them government or parents give a field.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A quote from the story is, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America” (Tan 18). This quote shows that all of Jing-mei’s mother’s hopes lay in America. She faced many disappointments after losing her parents, home, husband, and daughters. She has lost a key part of her culture by losing most of her family. This will impact her views on America and Jing-mei. This will also be the cause of her high hopes. Another quote from the story is, “Only two kinds of daughters! Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” (Tan 24). This quote shows that Jing-mei’s mother’s cultural identity influences her views on what she believes Jing-mei should be like. She believes that Jing-mei should be a prodigy. She also believes that Jing-mei should be obedient and always listen to what she says. Another quote from the story is, “For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be, I could only be me” (Tan 24). This quote could qualify the argument because Jing-mei’s views are different from what her mother taught her and believes. However, Jing-mei’s experience causes her to form her own cultural identity that is different from her mother’s. Jing-mei’s cultural identity causes her to believe that she cannot be a prodigy and that she can only be…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As its complex structure suggests, the book tries to organize the the stories of mother and daughter with the intention of reaching the same destination: the daughter's recovery of her cultural and ethnic identity as Chinese by overcoming the generational gap and the cultural differences between herself and her mother. The mother intend to hand over their "good intentions" and "usable past" in China to their daughter in America. Amy Tan, depicts the relationship between Jing-mei, a young Chinese-American girl, and her mother, a Chinese immigrant, her mother. She does not have something special things. However, her normal life has changed a little because of her mother.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    2 Kinds

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages

    A young Chinese American woman, Jing-Mei “June” Woo, recalls, after her mother's death, her mother's sadness at having left her twin baby girls in China in 1949. June has used her mother's regret as a weapon in a battle of wills focusing on what her mother wants her to be and what she wants. June wins, leaving her mother, Suyuan, stunned when she says she wishes she were dead like the twins. Although this scene characterizes the common struggle for power between mother and daughter, the story also illustrates…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The plot focus on two themes: the American Dream and the tension between Jing-mei and her Mother. To Jing Mei’s Mother, “America is where dream do come true, pushes Jing-mei to have such a high expectations of her daughter by hoping that her daughter would be a great success one day. She has “no idea exactly where her daughter talent lies on”, but she thinks that her daughter has great capability. It is a matter of finding what exactly Jing-mei talent is. First, Mrs. Woo tries to transform into a child actress, then tries intellectual tests, lastly she thinks she might be a pianist (p.385-388).…

    • 1981 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One tragic event in China, which was the Tiananmen square massacre sparked the curiosity of Grace specially for the safety of Chun-mei during that event. For the first time in her life she asked a question to Kevin her adoptive dad about Chun-mei. An example is a scene that happened in the book, ”What about Chun-mei?” I asked. “I’m sure she’s alright,too.” our eyes met briefly. I look away. It was the first time I had said the name Chun-mei without anger. Because of this tragic event, it was the very first time Grace thought about the safety of her mother Chun-mei. It also sparked her interest on what is happening in China even though she hated her cultural heritage when she was a child. A few years have passed, Grace started to learn how to speak and write Mandarin with the help of Mr. Frank. After years of learning she started to appreciate the idea of being able to speak in another language Grace quoted that “Many times, I basked in the sense of superiority it gave me.” (Ting Xing Ye 121). Grace starts to appreciate the beauty and benefit of speaking Mandarin even though she abominated her culture when she was a child. She starts to feel superior of being able to speak Chinese since she is the only person in Milford that can speak it. Grace hated the idea of stereotyping other Asians saying they're all the same and she classifies all of them are different,…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    At the beginning of the novel, Leah does not really want to go to China and only goes to try to find the other half of the coin that her father was so interested in. However, as Leah learns about China and its history, and her extended family and their history, she begins to understand more about herself and her mother. This contributes to her sense of identity and feelings of where and to whom she belongs.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belonging Trial Paper

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Furthermore, as she comes to the realization of her connection to Chinese culture. The use of irony “but today I realize what it means to be Chinese. I am 36 years old. My mother is dead and I am on a train… I am going to China” exhibits her attempts to rekindle her ties with her culture. There is a sense of isolation evident as her mother was her last correlation to her heritage and in order…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Pair of Tickets Essay

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The story takes place in china. The setting of this story is very important as it all revolts around the Chinese culture. One as a reader can be able to place oneself in the same situation and experience the feelings that are being presented in this story. The story is being told from a first person point of view. The narrator is Jing-Mei “June May” Woo. She is the 36-year old American born daughter of Suyuan a women who made the big decision which was to abandoned her twins, however she did it for love because at the time she thought she was going to die. June May is the one telling the story. We only know what the narrator thinks. We can only make inferences about the rest of the characters in the story by the way they behave. The narrator embarks an adventurous journey. Along the way she learns many things about her real roots she discovers things that she never knew before.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This memoir enticingly blends Kingston’s youth as a Chinese-American girl and the stories she developed from Chinese myths her mother retold. Kingston recounts a variety of talk-stories from her mother, Chinese myths, and her own experiences. Although…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Joy Luck Club Identity

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Suyuan had to make the hard decision to leave her twin babies on the side of the road in hopes some kind stranger would take them in, that way she would not have to see them die. Suyuan searches for her babies all through her life in America, sending multitudes of letters; they finally get in touch with her two months after she has died. Because her mother is not alive to meet her children, Jing Mei takes her place and the trip enables her to finally recognize her Chinese ancestry. The minute she enters China she "feels different" and can realize that she is "becoming Chinese" (306). At fifteen Jing Mei believed she was only as Chinese as her "Caucasian friends" (306). Yet her mother counters thoughts, telling her: "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese" (306). Once in China Jing Mei decides her mother was right and she "has never really known what it meant to be Chinese" (307). She has never understood her mother or her heritage. This trip is the connecting link to understanding her life. She begins to feel natural in China, thinking to herself on the train: "I am in China… It feels right" (312). Jing Mei sees the landscape, the people, the histories, and the families in China and sees where her mother was speaking from all of those years. She knows a "little percent" of her mother know (15). It becomes "obvious" to Jing Mei to see what "part of [her] is Chinese"; it is "in her family, in her blood"…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays