Summary of 'Sixty-Nine Cents' by Gary Shteyngart

“Sixty-Nine-Cents” by Gary Shteyngart
In the article, “Sixty-Nine-Cents”, Gary Shteyngart writes about his first trip to Disney world when he was fourteen years old. Although Shteyngart’s family already immigrated to the U.S at that time, but his family still not blend to the U.S style life. In paragraph 8, Shteyngart describes the Russian style lunch that his mother served for them when they were in McDonald. He writes the detail of the lunch in order to show how his family still remain their old culture and do not really try to get use to the U.S culture. When his mother got out the Russian lunch, Shteyngart refused to stay with them, because he really wants to try U.S typical food and blend in U.S culture. Also, Shteynagart compare his family and a Miami family. His describes his family as “the newly tanned resident aliens”, and he described the Miami family as a very modern family that “bought themselves the happiest of meals.” He thinks that his family act like countryman that is new here, even they already immigrated to the U.S and is now “Americans,” and the Miami family is just in the “American style”. They act freely, talk freely and eat freely (eat what they want) which is just what Shteynagart wants.
I think Shteynagart’s memory of the trip is that he wanted to change, but his family did not. He will remember the days that he was trying to be an American and the days that he “fights against” the tradition that his family held. What his parents will remember is that they had a very nice trip to Disney world and their weird behaved son. I think this is a really good article tells about the real feeling when an alien first came to the U.S. As an international student, I also feel that I need to “fight against” the tradition that I used to have and try to be familiar with a new culture when I first came here. This important experience will stay with me in my whole life, because we cannot stay in the same place forever, we need to learn how to change.