Only 100 words needed….
Response to peer: Yvette
Amy Tan, the writer of “Fish Cheeks”, shares her embarrassment of one of her life experiences. Her discomfiture is due to the awareness of the American culture in comparison to her own Chinese culture. However, she does not consider that with an invitation you are inviting someone else into your own home welcoming your own traditions. Unfortunately, it is not up to the invitees to disregard but to consider someone else’s traditions. She lacks the consideration that they might be open to someone else’s ways of celebrating and one’s own customs. Instead, she wanted to impress them by mimicking their tradition but instead, the parents wanted to stay true to their own culture.
Communication is key, and perhaps if she would have talked to her parents along with informing her crush about their own traditions the outcome would have been different. Discussing her concerns could very well have prevented the awkwardness altogether. Nevertheless, this experience was needed in order to learn a valuable lesson which is accepting yourself, even when it is different from another individual or society.
The author wanted to make the reader aware to not be ashamed of your own nationality, identity, traditions, and customs. Tan wanted to present that exposure to life’s uneasiness teaches one that you can rise above self-shame. She was given support from her mother to bring light the truth to not be ashamed of who you are. By empathizing with Tan’s past encounters, we can learn to accept each other’s lifestyle shade. Engaging in another’s traditional habits broadens our growth. She wanted to spread her message to never be embarrassed by your family, heritage, and self.
