A Pair Of Tickets Analysis

The short story "A Pair of Tickets," authored by Amy Tan is a detailed analysis of issues that concern many people that are of a different descent but that have been residents or migrated to another country for a long time. The story was written in such a way that if one does not take cognizance of interpretation of stories; one may not really gesticulate what the author is trying to portray. The story was about a young American student on a journey for the first time to China with a plan of reuniting with her half-sisters for the first time after the demise of her mother. The writer made use of stereotypes and prevalence of internal conflicts in presenting the theme of the story to the readers for easy understanding. The Protagonist or

The critical writing of Everyday Use titled “Fight vs. Flight: A Re-Evaluation of Dee” talks about Dee as a person. The writer states that the story can be interpreted as a mothers awakening of a daughter’s superficiality and to the other’s deep-seated understanding of heritage. She writes how Maggie and her mother live a simple life, alongside the special characteristics as a family, there folk heritage as well as to how they stay true to themselves, while the world is changing. Compared to Dee whom is portrayed as a shallow, condescending and manipulative person aside from being overly concerned with style, fashion, and aesthetics. Which gives the perspective of Dee lacking true understanding towards herself as a person and her heritage.

The comparisons made in “A Pair of Tickets”, between the Chinese and the American culture show how similar they are, and how dissimilar they are too. The point of showing us the similarities, was to express it was not just being in a different

American Born Chinese is a story which echoes the determination of each character trying their best to rise above the prejudices and preconceived notions of the cultural majority. It is important to examine the transparent theme of injustices forced upon minority groups trying to blend in with their peers of the majority race. The book’s leading character, Jin Wang, has been thrust into a classroom where he is the only Asian boy. Immediately, on his first day of school, stereotyping commences as the teacher incorrectly introduces Jin as having moved from China. “Class I’d like to give a warm Mayflower Elementary welcome to your new friend and classmate Jin Jang [Jin Wang]…

In A Pair of Tickets her parents being Chinese immigrants is basically what makes the protagonist who she is, and its also what she struggles with the most. Her mom would say to her “Cannot be helped” (Tan 129). She would deny her mom and tell her that she didn't have any Chinese in her, but her mom said “ Once you are born Chinese you cannot help but feel and think Chinese.” (Tan 129). And as soon as she enters China, she feels what her mother was describing.

Another stereotype Waverly is confronting is society’s beliefs that being Chinese made someone less of a person. Struggling with the internal conflict of not being good enough or being thought of as Un-American. Waverly’s mother also struggled with the external conflict of the Chinese always having to prove themselves in an American world.

The short story “A Pair of Tickets”, by Amy Tan, highlights the distress that war victims face during times of conflict. Tan accentuates the shocking actions that a mother must take in order to protect her children while choosing death for herself. These actions question the state of mind that the mother must have after having to take such drastic measures. Furthermore, this question is carried on to the modern 21st century because of the crisis that many refugees are facing in various countries, including their own. Numerous victims of war are being subjected to cruel, inhuman scenes that can have an affect on their psychological stability.

The story mainly focuses on the main characters, Jing Mei. Jing Mei was a Chinese born in America and grew up with American lifestyle. Before her mother died, she wanted to reject her identity as Chinese because she wants to live as an absolute

She is outgoing and determined to make something out of herself. Dee is lighter than her sister Maggie, and she has a nice figure, and fuller hair. She is smarter than Maggie. But, Dee knows the least about her heritage. Dee always want nice things: “A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she’d made from an old suit somebody gave me” (Walker 316). Dee judges Maggie because of her burned scars: “ Sometimes I can still here the flames and feel Maggie’s arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes.” (Walker 316).

In “A Pair of Tickets” the author Amy Tan discusses about the life of her family. The author then discovers she has long lost twin sister who are back home in China, but what they didn’t know was the death of their mother had occured not long after she had given them up. In the text the author mentions “But today i realize i’ve never really known what it means to be Chinese” (120). The text suggest that she hardly knows her culture of where she came from and the traditions she was born into. As the book progresses the author approaches a difficult situation where she is meeting her twin sister for the first time and they expect to see their mom, but they had no idea that she had passed away (121). Tan is stuck in a situation where se is at

As the three excellent and well-written sub-stories within the novel come to a close, a simplistic idea sprouts from Yang’s writing and can be seen as this: be proud of who you are. Of course, this may seem to be an easy and basic solution to Jin’s issue at hand, but the idea of individualism and being proud of one’s own sense of self could be an issue concerning with the concept of intersectionality. In Yang’s tale, Jin must not only be proud of his Chinese ethnicity, but his American identity

When her sister becomes frightened Dee begins taking photos of the home, her mother, and sister Maggie. She is also very interested in the milk churn and the old quilts made by late family members. Their communication problems seemed to originate with Dee’s deep shame from her past to her present fight to preserve and make known the struggles faced by African American’s. However, as she states, her mother does not understand her heritage and that it is a new day in age for their race, this makes communication very difficult for the two of

Historically that statement remains accurate, presently this experience still remains accurate, but in a rather inconspicuous form of miseducation and deplorable standards. This timeless experience does not translate well for Dee, as it makes her appear ungrateful and selfish in her thoughts and actions. Whilst Maggie seems content with her culture, and heritage, an argument could also be made that Maggie only appears content due to her deformity, which seem to deter her from being ambitious and renders her timid enough that she barely makes eye contact with Hakim-a-barber or tried to flee at the sight of her sister upon arrival. Dee being more educated, seem to have a different perspective of her culture, and not her heritage. Culturally speaking, Dee was more than willing to go back to her African roots and reject that of what was of her African American culture to the extent that she gave up a family name that was bestowed upon her in exchange for an African name. she believes that the name Dee takes root from “people who oppress [her]” (318). Clearly Dee cherishes her heritage to the extent that she was more than willing to fight to preserve a piece of

Dee seems to be having an self-internal crisis trying to identify herself. She is portrayed to be arrogant and ignorant in the process of her attempts to recreate herself and retrace her roots. When Dee is younger and the house burns down Mama describes her “standing off under the sweetgum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney. Why don’t you do a dance around the ashes?... She hated the house that much”(Walker, 293). Dee has exhibited her hatred for the lifestyle she was living and her desire to reconstruct everything about, at a young age. She fails to realize that her attempts are only leading her to rejecting her true heritage. Through Dee’s character, Walker disputes the ideology that some African Americans have of tracing back their African roots rather than aiding the Black community in the American society to progress and nationalize themselves. People fail to realize that even though their ancestors were forced into this country from Africa, the Blacks have to work together in helping the community grow as they have now formed a new community. There is nothing wrong with wanting to retrace your roots, however, abandoning your heritage in doing so is where the controversy comes in. Dee’s character is a representation of people who abandon their legacy to be someone they are

It is unquestionable that numerous short stories in present-day include topics discussing the importance of family values and acknowledgement of culture. The main factor that sets the two stories “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” apart from countless is the fact that the two central characters are remarkably unique yet strikingly relatable. In the story “Flight Patterns” the main character William, is a Spokane Indian who embraces his culture and heritage. On the other hand, in “A Pair of Tickets” the central character, Jing-Mei, is a woman who genuinely did not regard herself as Chinese for a majority of her life. The values of family and importance of heritage are both exemplified in “A Pair of Tickets” and “Flight Patterns” however,