Looking Whithin

Essay by MDIAZHigh School, 12th grade November 2014

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Becks 4

Sara Becks

Professor Bayes

ENC 1101

September 19, 2014

Looking Within

Jing-Mei is not your traditional Chinese girl. She struggles with her connection to her Chinese culture. Her mother Suyuan always tells her that "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese". (147) This is not how Jing-Mei feels about herself or her culture. She feels that she is just as American as most of her American friends and is often embarrassed by her culture. During her trip to China she finds out what it means to be Chinese. Throughout the story "A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan, she shows the development of Jing Mei and her discovery of her culture.

Jing-Mei's is Chinese, but has a hard time identifying with her culture. Although her mother holds her Chinese roots closely and practices her culture, Jing-Mei feels that aside from blood, she does not feel like she is Chinese and is often embarrassed by her mother's Chinese quirks.

She did not like the colors that her mother wore and did not like the way her mother always tried to bargain for better prices. When she was fifteen she denied her culture stating, "I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my Caucasian friends agreed; I was as Caucasian a they were" (147). When Jing Mei's mother dies she is forced to go to China and deliver the news to her family. It is not the news to her family that intimidates her. She is intimidated by the fact that se must tell her two sisters that she has never met about their mother. She feels uncomfortable taking this message to her family because she has never really embraced her heritage and also feels guilt because her...