Fish Cheeks Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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The transition from childhood to adulthood can be challenging. There are many things to learn and let go. Sometime teenagers can dramatize certain events to make themselves seem defenseless. Amy Tan, Chinese-American author, makes her Chinese Christmas seem insufferable. In Tan’s passage “Fish Cheeks”, Tan uses diction and details to exemplify the indignity caused by her Chinese culture. The diction Tan uses exemplifies the degradation of Tan due to her family's Chinese culture. Using the word “stunned” to describe her reaction to a typical Chinese custom is bizarre (Paragraph 6). Tan has grew up accustomed to this, and is now surprised at her Dad for practicing a polite Chinese gesture. Tan only acted this way due to the presence of the the minister’s family. Tan continued displayed the abnormal behavior throughout the passage making the reader assume this is the only way she acts. This makes her …show more content…

Using the detail,“Dinner threw me deeper into despair,” conveys the painful feelings caused by her family at dinner (Paragraph 5). This detail indicates that Tan was continuingly losing hope that the night would get better. Tan reveals these agonizing feelings to make the reader feel compunctious. In making the reader feel sorry for her, Tan knows she can continue to misreport details in the passage without being questioned. The detail,“What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners,” emblematizes the dishonor Tan feels towards her relatives and cultural background (Paragraph 2). This detail implies that due to Tan’s attraction to Robert, she will detract her feelings of others to better her relationship with Robert. Tan used this detail to reveal that if Tan cannot better her relationship with Robert, she will become despondent. As a result of distorting details, the passage illustrates Tan’s dishonorable feelings towards her cultural

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