“A pair of tickets” is a narration by Jing Mei in which she and her dad head back to china to reunite with her long lost sisters who are twins. In the course of the story, insight regarding the background of the story is conveyed. This includes the revelation as to why Jing Mei’s mother leaves her twins. The insight also projects the life of the twins after their adoption as well as the life of their mother in America. Sunayun starts the search for her children but fails. She then proceeds and marries another man in the US with whom they conceive Jing Mei. She still wishes to move on with the search but dies before succeeding. A friend later finds the twins and informs them of their mother to whom they write and hope for reunion. In the short story “A pair of Tickets” by Jing Mei emphasizes the importance of family and reunion in the Asian American culture.
One of the major themes in this story is the theme of reunion. The story goes on to relay the efforts that various characters put in place in order to make sure that they bring reunion to the family. In this regard, Sunyaun returns several times to the residence in which she left her twins hoping to find them but doesn’t realizes that it’s too late as the family has moved. She doesn’t lose hope and continues with the search through friends. It is saddening that she loses her life before she can attain such an important dream and have a reunion with her children. The friends don’t let go of the search and soon manage to find the twins and tells them of their mother. It is amazing in that the twins willingly carry on with the theme of reunion as they write a letter to their mother. Sanyaun’s sisters receive the letter and though confused, decide to continue with the theme by resp...
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... an important occasion to reunite with the family after such incidents and such a long time.
This narration also has a climax that is worth mentioning because of the role it plays. This climax is when Jing Mei meets her sister twins in China. This is because the entire story revolves around the journey to reunite with family. At the start, the plans of Jing Mei and her father re projected and the reader just waits to see the outcome, which is relayed in the climax.
Reading through this story reveals satisfaction as pertains to justification of the theme of reunion and family for the Asian-American culture. The role of flashback cannot be disputed as it helps in building the story to reach the climax at the end, which sums up the story. In this regard it is worth concluding that this story allows us to see the importance of family and being reunited with your roots.
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
The turning point in the story occurs when Jing-mei finally refuses to do what her mother wants and accepts that she will never be a genius. Her "true self finally emerged, and this was what had been inside her all along.."
The journey from Chongqing to America was one with many obstacles and Suyuan sacrificed so much for her daughter hoping that one day June will be successful. The support and care that Suyuan provided for June ended when she suddenly passes away which forces June discerns how little she actually knows about her own mother. This seemingly ordinary life of June disappears as she discovers her mother’s past which included siblings that have been abandoned and thus attempts to find her long lost sisters. This idea was brought up by the Aunties of the Joy Luck Club that her mother founded which can be seen as the call to an adventure. The purpose of this journey was not only to find her sisters but to also discover her mother for who Suyuan truly was. In June’s eyes, Suyuan was always impossible to please and she was never on the same page as her mother who believes a person could be anything they wanted in America-the land of opportunities. But as the Joy Luck Club reminds June of how smart, dutiful, and kind her
Family became an important aspect in Mah’s life. In the Chinese culture family is typically a vital part of the way of life. Mah may have been ashamed the way her first marriage ended and did not want the same with this man she met named Leon. Leon is a Chinese immigrant and family is his priority. Mah and Leon marry and have two girls, Ona and Nina. They form a family like connection more than ever before. Leon was a fairly stable man and loved his family. Mah and Leon were b...
In conclusion, events surrounding the internment of Japanese Americans affected members of families in different ways. While papa was financially stable, loving and an authoritative person before the internment, the relocation sees him transformed into a financially unstable, resentful, angry, and a less authoritative and commanding person. Understanding papa’s changes give insights as to how the internment affected the Japanese American families because fathers usually influence their family more than any other person and anything that affects them also affects the whole family as it has been seen in the Wakatsuki family’s case.
Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets," especially, explores the relationship of setting to place, heritage, and ethnic identity. Jing-Mei Woo, the main character, has trouble accepting that she is Chinese, despite her heritage. Jing-Mei Woo believed, at fifteen, that she had no Chinese whatsoever below her skin. If anything, she perceives herself as Caucasian; even her Caucasian friends agreed that she "was as Chinese as they were." Her mother, however, told her differently, "It's in your blood, waiting to be let go." This terrified Jing-Mei, making her believe that it would cause her to suddenly change, "I saw myself transforming like a werewolf." Jing-Mei Woo finally realizes that she has never really known what it means to be Chinese because she was born and has lived in America all her life. After her mother's death, Jing-Mei discovers that she has two twin sisters living in China who have been searching for their mother and that s...
In the story "A Pair of Tickets," by Amy Tan, a woman by the name of Jing-mei struggles with her identity as a Chinese female. Throughout her childhood, she "vigorously denied" (857) that she had any Chinese under her skin. Then her mother dies when Jing-Mei is in her 30's, and only three months after her father receives a letter from her twin daughters, Jing-Mei's half sisters. It is when Jing-mei hears her sisters are alive, that she and her dad take a trip overseas to meet her relatives and finally unites with her sisters. This story focuses on a woman's philosophical struggle to accept her true identity.
This story is about a young Lady that lives in California with her mother and Father. She
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Through the parallelism of past and present feelings, the reader sees the confusion that Hang feels. Hang struggles with her feelings toward her Aunt. While Hang does love her Aunt, she does not understand Aunt Tam’s motive to help her. Tam’s persistence for Hang to continue family rituals and shrines confuses Hang. Hang does not understand the importance of these things to Aunt Tam. Unlike Aunt Tam, Hang does not believe in all of the Vietnamese traditions. This is Hang’s first step to finding her self-purpose. This also allows the reader to see Hang’s feelings towards cultural events and shows the shift in Vietnamese culture. The use of no flashbacks during Aunt Tam’s funeral and funeral planning show that Hang has never felt the way she has. At this time in the novel Hang has found her own purpose therefore flashbacks cannot be used to portray Hang’s feelings and
The second and third sections are about the daughters' lives, and the vignettes in each section trace their personality growth and development. Through the eyes of the daughters, we can also see the continuation of the mothers' stories, how they learned to cope in America. In these sections, Amy Tan explores the difficulties in growing up as a Chinese-American and the problems assimilating into modern society. The Chinese-American daughters try their best to become "Americanized," at the same time casting off their heritage while their mothers watch on, dismayed. Social pressures to become like everyone else, and not to be different are what motivate the daughters to resent their nationality. This was a greater problem for Chinese-American daughters that grew up in the 50's, when it was not well accepted to be of an "ethnic" background.
When analyzing the Joy Luck club it is important to consider the life of the author. It is apparent after studying both The Joy Luck Club and Amy Tan that there are some incredible similarities among the two, particularly the story of mother Suyuan-Woo and her daughter Jing-Mei Woo. Suyuan is a main character and plays an extremely important role in the novel even though she passed away. She created the Joy Luck club years ago and is the main reason why this tight kit family exists today. Suyuan decided to create the Joy Luck club during a ve...
Lastly, June and her mother Suyuan relationship is a culmination of all of the mothers and daughters relationships. Growing up they never saw eye to eye, they were blinded by what they assumed the other wanted of them. Each woman thought she had a role she needed to play in order to make everyone happy. The mothers felt as if their daughters were ashamed of them and the daughters felt as if they couldn’t measure up as perfect Chinese daughters and were thus a disappointment to their moms. All of the women were lost within what they thought was their feminine place in society.
When she arrives, she feels somehow proud to be Chinese. But her main reason why she went back home is to reflect her mother past life on her present life. Through the setting and her relatives, Jing Mei learns the nature of Chinese American culture. The main setting takes place in China, effects of the main character’s point of view through changing her sense of culture and identity. The time period plays a large role on the story, there is disconnect between the mother and daughter who came from different culture. In “A Pair of Tickets”, we learn it’s a first person narrator, we also learn detail of what the narrator is thinking about, detail of her past and how life compared to China and the US are very different. The theme is associated with the motherland and also has to deal with her mother’s death and half sisters. Her imagination of her sister transforming into adult, she also expected them to dresses and talk different. She also saw herself transforming, the DNA of Chinese running through her blood. In her own mind, from a distance she thinks Shanghai, the city of China looks like a major American city. Amy Tan used positive imagery of consumerism to drive home her themes of culture and identity, discovering her ancestral
...ith Jing Mei and her mother, it is compounded by the fact that there are dual nationalities involved as well. Not only did the mother’s good intentions bring about failure and disappointment from Jing Mei, but rooted in her mother’s culture was the belief that children are to be obedient and give respect to their elders. "Only two kinds of daughters.....those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!" (Tan1) is the comment made by her mother when Jing Mei refuses to continue with piano lessons. In the end, this story shows that not only is the mother-daughter relationship intricately complex but is made even more so with cultural and generational differences added to the mix.