Self-Identity In Amy Tan's A Pair Of Tickets

Setting is a place or a certain location where an event is about to take place. It is used to create a vivid image for the reader and to better understand the characters and the certain situations the characters face in a story. Furthermore, the setting also gives further insight about a character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions to what is happening around them. By learning about the setting in a story, the reader will be able to understand how the setting relates back to the character and to the story itself. In Amy Tan’s short story “A Pair of Tickets” setting is used to emphasize the discovery of self-identity as well as heritage and culture for the protagonist Jing-mei.

Having lived all her life in San Francesco, Jing-mei has never

considered herself as Chinese. Her background and environment has shaped her into the person who she is today, and that person is, according to Jing-mei, not Chinese. Jing-mei mentions that she is embarrassed by how her mother has acted and states, “all those things my mother did to embarrass me – haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter clothes” (263-264). She has been raised and has also learned from American culture. It is the only thing that she knows. Jing-mei’s perception of what it means to be Chinese is boiled down to her mother’s actions and behavior. It is a culture she has not been properly submerged in or even considered. She assumes that everything that she has seen her mother do is what it truly means to be Chinese. Being raised in America all her life, Jing-mei does not want to admit that she is Chinese, since it would go against everything she has been taught and learned.
It is not until Jing-mei travels with to China with her father that she begins to reevaluate her self-identity.

Once the train leaves the border of Hong Kong and enters Shenzhen, Jing-mei says, “I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese” (263). Jing-mei’s thoughts are in constant turmoil as she bounces back and forth on what being Chinese is and what her heritage is. The way Jing-mei describes her seven-two year old father as a young boy shows how emotional he is about coming home, that he has a long history in China. Even Jing-mei, who is coming to China for the first time, is feeling emotional about arriving. For example, Jing-mei says, “All he is seeing out the train window is a sectioned field of yellow, green, and brown, a narrow canal flanking the tracks, low rising hills, and three other people in blue jackets riding an ox-driven cart on this early October morning. And I can’t help myself, I also have misty eyes, as if I had seen this a long, long time ago, and I also almost forgotten” (264). The description of colors such as yellow, green, and brown are earthy and related to season of fall. In a way, the setting is showing that Jing-mei is getting in touch with her roots just like her father is. It would also explain why Jing-mei is suddenly overcome with emotions. A big part her that she has always assumed

never existed is finally waking up. As Jing-mei and her father leave the train, she is only delving deeper into her journey of self-discovery and heritage.
When Jing-mei leaves the train, she is still straining to see any sort of familiarities in her surroundings.

As she gets off the train, Jing-mei starts to describe her surroundings once again. For example, she describes Guangzhou as “The landscape has become gray, filled with low flat cement buildings, old factories, and then tracks and more tracks filled with trains like ours passing by in the opposite direction. I see platforms crowded with people wearing drab Western clothes, with spots of bright colors: little children wearing pink and yellow, red and peach” (266). The colors mentioned go along with how Jing-mei described her mother wearing clothes that do not go well together. The colors are bright, much brighter than the colors she saw on the train. It could mean that she is getting closer to her mother by seeing her in other people in China. However, Jing-mei has not fully embraced her roots, which is understandable since that side of her has only just awoken. Again, Jing-mei is questioning herself when she and her father are going through customs. For example, she describes the long lines as “getting on a number 30 Stockton bus in San Francisco” (266). Immediately after making that connection, Jing-mei reminds herself “I am in China. I remind myself. And somehow the crowds don’t bother me. It feels right” (266). Jing-mei is allowing herself to drift away to what is comfortable. Reminding herself that she is in China, she begins to feel at peace and that it feels

right, that she is meant to be in China, and that she is not a stranger to the country she never associated herself with.
After getting into a taxi cab, Jing-mei and her family arrive at a hotel and she is flabbergasted by the sight she sees. Since the hotel is such a grand, upscale place, Jing-mei assumes that they have arrived at the wrong place. It further shows her ignorance and upbringing of American culture by her belief that other cultures have not reached the same level as America has. Upon arriving to the hotel room, Jing-mei is further astonished by what she sees, describing the hotel rooms as being identical, the shapes of the rugs, drapes, bedspreads as being a taupe shape, and the small refrigerator being stocked with “Heineken beer, Coke Classic, and Seven-Up… packets of M & M’s, honey roasted cashews, and Cadbury bars” (270). While Jing-mei is seeing things that she is familiar with, she is still shocked that China would have such things, and repeats the statement “This is communist China?” (270) several times, as if she cannot believe what she is seeing.
The reason for Jing-mei’s sudden visit to China is to meet her half-sisters. It is not until Jing-mei learns more about her mother and her journey from China to America that she seems to reach a type of closure for herself.
Setting is a pivotal part of a story.