Fish Cheeks Essay

874 Words4 Pages
"Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan is a selection about herself and a day where her crush (Robert) and his family come over for dinner. As Amy sees if everything is ready, she sees her mother has outdone herself in creating a "strange" menu, she made steamed fish and some other Asian dishes, but Amy wanted to have an American dinner. As they had dinner, Amy's family serves fish. Her father poked the fish right into the eye to get Amy a fish's cheek. Amy feels ashamed because of this. She feels that Robert and his family thought it was weird and Amy felt remorse. Followed by less than polite events, for an example, like her father's belch at the end of dinner. By the end of the dinner Amy felt ashamed of herself and her culture/customs, but the moral and lesson of the story is learning not to be ashamed of your culture and who you are. It's best to have respect for yourself and for your culture/customs. One reason that I believe that's the moral/lesson of the story is because of Amy being the exact opposite what the moral/lesson would be. She was ashamed throughout the whole dinner because of her father's methods of doing things, for example, his belch at the end of dinner and poking the fish in the eye to get Amy a fish cheek. From Amy's view it looked to be rude and embarrassing when she could have been respecting of herself. If she was respecting herself, and her culture it would have been a better way for her. She would have had a better time and talk to Robert about things instead of just sitting there and being ashamed of her family and culture. When she could have been proud, or even respecting of her culture at the least. Being ashamed of your culture is pretty embarrassing to your culture. That would have been a better way instead of doing what she did, and that is one reason I believe that is the moral/lesson of the story. Everyone, and everything, should be

More about Fish Cheeks Essay

Open Document