#12-1. Fish Cheks

Fish Cheeks

 Fish Cheeks, a reflective essay written by Amy Tan, is one of the top-notch examples of well-written reflections. Even with its short length – only 500 words – it conveys a lot of contents, including Tan’s emotions (when she felt ashamed in front of the boy she was crushed on), a life lesson that Tan’s mother wanted to give Tan (“You must be proud you are different”), etc.

 There are several factors that make this essay so attractive: first, vivid descriptions; second, honest tone; third, use of transitional words; finally, irony of the last sentence.

 First, Amy Tan vividly describes the Christmas food, the people’s actions, and words, even though this event happened when she was only 14 and more than 10 years have passed. It is evident that Tan would not be remembering all the details of her 14^th Christmas; nevertheless, she described things vividly – “The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food”, for example. This makes the reader forget that this event happened a very long time ago, thus focus into the story much more.

 Secondly, Tan’s tone throughout the essay attracts the readers. Tan is being very honest about her emotions to the readers. From the very first paragraph, she confessed that she was crushed on a boy – which is, definitely, a “secret” for a fourteen-years-old girl. Throughout the essay, she speaks honestly about the embarrassment she had experienced.

Comments

InHee: Fist Cheeks, indeed, is undoubtedly a very well-written, concise yet content-ful essay! But I was surprised how you analyzed the reason why this essay is great with four factors. You would have read this story very closely J But the term “honest tone” seems a little ambiguous here. Are you referring to the general tone writers in the Confessional Period had? Amy Tan was recollecting her memories from 20 or 30 years ago, and we here naturally doubt the accuracy or honesty. Did Tan actually have that much going in her mind about identity when she was just 14? Probably not. I hope you make the term “honest tone” clearer, referring to the things we talked today in class.

Hyunseok Lee: It was great to see well-organized analysis about Fist Cheeks! However, I would like to listen to “your own opinion”. How four interesting factors in the story affected to your reading? What should be supplemented? What was your favorite point? If you connect the story with yourself, the essay would be much more fascinating.

James Han Jong Hyun: A great reflection. You have made clear points of Amy Tan’s detailed description and her tone. However, you could have gone into further details in discussing how post-colonialism has affected this literature piece, and as we have discussed in class, how Amy Tan’s own lens has caused this essay to become, well, biased. We cannot say that this essay is an accurate description of what had really happened on that Christmas Eve, although Amy Tan is describing the event “vividly” as you have mentioned. Try to go into more details, and a much more fruitful outcome can come out.