American Family At A Christmas Eve Dinner In Amy Tan’s Fish Cheeks

Amy’s Fish Face

Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks”, about a teenage girl who has to endure a difficult Christmas Eve meal with her Chinese parents and an American couple as guests, is a touching story. Amy Tan, the protagonist, is in love with the American son. The short story uses both point of view as well as imagery to convey the feelings of embarrassment and regret that Amy felt that night.

Amy Tan’s story, “Fish Cheeks”, is about a character who has a rough time at Christmas Eve dinner. She “falls” in love and then her mother invites the son of the minister and his family for Christmas dinner. The reader can tell that Amy is trying to impress the young man by the way the narrative and point of view work together.

The reader can get a better understanding of Amy’s thoughts by reading her point-of-view. Amy is embarrassed by her mother and her plan for Christmas. She wonders if Robert would be pleased with her loud Chinese relatives and their lack of proper American manners.

Amy is embarrassed by the way the story is told, and the images that are used to illustrate this. She watches her mother preparing food for Christmas and her thoughts are: “the entire kitchen is covered with mounds full of disgusting raw food. There’s a slimy rockfish with bulging eyes begging not to be thrown directly into hot oil”(1). Amy’s description of all the raw meat on her mother’s counters tells her reader that she is disgusted and embarrassed.

In the story it is clear that Amy wants Robert to like her, so she changes herself. She wants to be accepted by Robert, so she adopts American culture. She then changes clothes. Her mom even “hands a beige miniskirt to her” (1). She feels ashamed of her family. In the fifth paragraph, it is illustrated by the imagery: “My relatives licked their chopsticks ends and reached across to dip them in a dozen or more plates of food.” Robert and the family waited a long time for their plates to arrive” (1).

Amy’s point is also helpful to the reader in understanding Amy. Amy’s mum confronts Amy over the changes she wishes to make. She says, “You may want to look like American girls from the outside…but you must be Chinese on the inside.” You should be proud of your differences. You only have to be ashamed of yourself” (1). Amy understands that her mom knows the embarrassment that she felt during dinner, and that she was only trying to be supportive. Amy’s mom is telling her to not change when she is just trying to.

Through the imagery, the reader learns that Amy’s mother knows Amy loves Robert and she wants to show Robert what Amy is really like. Amy is not aware of this, and she’s just embarrassed. Amy doesn’t realize until many years later “that her mother had selected all [her] favourite foods that Christmas Eve” (1).

Amy was unaware that the foods she had chosen were among her favorites. Amy was not aware that her favorite foods were the ones her father ate. He “poked the chopsticks below the eye of the fish and ripped out the soft flesh and said to Amy, ‘Amy’s favorite'”. The image of the father in this picture is not only gruesome, but also an honor to the Chinese.

Amy’s realization, at the conclusion of the story, that her father and mother had done an amazing thing for Amy helps the reader see this. They made Robert see who Amy was. Amy had “overcome [her] love for Robert” by the end of that night, and she was “able fully to appreciate her mother’s lesson as well as their particular menu and its true purpose” (1).

Amy Tan’s short story Fish Cheeks describes Amy Tan’s feelings and her encounter with a family of Americans at a dinner on Christmas Eve. The short story uses imagery and point-of view to illustrate the embarrassment Amy felt that night, as well as her desire to change. Amy was a teenager like any other who wanted to transform herself into a man. Amy felt embarassed when her family refused to do the same. Amy’s mother’s lesson was what she needed.