Fish Cheeks
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- Date Submitted: 01/25/2011 10:42 PM
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AP English
The concept of “Fish Cheeks” begins with Amy describing her Christmas Eve dinner when she was at the age of fourteen, and the embarrassing discomfort she felt when her crush, Robert and his family had been invited to have dinner with her family. When she found out he was invited to dinner, she panicked about what he might think of her and her family. In her mind thinking, "What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas?” Amy Tan persuades teenage girls to be proud of who you are and what culture you come from.
A rhetoric strategy used by the author is the use of similes and allusions. In the middle of the first paragraph the author says, “He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger.” This quote is easily shows an example of a simile, for the author compares the boy to Virgin Mary. This quote is an allusion too, for the reason that she makes the connection between to how pure Mary is to the boy. The author uses this rhetoric strategy to persuade her audience by drawing them in and having them make connections that they can easily relate to. The author’s audience is mostly teenage girls and when girls read “Mary in the Manger”, most likely they will make a connection of how Mary was a pure woman and what happened to Mary as well. Amy draws her readers in by reminding them of their crushes and how they would view their crushes at the time and most likely, people tend to view their crushes to be perfect (looks and personality) with no flaws, which in this case, to be pure. What Amy tries to portray from using this rhetorical strategy is to let people know that by being proud of the culture they come from, people, even those that may seem perfect and pure, may not hold it against them.
Another rhetoric strategy used by the author is the use of alliteration. In the beginning of the fourth paragraph, it states,” Dinner through me deeper in despair” and in the end of the fifth paragraph it says,” I was stunned into silence”. These...
The concept of “Fish Cheeks” begins with Amy describing her Christmas Eve dinner when she was at the age of fourteen, and the embarrassing discomfort she felt when her crush, Robert and his family had been invited to have dinner with her family. When she found out he was invited to dinner, she panicked about what he might think of her and her family. In her mind thinking, "What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas?” Amy Tan persuades teenage girls to be proud of who you are and what culture you come from.
A rhetoric strategy used by the author is the use of similes and allusions. In the middle of the first paragraph the author says, “He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger.” This quote is easily shows an example of a simile, for the author compares the boy to Virgin Mary. This quote is an allusion too, for the reason that she makes the connection between to how pure Mary is to the boy. The author uses this rhetoric strategy to persuade her audience by drawing them in and having them make connections that they can easily relate to. The author’s audience is mostly teenage girls and when girls read “Mary in the Manger”, most likely they will make a connection of how Mary was a pure woman and what happened to Mary as well. Amy draws her readers in by reminding them of their crushes and how they would view their crushes at the time and most likely, people tend to view their crushes to be perfect (looks and personality) with no flaws, which in this case, to be pure. What Amy tries to portray from using this rhetorical strategy is to let people know that by being proud of the culture they come from, people, even those that may seem perfect and pure, may not hold it against them.
Another rhetoric strategy used by the author is the use of alliteration. In the beginning of the fourth paragraph, it states,” Dinner through me deeper in despair” and in the end of the fifth paragraph it says,” I was stunned into silence”. These...