Fish Cheeks Commonlit Answer Key Pdf (2024)

FAQs

What is the central idea of the Fish Cheeks? ›

The main idea of Fish Cheeks is to be proud of one's identity. Throughout the entire story, Amy tries to deny her Chinese heritage but learns over time that she does not need to discard her background for the sake of others. She realizes there is strength in being different.

In conclusion, Amy Tan's purposes in writing "Fish Cheeks" are to inform readers about her cultural background and to entertain them by expressing her emotions.

In "Fish Cheeks", an autobiographical narrative by Amy Tan, fourteen-year-old Amy is thrown into a humiliating dinner with her Chinese family and the American boy on whom she has a crush. Years later, Amy reflects back on this embarrassing meal and realizes something about her parents and her heritage.

In "Fish Cheeks" a scant 500 words short story, Amy Tan serves up a coming of age story about an Asian American teenage girl.

The correct option is D. Amy Tan's purpose in writing “Fish Cheeks to inform and entertain by describing real events and expressing emotion.

The major conflict of this story is Amy trying to impress Robert, but cannot do so because she finds her family and Chinese culture embarrassing compared to the American one.

Amy Tan, for expanding the American literary canon. By bravely exploring experiences of immigrant families, heritage, memories, and poignant struggles, Amy Tan's writing makes sense of the present through the past and adds ground-breaking narrative to the diverse sweep of American life and literature.

Answer and Explanation:

The tone of the story is reflective as well as somewhat light hearted. She is reflects on this experience and about how her thoughts and feelings as a younger person about her Chinese identity have evolved as she has grown older.

Expert-Verified Answer. In paragraph 2 of the narrative "Fish Cheeks", the narrator's point of view is revealed as one of confusion, awkwardness, and embarrassment. The narrator is a fourteen-year-old Chinese-American girl, attending a Christmas Eve dinner at her parent's house.

The climax of Fish Cheeks, is when the families are having a meal and belching. For Amy, the situation is described as her most embarrassing moment. The reason is that the customs of her family and Robert's family clashed.

Is Fish Cheeks an essay? ›

"Fish Cheeks" is a 1987 one-page narrative essay by Chinese-American author Amy Tan and her first published essay. The work was first published in Seventeen and covers a Christmas Eve dinner when Tan was 14 years old.

Tan's mother went out of her way to prepare a disturbingly Chinese dinner because she wanted to demonstrate to her guests as well as her daughter that their Chinese heritage was nothing to be embarrassed about but rather something to be proud of. She proved this by taking the menu to the extreme.

This story, Fish Cheeks, by Tan shines a light on the idea that parents lessons are better learned through austerity. Kids will remember the moments in life where they felt strong emotions, like anger, embarrassment, and shame.

In Chinese culture, fish cheeks are considered a delicacy, a soft and enticing part of the fish; more than this, though, fish cheeks are one of Tan's favorite foods at 14. Tan's rejection of this food represents her rejection of her heritage and her shame at her Chinese identity.

Tan's setting of Christmas for a traditional Chinese dinner, shared with the American boy on whom the protagonist, Amy, has a crush, emphasizes the girl's dual identity as an Asian American, a reality she is confronting head on.

“The Fish” Themes

The poem illustrates how that empathy can be humbling, reminding people that, even if they might be used to seeing themselves as distinct from animals, they're really in the same boat: animals and humans alike take part in all the mess, struggle, and beauty of life.

It describes the back-and-forth dynamic of fishermen, who are the original environmentalists, and scientists, who not that long ago considered fish an endless resource. It explains why fish farming is not the answer—and why sustainable fishing is, and how to help return the oceans to their natural ecological balance.

In the story Fish Cheeks, Amy Tan uses the tone of an embarrassed teenage girl to convey the values of being who you are and realizing that later in life you understand and value the embarrassment brought upon you by yourself and your family.

The tone of the story is reflective as well as somewhat light hearted. She is reflects on this experience and about how her thoughts and feelings as a younger person about her Chinese identity have evolved as she has grown older.