Fish Cheeks

By Amy Tan

Personal Essay
The Personal Essay
● What is a personal essay?
○ The writer is telling you about themself - often telling you a personal
story
○ Almost always written in 1st person - I, me, my, we, our, us….
● What are the goals of this form?
○ To show us something about how she felt with her family
○
● What kind of voice and tone do we often read in these?
○ For me, this essay sounded like a story.
○ There’s more to the story just than this...
● What is the nature of the subject matter?
● What is the personal essay trying to do for its reader?
Fish Cheeks, by Amy Tan
● What happens in this essay?
○ Amy likes Robert, but they are not friends.
○ Amy’s parents invite Robert’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner.
○ How is Amy feeling about the dinner?
■ She feels extremely embarrassed the whole night
● She’s embarrassed about the food
● She’s embarrassed about how her family is acting
○ Her dad burps really loud
● What is the situation?
○ It’s Christmas Eve
● Who are the people involved?
○ Amy - 14 years old -- Chinese or American-Chinese
○ Her parents - Chinese
○ The minister - American and white
○ Robert - American and white
● What does Amy think Robert and his family expect for dinner?
○ Traditional American foods. Instead, they get Chinese food.
Why do we think Amy is so embarrassed?
● She thinks the food her family made is really not what Robert’s family expects.
● Whose opinion is Amy worrying about?
○ Robert - Amy has a crush on Robert. At this dinner, all she cares about is how Robert sees her,
and what she and her family seem like to him.
○ Why is Amy worried that Robert will not be impressed by the dinner?
■ It’s not the food he expects.
■ Chinese manners vs American manners
■ What type of dinner would have made Amy happy?
● Roast turkey with sweet potatoes - traditional white american dinner
Pre-discussion thoughts and Reflections
● What are some feelings or thoughts this article is trying to express?
● Did the article resonate with you in any ways?
● How might the writing style help this article express itself?
Reading Questions
● Who is our narrator?
○ Amy is our narrator...this is really important.
○ The narrator is the person who tells the story chooses
how to describe everything.
○ The 1st person gets us into Amy’s head - we know her
thoughts and her feelings from her point of view
○ How reliable is our narrator (for the reader)?
■ I think our narrator is not very reliable
○ In what tone does the narrator describe the food? Her
family? Her guests? Herself?
● This story is told through Amy’s extremely embarrassed and
worried point of view.
○ All of her favorite foods are described in a gross way.
Concerns with this article
● The narrator is not reliable
○ In my (Tal’s) opinion, this is a strength of this article.
○ I think the article is not trying to give us a perfectly accurate description of the dinner.
○ I think this article is trying to show us how Amy felt at the dinner, and what she learned from
that.
● This article talks about Chinese manners and Chinese food, but not all Chinese
people eat this food and act like this.
○ This article is trying to share an experience, and it labels that experience as a Chinese/chinese
american one.
■ Is this how every chinese american feels? No
■ So maybe this article could have done a better job making it clear this is how Amy feels; this
is about Amy’s experience
Going Beyond the Article
● What themes do you take away from this article?
● Heritage
● Family
● Significance of food
● Growing up/becoming mature
● Being new/moving
● Feeling different