The Transformation
Amy Tan’s story, “A Pair of Tickets” introduces a Chinese-American character by the name of June May. While being both American and Chinese, this story requires June May to embrace both sides of her nationality. Amy Tan does a beautiful job of making this happen strictly through the narrative style. Having the story take place from the point of view of June May, the reader has the ability to know everything about her. From the things she thinks about, to the things she says and does, the reader knows her character fully. It’s because of this omniscient narration and the style it is written in that the reader has the ability to see June May transform and come to love both the American and Chinese parts of herself equally.
From the very beginning of the story it is apparent that June May has resented and denied much of her Chinese background. Although she is 36 years old, much of her resentment towards the Chinese part of her is due to things she witnessed and experienced as a young child. Growing up in San Francisco, California and surrounded by Western culture June May’s perception, especially of her mother, is very different. Nobody in California acted like her mother and June May didn’t want to associate herself with her mother’s Chinese habits. “A cluster of telltale Chinese behaviors, all those things my mother did to embarrass me—haggling with store owners, pecking her mouth with a toothpick in public, being color-blind to the fact that lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter clothes” (120). According to June May and the descriptions she gives here, both herself and her mother share and understand a completely different set of customs. June May understanding American customs and her mother understanding Chinese customs. While neither one is better than the other June May is so blinded in her own self-centeredness that she is only concerned with how her mother’s actions reflect back onto herself. The narrative...