A Pair of Ticketsby Amy TanMariana Mahyuddin

Lim Jia LihPISMP JAN 2014 (1.1)

Jing Mei goes to China to meet her twins half-sisters with her father.

Her twins half-sisters were separated from their mother during the

invasion of Japanese in China. Their mother, Suyuan, had left her

sisters hoping that they would have chance to survive. After the war,

she began to search for them. However, Suyuan moved to America

with her new husband after she gave up in looking for her lost

daughters. Throughout Jing Mei's life, she never accept herself as

Chinese. As she is on the journey, she begins to discover more about

her family. After meeting her sisters, she then realizes that her family is

the part where she is recognized as Chinese.

Summary of "A Pair of Tickets"

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

Cultural Theory

• The practice of describing, interpreting, and evaluating

culture. Cultural criticism makes the term culture refer to

popular and classic culture. It breaks down the boundary

between high and low culture.

http://www.slideshare.net/susiswo/cultural-criticism

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

Identity Crisis

• Jing Mei, the protagonist, has conflict on her culture identity as she

was born in California but her parents were from China.

• She refuses to admit she is a Chinese but her mother keeps on

insisting it.

a) "Cannot be helped,"my mother said when I was fifteen and had

vigirously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin.

I was a sophomore at Galileo High in San Francisco, and all my

Caucasian friends agreed: I was about as Chinese as they were.

(Page 120)

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

ACCEPTANCE OF ONE OWN CULTURE

Identity (cont.)

• She prefers to use English rather than Chinese language to

communicate.

a) "Hello," I say to the little girl. "My name is Jing Mei." But the little girl

squirms to look away, causing her parents to laugh with

embarassment. I try to think of Cantonese words I can say to her,

stuff I learned from friends in China town, but all I can think of are

swear words, terms for bodily functions, and short phrases like

"tastee good", "tastes like garbage," and "she's really ugly". (Page

125)

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

Importance of family

• In Chinese culture, relationship between family members are very

important. The strength of closeness among them is very strong.

• In this story, the importance of a family is potrayed through Jing

Mei's father, Canning Woo, and her aunt, Aiyi.

a) Aiyi continues to scold my father. "I was so beside myself, ask my

son, almost turned heaven and earth upside down trying to think of

a way! So we decided the best was for us to take bus from Toishan

and come into Guangzhou - meet you from the start. (Page 126)

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

STRENGTH OF FAMILY BONDS

Self-discovery

• Her journey back to China is like her self enlightment where she

starts to aware of being a Chinese. From this journey, she gets to

know more about her mother's experience when losing her sisters

during the war, her father's relatives in China and even the meaning

of her own name.

a) As we wave good-bye one more time and enter the waiting area, I

get the sense I am going from one funeral to another. In my hand

I'm clutching a pair of tickets to Shanghai. (Page 133)

marianamahyuddin_pismpjan2014

And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious.It is my family. It is in our blood. After all these years, it can

finally be let go. (Page 134)

Lim Jia Lih-2014 8

MINOR LITERARY THEORYLIM JIA LIH

PISMP TESL JAN 2014GROUP 1.1

A pair of tickets by

Amy Tan

Lim Jia Lih-2014 9

BiographyAmy Tan was born in Oakland, Carlifornia, in 1952. Both of her parents were recent Chinese immigrants. Her father was an electrical engineer (as well as a Baptist minister) while her mother was a vocational nurse. Tan began to write her first novel The Joy Luck Club (1989). The Joy Luck Club became both a critical success and a best-seller, and was made into a movie in 1993.

AMY TAN

Lim Jia Lih-2014 10

Social criticism

Definition- An approach to literature that examines social

groups, relationships, and values as they are manifested in literature. Sociological approaches emphasize on how society and historical events shape a writer's work. Such readings treat literature as either a document reflecting social conditions or a product of those conditions. (Murfin & Supryia, 2009)

Lim Jia Lih-2014 11

Love of mother-Love of mother is one of the social values that presents in this story.

When there is any social conflicts or natural calamities happened, love of mother is clearly shown. Suyuan’s love towards her children makes her leaves them on the road side during her escape from war because she does not want her children to die with her.

Besides, Suyuan who loses her twin daughter during war is still worried about them. Therefore, she uses every way and mean to search for them. She still wishes to find her long lost daughters herself although she is too old to go back to China due to her love to them.

EXP: “And then she knew she could not bear to watch her children die with her.”

(pg 130)

EXP: “When letters could be openly exchanged between China and the United States, she wrote immediately to old friends in Shanghai and Kweilin”.“Every year, your mother wrote to different people. And this last year, I think she got a big idea in her head, to go to China and find them herself.” (pg 132)

Lim Jia Lih-2014 12

Chinese society relationshipThe good relationship between Chinese people in society is

maintained throughout the story. This can be shown by an officer of Kuomintang who saves Suyuan and her twin babies’

life by informing her to run for safety as their lives are in danger. Besides, there are two good Samaritans who are

willing to pick up and take good care of Suyuan’s twin babies rather than leaving them to die. This clearly shows that

people are still willing to help each other during war period. “They were pious people, Muslims, who believed the twins babies were a sign of double luck.” “She showed the girls the

picture of their mother and told them they had been born into a great family and she would take them back to see

their true mother and grandparents.”(pg 131&132)

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Chinese society relationship Besides, Chinese people also understand and cooperate with

each other well. This can be shown from the decision Auntie Lindo makes when a letter from the long lost twins arrives from Shanghai after their mother’s death. She brings that letter to Joy Luck Club (a woman’s social group) to discuss the best answer to this letter with Auntie Ying and Auntie An-mei. This shows that they are very understanding and willing to support each other.

“Canning Woo gave the letter to her wife’s old friend, Auntie Lindo. Instead she took the letter to the Joy Luck Club and discussed with Auntie Ying and Auntie An-mei what should be done, because they had known many years about my mother’s search for her twin daughter,...”

(pg 121)

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Family structureIn Chinese family structure in China, all generations are living together

under one roof. For them, this is how family should be. Besides, family members do thing together and never leave anyone to catch up.

They are also having a practice where all the family members must present when meeting a family member coming from far.

-“If she was in the house with that doll, her parents were there, and so everybody was there, waiting together, because that’s how our family was.”(pg 124)-“we had enough there last few years to build a big house, three stories, all of new brick, big enough for our whole family and then some.”(pg 126)

“They are Aiyi’s oldest son and his wife, and standing next to them are four other people, around my age and a little girl

who’s around ten.” (pg 125)

15

References

Murfin, R., & Supryia, M. R. (2009). The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. (3rd ed.). New York: Bedford Books.

X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. (2007). Introduction to Fiction. (10th ed.). United States: Pearson.

Cultural criticism. (n.d.) Retrieved on 19 February 2014 from http://www.slideshare.net

/susiswo/cultural-criticism