Fish Cheeks
...od for Christmas Eve dinner like ¡®a roasted turkey¡¯ (2) and ¡®sweet potatoes¡¯ (2). The contrast was a reason why she cried when she knew her parents had invited the minister¡¯s family over for Christmas dinner. If she describes all the prepared food by merely listing their name, ¡®cod, tofu, fungus and squid¡¯, they would not be so impressive and audiences would not well understand her deep disappointment. At the fifth paragraph, Amy further conveys her despair by depicting her relatives¡¯ manners during the dinner. Such phrases, ¡®licked the ends of their chopsticks¡¯, ¡®reached across the table¡¯, ¡®dipping them into the plates¡¯ and ¡®murmured with pleasure when seeing the whole steamed fish¡¯ (5), allow us to see the scene clearly. Also, she felt that her relatives¡¯ manners are not the proper American manners. All the imageries give us very strong impression about the Christmas dinner and imply the author¡¯s opinions toward them. The main event of the story is the Christmas Eve dinner through which Amy¡¯s thoughts and feelings pour naturally. So the secondary aim of the article is expressive. At first, she tries to conceal her feeling, so when Robert grunting hello she pretended he was not worthy of existence (4). But the dinner threw her deeper into despair (5) because in addition to the strange Chinese food, her relatives¡¯ manners made her very embarrassed. Then, she states, ¡®my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eyes and plucked out the soft meat. ¡°Amy, your favorite,¡± he said, offering me the tender fish cheek (5). At that moment, she wanted to disappear (5). Many years passed, she understood the true purpose behind the particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, her mother had chosen all her favorite foods (8). The feelings she captures are the same we all experience when facing such situations. She focuses on her own sentiments and uses the first person. Both are helpful to make her literary style work to put her expressive feelings at center stage. The whole story is an event narration. From Amy¡¯s description, we see whole process of that dinner as if we were sitting beside the dining table. Different scenes moved quickly, which makes reading the article like watching a movie, illustrating Amy¡¯s deft narrative skill and excellent observation ability. The scenes, from the kitchen where ¡®my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu¡¯ and ¡®was littered with appalling mounds of raw food (3)¡¯ to the dining room where we see everyone¡¯s manner during the dinner, are very vivid. Each of Amy¡¯s feelings is related to a different scene. Let¡¯s see an example, ¡° At the end of the meal my father leaned back and belched loudly, thinking my mother for her fine cooking. ¡® It¡¯s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,¡¯ explained my father to our astonished guests (6).¡± This made author keep silence for the rest of the night. The last scene is that her mother handed her a gift a...