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Amy Tan, "A Pair of Tickets"

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Re-Reading Questions

Text on p. 236 of the full Ninth Edition and p. 236 of the shorter Eight Edition.

Re-Reading Questions

1. Language plays a key role in the process of Jing-Mei's "becoming Chinese." How does Jing-Mei feel about speaking Chinese? Look through the story for references to language, especially the names of the three sisters.

2. There are many changing images in the story. Look, for instance, at the images that Jing-Mei has of her sisters and her physical image of herself. Another recurring pattern is that of photography, especially the Polaroid pictures. Polaroid pictures at the time were instantly ejected from the camera, but it took several minutes for the chemicals to develop the picture fully. How does Tan use this fact as a way of developing the idea of "becoming Chinese"?

3. Loss is an important theme in this story, beginning with Jing-Mei's recent loss of her mother. Why does Jing-Mei feel that she disappointed her mother? Why did her mother abandon her twin babies? How is Jing-Mei's sense of identity tied up with her mother's story?

For some context, here is the mother's story as it appears at the beginning of The Joy Luck Club. For years Jing-Mei's mother told her stories about Kweillin. However, she did not tell her for years about her sisters, and when she did, she said:

"I tied scarves into slings and put a baby on each side of my shoulder. I carried a bag in each hand, one with clothes, the other with food. I carried these things until deep grooves grew in my hands. And I finally dropped one bag after the other when my hands began to bleed and became too slippery to hold onto anything . . . By the time I arrived in Chungking I had lost everything except for three fancy silk dresses which I wore one on top of the other."

"What do you mean by 'everything'?" I gasped at the end. I was stunned to realize the story had been true all along."What happened to the babies?"

She didn't even pause to think. She simply said in a way that made it clear there was no more to the story: "Your father is not my first husband. You are not those babies."

4. After Jing-Mei meets her sisters, she says, "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." What does the final "it" refer to here?

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