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A Pair of Tickets


            
             To truly understand the meaning behind the short story, "A Pair of Tickets", by Amy Tan, a reader must first read her novel, "The Joy Luck Club" and know a little about the author's biography. The short story is taken from the last chapter of the novel "The Joy Luck Club" which contains many elements from Tan's life. Tan did not learn until she was a teenager that she had half sisters from her mother's previous marriage. The deaths of her father and brother are reflected in "The Joy Luck Club" in Suyuan Woos loss of her twin daughters and her own death. These and other examples from Amy Tan's personal life lead the reader to experience the Chinese-American culture of mothers and daughters. Tan's straightforward manner as well as her skill in which she talks about Chinese culture, mother and daughter relationships in her use of a realist style, theme and imagery to relate her story, "A Pair of Tickets".
             Tan uses first-person narrator, June May Woo or Jing-Mei Woo, who is the main character directly speaks to the reader. Through her eyes the reader sees the events of the story unfold. The strong theme is portrays June relationship with her mother and the acceptance of her Chinese heritage. Upon the death of June's mother, Suyuan, she takes her place in meeting with her missing half twin sisters in China. June has always felt uncomfortable with her mother's ways as stated in paragraph 3 & 4:.
             "Someday you will see," said my mother. "It is in your blood, waiting to be let go.".
             And when she said this, I saw myself transforming like a werewolf, a mutant tag of DNA suddenly triggered, replicating itself insidiously into a syndrome, a cluster of 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 the lemon yellow and pale pink are not good combinations for winter colors.
             June was born in America and vigorously denied she was Chinese growing up.


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