Andy Wilson
American Heritage and Fish Cheeks
The U.S. is a nation founded by immigrants and its culture has been
affected by them many times over the past two centuries. Every group of people that has
come to the U.S. has affected our culture and made it the way it is today. Early English
settlers formed the bases of our culture with influences from Native Americans. In the
mid to late 19th century waves of immigrants poured into America from all over Europe
and Asia, these people brought with them much of their culture and beliefs. As these
poor immigrants interacted with one another in the slums of booming industrial cities a
“melting pot” affect took place. In this melting pot, these different cultures mixed
together to form one new American culture.
As an adolescent immigrant living in the U.S., Amy Tan struggled with
two very different ideas about the extent of assimilation to which immigrants should
expose themselves to in their new country. On one hand she dealt with the idea that all
immigrants should abandon their old beliefs and customs, and completely adopt the
culture of their new nation in order to fit in. On the other hand she had her parents who
were more inclined to believe that she should be proud of her culture because that is part
of who she is.
When Amy’s mother gives her the miniskirt and says, “You want to be the
same as American girls on the outside but inside you must always be Chinese. You must
be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame,”(93) she doesn’t know it
at that moment but she eventually realizes that should be proud of her culture and learn to
incorporate it into her life not be ashamed of her culture and abandon it. It is the
combination of these different cultures and peoples that makes the U.S. great.
Work cited
Amy Tan, Fish Cheeks, The Bedford Reader
Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron
8th ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2002, 92-93