A Pair Of Tickets Summary

Throughout Jing-mei’s life, though she does not realize it, the people she interacts with and the trials she goes through all help her discover who she is, and help her find her own path in life. Not only does she learn who she is, but she also learns more about her mother; which helps her understand why her mother says and acts the way that she does. This knowledge of her mother helps Jing-mei realize that she needs to compromise with her mother sometimes, and she becomes more willing to embrace her

When Jing Mei recognizes the similarities between her mother and herself she begins to understand not only her mother but herself as well. There are subtle connections and likenesses from the beginning between Jing Mei and her mother that Jing Mei does not see. The book commences with Jing Mei taking her mother's place at the mah jong table, creating a similarity between them from the beginning. Suyuan dies two months before the start of the book, and therefore is not able to tell the stories. Jing Mei has learned and must tell her stories in her place, forming another parallelism between mother and daughter. Because Suyuan is dead, Jing Mei must act in place of her mother when she goes to meet her Chinese sisters in China. Throughout the book Jing Mei takes the place of Suyuan, showing she and her mother

However years later, she was grown up enough to understand and realize her mother's love for her. In the last sentence of story, she wrote ,“[a]nd after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song” (105) Jing-Mei understood and rediscovered why her mother gave pressure on her.

However, once Jing-mei stepped off the plane and saw her sisters, she was able to embrace them with "all hesitations and expectations forgotten"(331). The rapport between Jing-mei and her sisters demonstrates the capability of Jing-mei to forget her fears and have faith that she can do anything. Both Suyuan and Jing-mei worked through their problems by remaining strong and willful, making their lives much easier in the end.

A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan uses unpretentious yet intense symbolism and imagery to make a wonderful story with layers of importance and significant profundity that one can't completely acknowledge unless you read it more than once.

Jing-mei’s rebellion against her mother is about how her mother wants her to be famous and successful. She is forcing her thoughts on Jing-mei, which Jing-mei doesn’t like nor she wants to follow her mother’s order. She believes her mother is wanting her to be what she is not, a genius, and she feels like she cannot live up to her mother’s orders, “You want me to be someone that I’m not! I sobbed. I’ll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!’(1128)”.

In Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets,” setting unfolds an important aspect of the story by positioning a ‘where’ and ‘when.’ Throughout the story, June May struggles with her internal conflict of resisting her Chinese culture. However, she begins to release this resistance as she ventures through China. The setting perpetuates the theme through the usage of transportation, the significance of the color gray amongst colors, and June May’s transition into a Chinese-American. As reflected by the setting and external places visited in “A Pair of Tickets,” June May’s interior state becomes more Chinese as she explores her native country.

In the final chapter of “The Joy Luck Club”, Jing-Mei is able to finally fulfil her mom´s wishes after her death. By flying to China with her father Jing-Mei is able to meet her twin sisters. During the trip Jing-Mai learns more about her mother and the way she loses the twins. Suyuan, Jing-Mei´s mom always hope about finding her missing daughters. When Jing-Mei is able to see her sisters for the first time, she sees how similar they look to Suyuan. Jing-Mai accepts herself the way she is. At the end Jing-Mai makes peace with her mom´s death.

Early in childhood Jing Mei dreamed of finding her prodigy and being a famous Chinese American, mostly because of the views and actions her mother placed on her. Her mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. (pg 405) Her mother was always pushing new tests and talents on Jing Mei. She even went as far as having her daughter Jing Mei models her physical appearance and actions after a child-star Shirley Temple. Her other was always testing her with many different things trying to discover Jing Mei’s talent. Later Jing Mei started to feel like her mother was just trying to make her into someone she was not and started to just fail and not try to do anything right hoping her mother would give up. When her mother died she had realized what her mother had been trying to do. Her mother had only wanted her to do her best. She had then to realize what her mother had

At the beginning of the short story, Jing-mei shares about “becoming Chinese” (Tan 152). Living in San Francisco area, she had always felt disconnected from her Chinese culture. The most significant moment of Jing-mei’s acceptance of her Chinese culture was when her father told her about her mother’s journey from China to America during the time of the invasion. She truly learns to appreciate her mother because of all she had gone through. Jing-mei also understand the existence of her half-sisters and feels the need to visit and meet them, as they are part of her mother. Jing-mei’s original lookout on Chinese culture was developed their prejudices and stereotypes. After living with her Chinese family and learning more about her mother’s past,

Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.”(277) Which explains that they are all like her mother and yet they aren’t, but all that doesn’t matter because all that counts is blood and heritage. Through her meeting with her half-sisters, Jing-mei finds her heritage and identity.

In the story "A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan, talks about the story of Jing-Mei, the narrator, going to China to fulfill her mother's dream. This story was based on Tan's life experiences when she went to go learn more about her background and see her sister in China. Going to China for the first time made her feel as she was "transforming" and feeling the Chinese in her that she never knew she has. She later finds out how much she cherishes her family and learns how important her culture is to her. Knowing who she is and where she comes from is an important aspect of her inner self.

Even the hotel she stays in looks like "a grander version of the Hyatt Regency" and the Chinese feast she had envisioned was replaced by "hamburgers, french fries, and apple a la mode." It is not until she finally meets her twin sisters, in modern Shanghai, that she realizes that she is Chinese because of "blood" and not face or place. Within this story, however, is her mother's story, set in another time and place. Fleeing from the Japanese invasion, during World War Two in 1944, Jing-Mei's mother is forced to abandon her twin daughters on the road between Kweilin and Chungking. Upon hearing her mother's story Jing-Mei Woo is able to understand a great deal more about her mother and their relationship, as well as her own past.

Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).

Jing-Mei finds a new person that was determined to fight against her mother. Moreover, Jing Mei