A Pair of Tickets

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!"
(a.k.a. A Pair of Tickets)

3. I didn't really have much of a reaction to this chapter as to the others in this book. It was a horrible thing to have to leave your own undeveloped children on the side of the road like that, only to be rescued several moments later without them in a miracle. What is OSHA? Lili sounds cute, sort of like my little cousins! & dang, that fancy hotel for only $34 per night? That's cheap! It's ironic how Jing-Mei comes to China, expecting all those authentic Chinese delicacies, yet she ends up eating "hamburgers, french fries, and apple pie a la mode" (278). It's quite tragic how almost directly after Suyuan dies, her old schoolmate coincidentally bumps into the twins at the mall. Yay, happy ending! <3

4. Auntie Lindo does not do what An-Mei wants: write to her twin sisters that their mother had died. Auntie Lindo is stubborn in this manner and believes that what she thinks is the best, that her own point-of-view is what should be done, not anybody else's. Once again, she thinks she knows everything, but she doesn't. Nuh-uh.

5. The main conflict has to be An-Mei vs. herself (internal: man vs. man). She believes that she is not Chinese, when really, "once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese". This proves true through An-Mei's attempts at haggling at the first thought of a misunderstanding and taking pictures at memorable moments. At the end, the conflict is definitely resolved. An-Mei realizes "what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood" (288) and knows that she will always be Chinese.

6. I believe the pair of tickets symbolizes "Spring Water" and "Spring Flower", An-Mei's two twin older sisters. With the pair of tickets, she was able to fly back to China, to return to her heritage; her twin sisters helped her realize that her Chinese heritage was always within her, because it was the part that her mother had left for her. The tickets also was a way to get onboard the plane, to fly away from her Americanized lifestyle and come back to who she really is.

Emily Huynh, Period 4