Fish Cheeks

Point of view is a method with which an author can communicate who is telling the story; it can sometimes overlap with perspective, the distance with which the story is being told from. In this essay, the “story” is being told from a first-person account. Though Tan uses literary devices to immerse the reader in what it was like for her to be 14, the reader is not expected to believe that the voice of the narrator is currently 14. Tan makes it clear that she is recounting an episode from her past, rather than writing as if she is currently experiencing the event. The last paragraph cements this as Tan situates the essay within the context of her life, flashing to a time that is “many years later” (Paragraph 8).

Tan uses multiple figurative-language techniques in order to immerse the reader in Tan’s feelings of shame—a focal theme of the essay. While describing the food for Christmas Eve, Tan employs simile and personification. Simile effectively compares one thing to another, often to emphasize the author’s point. In “Fish Cheeks,” Tan describes the tofu as “stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges” and a plate of squids with their backs “crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires” (Paragraph 3). She also uses personification, a literary device that assigns human qualities to nonhuman objects, as a humorous tool to diffuse tension and create sympathy. The author describes “a slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil” (Paragraph 3). Tan employs these devices to illustrate the fact that the food her mother serves to Robert and his family must appear inedible and strange to them, thus highlighting the cultural divide that exists between them. These techniques also breathe life into the description and engage the reader with vivid and specific images, with the playful language reinforcing Tan’s 14-year-old perspective.