Champions of the World by Maya Angelou and Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan - Assignment Example

 Champions of the world by Maya Angelou and Amy Tan Maya Angelou, the of Champions of the world and Amy and Tan the of Fish Cheeks, come from very different cultures. They both grew up as a minority group in the American culture. Tan and Angelou grew up during different times and in distinct cultures, yet they all faced problems of trying to fit into the American culture, as well as adapt to the new environment in which they found themselves. The two authors discuss the experience of being an outcast during the different periods and how cultural differences set them apart from other people. However, while Maya Angelou expresses the experience of alienation and outcast from a group point of view, Amy Tan discusses alienation and outcast from a personal point of view. Nevertheless, the two authors use narration and description to portray isolation from the dominant American culture as brought out by the life experience of time and place. However, Tan uses description and narration more effectively to convey her sense of isolation than Maya Angelou, from the dominant American culture. Champions of The World is a story whose setting is in the south, in 1930s. During this period, American society was marred by racism, which unfortunately was an acceptable practice at the time. The whites considered themselves superior than other minority cultures particularly the African American cultures. Maya’s story is a description of the audience listening to a boxing match and their reaction as they listen to the match. This description and narration portray the magnitude of the importance of this match to the African American community, as winning it would prove a point to the whites, but losing it would mean more doom on them. However, the description does not go in detail to bring out what how this boxing match affects her as a person, and what meaning it holds for the audience. She merely describes the audience’s reactions and emotions as they listen to the match. Hence, her work on the “Champions of the World” gives the reader a feeling of nervousness and excitement from the description and narration, although it does not depict whether Maya feels isolated from the dominant culture. Fish Cheeks, by Amy Tan is set in California in the 1960s. Tan, who is Chinese, is ashamed about the Chinese culture. Amy Tan develops a crush on a boy by the name Robert and coincidentally her Mother invites the boy’s family over for Christmas. She feels embarrassed of her Chinese Culture, when her mother prepares Chinese dishes for the visitors and relatives who came. Amy Tan feels embarrassed because according to her, their culture is inferior to that of the Americans. Therefore, there is a sense of isolation of culture and of Tan from the American culture. Tan uses effective narration and description to portray her isolation more than in Angelou’s story. She starts the description just before the dinner when her mum is preparing the foods, as well as after the Christmas dinner, which vividly exposes here reactions and feelings of isolation. Tan uses description and narration in her story to show her isolation from the social norms of the Americans, but Angelou uses description to give the reader a picture of how the boxing match went on and how those around him were affected when they were listening to the match and with the events of the match. In Fish Cheeks, the author describes her reactions and feelings towards everything including the time before and after the Christmas dinner that they shared with Roberts’s family. In telling about the Christmas dinner, the choice of word shows her insecurity in the heritage that she comes from and her desire to be a teenager of an American heritage. When the story starts, she describes the traditional American food in a way that is appealing, “roasted turkey and sweet potatoes...” (117). Moreover, she describes the American manners as being “proper” but she describes her Chinese food with disgust despite the fact that these are her favorite foods. In addition, she describes her relatives in a negative way, and is concerned about their table manners. She says that her relatives and their customs were noisy. The entire narrative is just a description of how she felt about the Chinese culture, and through this, she shares her feelings of isolation and experiences with the audience, as she is ashamed of the Chinese culture incongruity and pursuit of normality. Furthermore, Tan uses description not only to show how the food is, but also to show her fear on how Robert will react to the food. Tan admires their culture and taboos. Therefore, her negative description on the food as fleshy, bulging, slimy, and rubbery was a concern on how Roberts’ family will perceive her family. The way in which Tan describes the food and the impression that the food will give on her family shows a feeling of isolation. From her description on the Chinese culture and the foods that they ate, one can see the transmission of emotions, first from worry and anxiety then later she shows a sign of relief and acceptance of her culture. On the other hand, Angelou uses narration and description to show the emotion of the people in the store, but fails to focus on her own feelings. She focuses on the emotions of the crowd just before the fight, during the fight, and celebrations after the fight marked by a win for the African American community. As a result, the reader only feels the anxiety and racism, but does not the sense of isolation brought out by Tan. Tan’s description on how she felt that evening clearly portrays the feelings of isolation that were in her mind by the fact that she was just a Chinese in the Dominant American culture. It gives the reader a feeling of despair and humiliation. This is evident when Tan uses narration and description to show how the food that she really liked was disgusting at that moment, just because it was to be served to Americans. She also describes how she worried because of the manners that her family will portray at the table when the visitors will be around. If Tans’ story is compared to what Angelou was writing, it is evident that Angelou does not bring out the sense of isolation. In her description, she only describes the feeling of those people listening to the boxing match, and she does not tell the reader about her own feelings. Angelou’s focus was on the emotions of the crowds at the time when the match was on and during the celebrations after they won the match. This shows that she only uses a description to show how they really wanted to win the match to reduce racism that existed during that time. Read More