“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou. In Fish Cheeks, one is introduced to Amy Tan, a young girl born in 1952, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who had fled civil war.(mpaz.org) Essentially living in two different worlds, she ate, talked, and behaved one way at her American school, and another way entirely in her traditional Chinese home. Like many immigrant children, this put Amy Tan in a difficult, awkward situation. When the events of Fish Cheeks took place, Amy felt ashamed of her Chinese culture because she mostly saw it as something that made her different from her peers. She wished to fit in, and was horrified at the thought of Robert, a boy she liked, coming over for Christmas dinner and…show more content… (mpaz.org) Fish Cheeks is very fast paced, jumping from a brief introduction right into the Christmas dinner. The lack of unimportant details makes an interesting read. Although short, Fish Cheeks is able to effectively carry a lot of emotional depth, and this is due to the simple but sweet quality of the paper. It isn’t a far-flung story, it seems real and the reader is instantly drawn into Amy’s distress, all the way to the climatic end. The point of view is compelling, as Amy Tan is describing her culture from an insecure teenager’s point of view and with a sense of distaste that is fascinating. When she is describing the colossal meal her mother is preparing, she compares tofu and squid to sponges and bicycle tires, in addition to calling a cod “slimy,” and a pile of raw, unprepared food “appalling,” even though those foods are some of her favorites. During the meal Amy’s father uses chop sticks to pluck out the meat just below the whole cod fish’s bulging eyes and tenderly offers it to Amy, calling it her favorite. It is a sweet