Kaylin Signor

Melinda Schroeder

10-20-16

Blog Post 3

Summation of “Fish Cheeks”

“Fish Cheeks” is an essay written by storyteller, Amy Tan. When she was a girl, Amy’s parents invited the minister’s family to their “Chinese Christmas”. Amy was frustrated and mortified that her family didn’t seem to care what others thought: her family would reach across the table, burp, and the table was filled with Chinese food. I think that the purpose of these texts was to teach you an important lesson while also giving you a relatable scene; such as embarrassing holiday moments. After the minister’s family had left, Amy’s mom told her that “…You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” (Amy’s mom, par. 7). This is the main point of the essay: she meant that Amy should never be afraid of whom she is as a person, and that she should never try to hide a part of herself from others.

Summation of “Superman and Me”

Sherman Alexie, an award-winning poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker wrote in his essay “Superman and Me” a story about how as a child, he fought through the stereotype about "stupid Indians". His father was a lover of books and Alexie overcame that stereotype through learning to read his father's books and a Superman comic; the comic helped because he could look at the pictures and guess what they were saying. Now, Alexie visits schools to teach creative writing to kids. He does this because as a kid, he never had anyone do that for him so he visits other schools to teach students there. Throughout this essay, he states: “I was trying to save my life.” (Alexie, par. 7) and then in paragraph 8 changes to "I am trying to safe our lives." I think that's what the purpose and point of this essay are that you shouldn't let people's ideas define you. He broke through the "stupid Indian" stereo type and then worked to save others as well.

Works Cited:
 Tan, Amy. "Fish Cheeks." The Bedford Reader. 12th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 110-11. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." 2014. The Bedford Reader. 12th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 582-85. Print.

My choice

     While I was writing this, I first thought that I would choose Fish Cheeks because I can relate to it on a personal level; I have those moments where my family is embarrassing and I wish I could just crawl into a hole and die. I struggle often with being proud of whom I am and so I thought that I would be able to put a lot of passion behind it. Plus, the simple childhood aspect appealed to me, how it was an adult looking back on a lesson she learned as a child. But then as I was writing out the summaries for these two stories, and I got deeper into them, I decided that I liked Superman and Me a lot more. There was more detail I could pull out of it to put into my essay. I’ve seen what people’s stereotypes and assumptions have done to people I love and so to me: Superman and Me is the best decision. What finally sold me was when he went back to try and help others, he sounded resentful that nothing had been done for him and so he made sure that other children would get that opportunity.

I commented on Shelby's blog.
I commented on Hannah's blog.