blog #6

Amy Tan and Stanley Crouch took different approaches in describing the cultural assimilation into what is considered to be the American norm. Amy Tan’s description of her family’s Christmas Eve dinner in “Fish Cheeks” depicts the aspects of her culture that clashed with or were noticeably different than typical American cultures. The main character was embarrassed of her culture and wanted to seem like a “normal” American girl, not one who enjoys the meat from under a fish’s eyeball and whose father burps “rudely” after each meal. Stanley Crouch’s list of diverse American practices demonstrate the broad spectrum of what can be considered American and how assimilation into American culture is more of a contribution of ideas and traditions rather than abandonment of one’s culture. He also discusses how time and people influence the culture around them, especially by using the example of a little girl in 1945 wanting to grow up to be a mother, teacher, or nurse, while another little girl in 1981 a little girl said she wanted to be an astronaut, police officer, fireman, doctor, etc. Both Crouch’s list of American practices and Amy Tan’s family Christmas Eve dinner, however, analyze race as it affects the American lifestyle and ideals. They both emphasize extreme differences between cultures and time and how they influence the culture and ideals of different people in America. The setting, as in background language, cultures, and time of events, greatly affects every aspect Tan and Crouch address. Therefore, both of their backgrounds can be seen to have influenced their works. For example, Amy Tan was born in 1952 when girls and women still had designated societal roles to fill and therefore desired to fit in and was ashamed of the traditional Chinese food they ate that was never shown on Leave it to Beaver or I Love Lucy. Stanley Crouch, on the other hand, was born in L.A. in 1945, witnessed vast cultural varieties and different types of people as well as the Watts riots, leading him to the black nationalist movement, thus the Malcolm X theory on sticking to one’s roots and being “Americanized.”