Blog post #3

“Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. Amy Tan is a gifted storyteller who showed the tensions between with keeping up appearance and having true intentions. (pg. 110) She portrays her feelings and experience dealing with her Chinese culture and American culture. She shares her firsthand experience with having her first love, Robert, and his minister father attending her home for Christmas Eve dinner. Embarrassed by her own Chinese Christmas, she describes Robert’s reaction from the foods that her mother prepared and the lack of American proper manners her family had. I believe the purpose of this article was to remind others to not be embarrassed of your traditions. Amy Tan didn’t understand it back then but grew to appreciate and understand it later.

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie. Sherman Alexie describes what he went through as an American Indian living on an reservation. He portrays the expectations that Indian children were expected to be stupid. Even though most lived up to those expectations, Alexie refused to fail. He was arrogant and wanted to learn. He believed that learning to read which he taught himself, saved his life. He continued to read and became a writer. I believe the purpose of this article was even though the expectations were to fail; dare to be different.

I will be writing about “Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan for my analysis essay. I found this article interesting because I can relate to her. I also have had the firsthand experience with dealing with my own culture here even though I was born in the United States. 

I commented on Kim's and Rachel's blog

South Beach

Excitement takes over me as we arrive. We pull over to the first sign to read the regulations as we all run for a bathroom break. One step out of the truck, I inhale deeply. The mixture of the campfire and salty aroma from the water fills my lungs. I can't believe we finally arrived. The sun is out. I pace back and forth near the truck trying to get the feeling back in my butt as my husband tells our son to take the dog out for a walk. I giggle as he complains but does what he's told. I look around to see if there was an empty spot where we could camp, disappointed there was none. "It's still a little early," I tell myself as we hop back in the truck and take a lap around the campground. Make that a couple of laps. As we take our last lap around the site, a man waves us down. My husband slows down and talks to him. The feeling of unhappiness comes over me all of a sudden because I'm thinking that we would have to leave here and continue to travel more. Distracted by my negative thoughts I hear a "thank you" echoing in the background. I snap back into reality and looked at my husband with my big brown eyes. He smiles. "Good news?" I asked. "He's gonna give us his spot babe," he replies. He tells us to jump out and go enjoy the water while he waits to set up. We jump out and scramble to get our big dog on the leash. She's excited too. We walk down a little trail that leads us towards the water. We get to the end, and I tell him to let the dog off the leash. She runs around in circles happy to be free. My son grabs a stick and throws it for the dog to fetch. I take my sandals off. The warmth of the sand feels amazing. I find a spot to sit and I watch them play. The ocean mist touches my skin and I am finally relaxing. I close my eyes and listen to the waves crash sounding like music in my ears. I let out a sigh and smile. This is going to turn out to be an awesome day.



I posted on Ariel's and Josh's blog

"Why we lie" by Dan Ariely


1) Summary

    Dan Ariely explains why we lie. In this article, he and his colleagues conducted experiments on college students to show that people do lie or cheat but in small amounts. They have administered studies among variety of groups and have found that almost everyone is dishonest in this society. When moral messages were being reminded to them, they found that people were more less likely to cheat. People are unpredictable. (Ariely 440-446)


2) Paraphrase #10

    According to Ariely, we are aware that people cheat to a small degree, however what are the reasons that causes them to be honest or dishhonest. (pg. 442)


3) Quote

   "The purpose of locks. the locksmith said, is to protect you from the 98% of mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock" (pg. 440)

   The reason why I like this quote is because it makes me think that even though there are locks on doors. People will still be tempted to try your door, but with some moral reminding, may will think twice.



                                                                 Works cited

Ariely, Dan. "Why we lie." The Bedford Reader. 12th ed. Ed. John E. Sullivan. Boston: Bedford/St.
   Martins, 2014. 440-446. Print


I commented on Shelbee's and Rachel's blog