Nicole Masiello's Literary Seminar

I did my Literary Seminar on Jing-Mei Woo's "A Pair of Tickets". There wasn't as much discussion as other seminars due to the smaller groups, but I think many good points were raised and discussed. My first question was "why do you think Amy Tan chose for this to be the last story in the book? How does it add closure to the consistent theme of mother-daughter relationships?" Kelsey brought up a good point by saying it shows that even though they fight, they are still connected in the end. She also linked the meaning of Suyuan's name (long-cherished wish) and how Jing-Mei finally made that wish come true at the close of the book. Liz stated that it showed how much Jing-Mei would go through for her mother. Charlie brought up that Jing-Mei really was Suyuan's life importance because she was the one who made Suyuan's wishes come true, which I think was a really good point to bring the story to a close.

My second question was "by travelling back to China, what new understanding do you think June has about her mother and the relationship between her and her mother?" Aaron said that he thinks Jing-Mei finally realized that she is Chinese inside and out, like her mother had always told her when she tried to deny it in high school. Lisa thought that by travelling to China, Jing-Mei had discovered who she was more, and through that, discovered her mother even further. I really liked this statement because it unites all the references in the other Woo stories about how after her mother's death, Jing-Mei found herself possessing more and more traits that her mom had displayed. Liz pointed out that in China, June finally understood the magnitude of the problems her mom had faced, which explained Suyuan was so hard on Jing-Mei when she was growing up. Charlie also said that Jing-Mei was fixing these problems. I completely agree with what Liz said because the generation gap prevented her to fully comprehend her mother's stories, but witnessing it firsthand and meeting her Chinese family really gave her an idea of what Suyuan's life in China was like.