The Character Change of Jing-Mei Woo in the Book A Pair of Tickets - A Literary Essay

Authors often use character change as a way of showing some psychological journey that is from sanity to madness and from naive optimism to a cynical pessimist. The character change does not occur in a vacuum, but often it evolves from the world that the characters live in, the way they think about themselves, and the events and experiences that the characters are exposed to. This essay aims that showing the character change of Jing-Mei Woo as depicted in the book A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan. One emotion that is clearly shown in the book is that of confusion. The tension in this chapter was also depressing.

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Jing-Mei was confused in that she did not know how to react when she met her sisters. This is because she was meeting her sisters for the first time, as she had to deliver the news of their mothers death. However, Tan shows how these emotions changed when she saw her sisters. This because she saw her mother in her half sisters, and the feeling of confusion changes in that she runs and embraces her half sisters as she finds the Chinese Heritage in them. The reason for the confusion is because the Chinese heritage was hidden from her for such a long time. Jing-Meis feelings change when she meets them, though at the beginning she felt like she needed her mother to greet her sisters. At this moment, Jing-Mei is able to understand what her mother meant when she said, "Once you are born Chinese, you cannot help but feel and think Chinese. Someday you will see it is in your blood, waiting to be let go". It is at the point of meeting that Jing-Mei realizes that her sisters were her family, and that the Chinese Heritage was in their blood. Her mothers wish of unifying Jing-Mei with her sisters comes to pass, and the confusion is erased.

Another type of tension created by Tan in relation to the confusion was depression. An example is when Jing-Mei often tried to figure out what she would say to her sisters when she met them for the first time. The depression was also felt because she was trying to fulfill her mothers wish of finding and reuniting with her sisters. The fact that the mother had passed on and was not there to witness the reunion was depressing. Te major conflict depicted by this emotion is that of self versus human. This is because Jing-Mei did not know how to react, or what to say to her sisters once she saw them for the first time in China. It is shocking how Jing-Mei connects with her sisters, though she was meeting them for the first time. This happens simply because of the stories they share and their love for each other. Their relationship clicked in the first instance because each of them completed each other. This was easy for them because of their resemblance and the fact that they shared the same mother.

In summary, from the analysis, it is clear that Jing-Mei's character has developed. This is because at the beginning Jing-Mei was confused and depressed about meeting her sisters, but all this changed when she finally met them. From the chapter, after the meeting, it feels like Jing-Mei and her sisters knew each other for a long time.