He further uses metaphor to describe his voice as “bleach,” because It has been washed away by his lack of Vietnamese culture, and has been replaced with the sterile and white voice of an American, which Is later shown to be true because of one of the speaker’s first cheers assumed that the speaker was adopted, because of how well the speaker spoke English at a young age.
This description of the speaker’s voice with negative connotations is continued when Unguent uses simile to refer to his house as a “silent film,” because of how rarely the speaker and the speaker’s mother talk in the house, and how, when watching old home movies, the speaker can barely understand himself sometimes; however, in these home movies, the speaker is always able to understand his mother telling him to smile, meaning that he can still remember a few words of his native language.
Unguent continues by calling himself a “fortune cookie,” and that he Is “every Nikkei shoe that [he] own[s],” using metonymy to describe himself as these things due to the fact that fortune cookies are not often much more than American stereotypes for food Arlington In East Asia, and Nikkei shoes are often produced in East Asian sweatshops.
These examples of metonymy are important to the poem because these clearly show how the speaker views himself as an Asian American stereotype, because of his lack of traditional Vietnamese culture, and his heavy influence on culture from America. His role as a stereotype in America is proven once again when the speaker adds an additional personal anecdote, describing how when he and a friend went to an Asian restaurant, his friend asked him why he wasn’t using chop sticks, but instead, using a fork.
The narrator replied by simply putting that “this is much easier,” possibly providing another view Into his lack of Vietnamese culture. The speaker ends the poem very suddenly after this, by forcing “That is all. I have nothing else to say,” quickly closing the poem without much of a conclusion, adding to the anger that the speaker must feel, encapsulated In the many uses of poetic techniques by Unguent In this poem. Mrs.. Blackly–Period 7
The speaker of “Buffet Etiquette” by Hue Mini Unguent is troubled because of his anymore, because of how it reminds each of them how differing their accents are metaphor to describe his voice as “bleach,” because it has been washed away by his an American, which is later shown to be true because of one of the speaker’s first cookie,” and that he is “every Nikkei shoe that [he] own[s],” using metonymy to much more than American stereotypes for food originating in East Asia, and Nikkei another view into his lack of Vietnamese culture. The speaker ends the poem very feel, encapsulated in the many uses of poetic techniques by Unguent in this poem.
