On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pain of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.

—“Fish Cheeks,”
Amy Tan

Why does Tan use imagery that has a negative feeling associated with it?

A. to show that her mother always prepares this sort of food
B. to show that she and her mother have very different tastes
C. to show that she is disgusted by what her mother has chosen to serve